Be Happy Attitudes
Happy New Year!
What are your hopes and dreams for 2022?
My New Year’s prayer for our church family is that we see the new year as an opportunity to grow significantly as followers of Jesus. That is the reason for our new series on Jesus’ Beatitudes, The Be Happy Attitudes.
The Beatitudes are found at the beginning of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, chapters 5-7 of The Gospel of Matthew.
Matthew 5:3–12
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
“Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
“Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
“Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.
“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
“Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
Sometimes I hear people talk about how great Jesus’ teaching in the Sermon on the Mount is, and if we all would simply live it out, the world would be a better place. While I wouldn’t argue with that, I think that’s missing the point. Reread the list considering this question: are Jesus’ Beatitudes a list of things he says we should try hard to emulate? Or is it a list of things Jesus says blessed people experience regardless of what is happening in their world?
Jesus’ words here are not a list of timeless truths that we need to learn or turn into an acrostic and memorize. Frankly, if he did, he’d be wrong. Look around you, mourners aren’t always comforted, and the meek rarely, if ever, inherit the earth.
Rather than good advice, Jesus’ beatitudes are Gospel. Rather than suggestions, the beatitudes are a picture of how people who follow him will experience the events of the world in a different way than the world. I can’t think of a better message as we begin a new year.
The last couple of years has been filled with struggles, no question. Jesus says that when we follow him, we are blessed regardless of the context or the environmental stimuli. Because Kingdom people experience God in every aspect of the journey, our perspective is very different from the world around us. Following Jesus doesn’t change the events we experience, but following Jesus does change how we experience any event, even the events the world deems terrible. To paraphrase N. T. Wright, what Jesus does do here is summon us to live in the present in a way that will make sense in God’s promised future. Because he invites us to live in his Kingdom and place our lives under his throne, which will change how we perceive anything and everything, that’s the key to true happiness.
I am so excited to begin a journey with you through the Beatitudes as we begin this New Year!
Your pastor,
Bryan White