The Beatitudes

Matthew 5:1-12

What does it mean to be blessed? Is blessing an accumulation of wealth? Is it security, power, status and prestige? Is it a really nice car and a well fed ego? When I read The Beatitudes in scripture, which all begin with "Blessed are" (present tense) and end with "for they will" (future tense), I find myself thinking of ways that the church can fall into traps of promising blessings that aren't guaranteed.

I think of false teachings like "prosperity gospel," which claims that giving money to your church and investing it is a part of how you participate in the "prosperity" God blesses those who are a part of God's community (the church). The Prosperity Gospel is a fast-growing theologically conservative movement frequently associated with Pentecostalism, evangelicalism, and charismatic Christianity that emphasizes believers’ abilities to transcend poverty and/or illness through devotion and positive confession.

Prosperity gospel makes a false claim that material wealth and prestige are signs of God's provision and blessing on those who deserve it. Prosperity Gospel preachers tend to be ones who very publicly display their wealth, and their congregations are predictably full of poor people who are looking, desperately, for a better life. In 2006, a poll from the New York Times found that 31% of americans agree with the idea that "“if you give your money to God God will bless you with more money.” (This of course does not necessarily describe what giving one's money to God actually looks like--but presumably people equate that with giving money to the church.)

I wonder if we sometimes miss the real point about what being "blessed" actually means. Of course having tons of money feels like a blessing, or having a nice car, or a house with a big yard. Of course we can feel blessed by recognizing how some of us aren't experiencing homelessness. We truly can feel blessed at the expense of others, for our feeling blessed can become measured by how better off we believe we are than our neighbor.

But that kind of blessing isn't what Jesus is talking about. The Roman Empire had very similarly staggering gaps between the wealthy and poor that we see in America today. And Jesus could definitely had said: "Blessed are those who have access to food," or "Blessed are those who feel safe walking the Jericho road because they have guards."

But instead, Jesus said: "Blessed are the poor in spirit," "Blessed are the meek," and "Blessed are those who mourn!"

Speaking from personal experience, I didn't feel blessed when I mourned the loss of family members. In my twenties, living paycheck to paycheck and drowning in debt didn't feel like a blessing. It's hard to perceive these experiences as blessings. But, these are the "blessings" Jesus speaks of in the unconventional Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5.

How can these hardships be blessings? Maybe they aren't. Perhaps Jesus is highlighting that grief, poverty, hopelessness, and weakness don't hinder God's blessings every day. The most impoverished person experiencing homelessness in our neighborhood, in the throes of addiction and mental illness and with healthcare needs they cannot afford to address... that person is still blessed by God. That one can still inherit the earth and claim the kingdom of heaven as theirs.

And if they can, so can we. Even in our struggles and overwhelming moments, we are blessed. As blessed people, God expects something of us: to be peacemakers, pure in heart, merciful, and to hunger for justice and righteousness.