The Beatitudes

Matthew 5:3-12

Comment:

There is no brief way to discuss the Beatitudes, which are like the Overture to the entire ministry of Jesus, including themes that will be developed in his life and ministry. I am including here the first chapter of my book on the Sermon on the Mount, The Secret According to Jesus. It's probably more information than you need or want, but it may prove helpful.

Blessings!

Rev. Ed

Seeing the crowds, [Jesus] went up on the mountain, and when he sat down his disciples came to him. And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying:

            "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

            "Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.

            "Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.

            "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.

            "Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.

            "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

            "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.

            "Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

            "Blessed are you when men 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 so men persecuted the prophets who were before you.

"Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and when he sat down, His disciples came to Him."

The common picture we associate with the Sermon on the Mount—probably based on biblical films such as King of Kings, The Greatest Story Ever Told, Jesus of Nazareth, and others—is of Jesus speaking to a large crowd gathered beneath him on the lower slopes of the mountain. (In fact, it's hard not to think of the Monty Python film Life of Brian, in which people on the edge of the crowd are having a hard time hearing: "Blessed are the cheesemakers?")

This is not, however, the picture the writer of Matthew creates. "Seeing the crowds, He went up on the mountain." Jesus is not plunging into the crowd, or even addressing it, but in fact withdrawing from it. This is one of many times in the course of His ministry when we learn that Jesus leaves the crowds behind and goes up a mountain. He strengthens and centers Himself by ascending to His higher consciousness from which He can later descend to teach, heal and minister to the crowd.

"And when He sat down, His disciples came to Him." The Gospel of Matthew was written primarily for Jewish readers. It is in Matthew that we find the greatest number of references to Hebrew scripture, the greatest emphasis on Jesus Christ as the fulfillment of earlier prophecies. Since Jews expected (by tradition) that a great teacher would be seated to address his students, the image reinforces Jesus' position and prestige. It is also significant that He is depicted as giving the Sermon on the Mount, not to the entire crowd that follows him, but to His disciples in private. Every great teacher in all spiritual traditions is recognized as teaching on two levels: a general level for people at large and a private, more elevated level for his closest followers, his disciples.

Thus the importance of this Sermon on the Mount is emphasized beginning with its first sentence. We are in the presence of a great teacher, and we are to receive not just His general message, but His deepest, most profound teachings. We must realize, as we begin this journey through the Sermon on the Mount, we are not standing on the fringes of a large crowd, straining to hear a shouted message. We are seated at the feet of the Master, part of a small and select group, and we can easily hear every gentle, powerful word.

Meditation

Beloved Teacher, I am ready to hear Your words, to receive Your guidance, to experience Your love. I am quiet and relaxed, perfectly centered and balanced in the energy of my heart. I gently clear my mind of all distractions and all preconceptions. I am open and receptive as the Power of God through You awakens the Presence of God in me.

And He opened His mouth and taught them, saying: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

We begin the Sermon on the Mount with the itemized list of blessed people commonly known as the Beatitudes. They are the exact opposite of a curse; they affirm a positive spiritual energy, the very Presence of God, in those people described. Jesus is explaining that certain groups of people are especially connected with their spiritual potential.

The familiar translation, "blessed are ...," does not match the energy of these statements. Other translations have substituted "happy are ..." or "favored are ...," with little benefit. The more recent Scholar's Version captures both the meaning and the energy with a jolting choice of words: "Congratulations to the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven!"

The word "congratulations" helps us to grasp how radical and dangerous these Beatitudes must have seemed when they were first expounded. At this time, people learned and believed wealth, happiness, and success were all signs of God's favor. People who were poor, sick, or failing in any way were clearly being punished by God. Then along comes Jesus, offering his spiritual congratulations to the very people who were being judged and condemned by the religious authorities of the time. He is telling those who have been most thoroughly excluded from religious acceptance that they are, in fact, God's beloved. What an energy of hope and new possibility His words must have carried to the sick and needy who thronged to hear Him!

In this first of the Beatitudes, to be poor in spirit has nothing to do with lacking money or possessions. I have often felt most poor in spirit at times when money was more or less abundant—perhaps because I allowed the money to become a distraction, at the cost of any spiritual focus in my life.

To be poor in spirit is to feel dissatisfied with material things, no matter how abundantly they may be expressing in our lives. Someone poor in spirit lacks the realization that there is a higher dimension to life than material things. The rich are poor in spirit if they focus on the material goods they've accumulated. And the poor are poor in spirit if they focus on the material goods they don't have. We cannot begin to explore our spiritual possibilities until we recognize something more important than wealth and possessions. This hunger for a deeper experience of life, the nagging sense that the material world alone is not enough, is the essential first step on the path to the kingdom.

This is why the poor in spirit are so blessed: They have begun to awaken from the illusion that material success is the only goal worth achieving and recognize a different calling deep in their hearts. They may be young or old, rich or poor. They may have come to their awakening through years of study, through extensive life experience, or through a sudden, overwhelming moment of realization. Whoever and wherever they are, and whether they know it or not, their new sense of spiritual poverty represents the first step on a great personal adventure from which there is no turning back.

This first step can be scary, since few of us realize at the time exactly what's happening. That's why this first promise of Jesus' great discourse is so important: Theirs is the kingdom of heaven. In other words, once the spiritual journey is begun, its successful completion is assured. There's no chance of failure because God is eternally seeking us even more eagerly than we are seeking God. We will realize the kingdom. Guaranteed!

Meditation

Today I give thanks for the sense of dissatisfaction that leaves me feeling poor in spirit. I recognize that this restlessness is the first step of a personal journey of discovery and empowerment—a journey without distance that will allow me to realize and experience my Oneness with all that God is.

"Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted."

Jesus often warned that the spiritual transformation to which He called His followers required so much change, so much "letting go" of old attitudes and customs, that it might often feel like an experience of death. Our new commitment to God, he said, will sometimes separate us from family, friends, and everything familiar. Take up your cross, he invited, and follow me.

It isn't an appealing invitation, and yet it's comforting to know the grief of separation is an integral, intimate part of each true journey.

Spiritual transformation is a constant process of letting go. We relinquish our hold on people, places, and things as we realize they are neither the problem nor the solution. The Presence and Power of God are all we need or want. God is always with us; there is no need to clutch at anything or anyone.

Yet every letting go gives rise to a deep sense of grief—not just the letting go we call death, but even the most joyful release of negative attitudes, the most freeing dissolution of jealousy or possessiveness—each time we let go of something familiar, we trigger a sense of grief.

This inescapable truth is familiar to anyone who has released an addiction of any kind. I remember, from a distance of some 20 years, the intense grief I experienced when I stopped smoking. It felt as if my very best friend were dying over and over again—on a daily, even hourly, basis. The Sermon on the Mount was far from my consciousness at the time, so I couldn't hear Jesus' promise of blessings beyond the grief. And yet somehow, even though I didn't know to expect it or claim it, the comfort came, the blessings expressed.

My path from that time of releasing addictions (smoking was only one of several) to now has clearly been a path of progressive joy, love, and heart empowerment. And yet I have mourned many, many times over perceived losses great and small, only to receive unimagined blessings as a result.

How could it be otherwise? It is our human nature to grieve whenever we let go of anything familiar—a relationship, an attitude, a job; even if we are unhappy with the status quo, we grieve its release nonetheless. The only way to avoid grief, therefore, is to never let go of anything. But this means we must close the door on all spiritual growth, since change is its very nature.

The path of enlightenment requires us to mourn—to recognize and honor our grief as we continue to move through it. Mourning leads us from the sense of loss to an acceptance of God's Will and openness to exciting, new possibilities.

Meditation

Today I recognize and embrace a sense of grief and mourning in myself as I release old beliefs, behaviors, and priorities. I remember the promise of Jesus Christ that He will send the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, and I receive that comfort now, as I open my heart to new spiritual possibilities. Thank You, Holy Spirit, for the light and love that transform mourning into a profound sense of joy.

"Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth."

Anyone who has ever been to a Twelve-Step meeting is familiar with "How It Works," the excerpt from the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous that is read at the beginning of almost all such meetings. It is not a list of orders and rules; it is a careful, loving explanation of what we can do to release old attitudes and behaviors and realize a happier, more abundant life.

The Sermon on the Mount is in many ways Jesus' own "How It Works." His powerful precepts are not about right and wrong; they are not about denying ourselves or limiting our lives. They are guides to understanding how the Power of God works in the world, so that we can consciously work with that Power to realize our greatest good.

The first two Beatitudes describe how we begin our spiritual transformation by feeling dissatisfied (poor in spirit) about life as we have been living it, and by experiencing a sense of grief that accompanies any release of old behaviors, old attitudes, old addictions.

Next, says Jesus, "Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth." We don't often consider meekness an admirable trait. The meek are those who do not assert themselves, who avoid conflict of any kind, and who (from our limited human perspective, at least) sacrifice their goals and desires for fear of upsetting anyone else. To be meek, it seems, would be to live in a constant state of weakness, of surrender to stronger forces.

But surrender is just what's required as we set out on our spiritual journey. We surrender our own limited power to a Power greater than ourselves, and we recognize that Power can carry us to

possibilities we could never reach on our own. We experience that Power in the love and example of Jesus Christ and the energy of the Holy Spirit active in our human experience. We choose to set aside our own priorities, based as they are on a limited perspective, and accept the guidance of that Power in our lives.

We have been trying to conquer the world on our own power. Now, by surrendering, we inherit the earth—we achieve our greatest good not by struggling and fighting for it, but by allowing the Power of God within to carry us to the good that is our birthright.

Meditation

Today, or at least for this moment, I cease to struggle. I release my limited sense of who I am and what I want or need. I recognize the loving Power of the Holy Spirit, and I accept that Power as my only priority. I open my heart to the Holy Spirit, and I "inherit the earth." I richly enjoy my human life as the spiritual experience it is eternally meant to be. Thank You, God!

"Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be satisfied."

There is an Eastern story about an eager young man who traveled many, many miles to seek out a spiritual teacher who was, he had been told, both holy and wise. When he finally reached the old man, he found him standing in a great river. Fearlessly, he waded into the water and approached the venerable man. "Great master," he said, "I have traveled far to find you. Please tell me, how can I find God?" Without a word, the sage, with surprising strength, grabbed the young man and pushed his head underwater. With increasing panic, the young man struggled to escape but to no avail. Finally, at the last possible moment, the old man released his grip and the young man staggered, gasping for breath, to the shore. Serenely, the teacher followed. "What were you thinking just then?" he asked. "Thinking?" the young man gasped. "I was thinking about air! I wanted nothing in the world so much as one breath of air." "When you want God as much as you just wanted a breath of air," the teacher replied, "then God will find you!"

Jesus, in his Sermon on the Mount, said, "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be satisfied."

Most of us have dabbled at many things in the course of this human experience. We are freer today than at any time in human history to try new things, to sample cultures and attitudes from all over the world. If one thing loses its appeal, many others can replace it. Jobs that were once considered lifetime commitments may be only trial balloons, as we search for the perfect something that will satisfy us. Men and women who would once have been counting the days to retirement are instead embarking upon entirely new careers. 

We recognized in the previous Beatitude that letting go causes a sense of grief; but it can also become addictive. Restlessness can become a way of life. Like the Israelites en route to the Promised Land, we may find ourselves in a wilderness experience, grieving for the comforts we left behind in Egypt and unclear about just where we're supposed to be going. After awhile, however, the wilderness itself becomes comfortable; the ability to fold up our tents and move somewhere else serves our restless nature and makes it unnecessary to stop, claim our ground and deal with whatever challenges arise.

Certainly this pack-up-and-move-on mentality is frequently expressed in our pursuit of spiritual satisfaction. We may wander restlessly from path to path, following trends or friends or simply the random guidance of our own curious minds. Indeed, this curiosity is an important characteristic of our human experience.

Curiosity, however, is not the hunger and thirst that Jesus is blessing. We cannot undertake our spiritual commitment as a hobby to be enjoyed in whatever spare time we allow ourselves after the "important" things, like job and family, are taken care of. We must want to know God—to experience the Presence of God within ourselves—like a drowning man wants air. God cannot feed us if we are not hungry enough to seek, to knock, to ask. When we do, we will be satisfied.

Meditation

Today I am eager for my wilderness experience of searching and seeking to be over. I am ready to be still and allow the Holy Spirit of God to satisfy the hunger and thirst I feel. Thank You, God, for the spiritual hunger that leads me to seek Your Presence in my life, knowing it is through that hunger that I come to You, my only satisfaction.

"Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God."

We are all children of God—creative beings made in the image and likeness of our divine Source. This is the truth of who we are, and it remains true whether or not we recognize, remember, or express it in our lives.

Our "likeness" to God does not mean God is a physical being like we are, with arms and legs and internal organs. "God," as Jesus states clearly to the Samaritan woman at the well in John 4:24, "is Spirit." It must follow, therefore, that we are also Spirit. Our true spiritual identity, the creative energy of God moving in and through us, is what the writers of Hebrew scripture called "the Lord of our Being" and what Jesus called "the Christ." 

Our personal challenge as spiritual beings who have assumed human form is not to find the Christ, or imitate the Christ, or even to worship the Christ in Jesus as an unattainable ideal. "What I have done you will do," Jesus assured us. Our challenge is to remove all obstacles so our true Christ nature can express fully and completely through us in these human lifetimes.

What are the obstacles? They are our collective error thoughts—ideas of lack, limitation, and separation from God that we have chosen to believe. Our belief in these negative ideas allows them to become the dominant reality in the manifest world. We create the kingdom of heaven by literally "changing our minds"—we decide to "cancel our subscription" to negative thoughts, to "delete the files" of limiting ideas we have accumulated in consciousness, and to allow the indwelling Christ Presence of God to fill our hearts and minds with ideas of love, abundance, wholeness, and infinite possibility.

Dissolving the energy of negative ideas is not ours to do alone, of course; it is the work of the Holy Spirit, eager to have us return to a full expression of who we are. Neither do we have to impress anyone else, or convince anyone else, with the Christ Presence within us. If we are doing our part, keeping ourselves a clear channel, others will see it. We will be called children of God, because that is what people will see and experience when they are with us.

This Beatitude, then, does not tell us we must become peacemakers in order to be children of God. We already are children of God. And as we know that and feel its power in the heart of our being, people and conditions around us will become more peaceful, more energized in love, simply because of our presence. And in that new energy, people will see us—and themselves—as the children of God we are.

Meditation

Today I choose to place my focus not on becoming or overcoming, but simply on being—on centering myself in the loving energy of the Christ within me, empowered by a joyful infusion of Holy Spirit. In this deep and exciting energy of the indwelling Christ, and the incoming grace of Holy Spirit, I find perfect peace, and I joyfully extend that peace today to everyone I meet. Thank You, God!

“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

We spoke earlier of the hunger and thirst after righteousness, which will be satisfied only as we set aside all other considerations and focus only on God.

This last of the Beatitudes recognizes that our hunger and thirst may not be shared by others. We have seen that our spiritual quest often seems wrong, and even dangerous, to our doubting and dubious minds. How much more dangerous and wrongheaded will we appear to the collective race consciousness that "knows what it knows" based on ideas of lack, separation, judgment, and guilt.

This Beatitude has been wrongly seen as promising a reward after death for pain and persecution suffered in life. It has even been used through the centuries as a kind of spiritual mind control through which people have been encouraged to accept, without question, conditions of poverty and oppression in this lifetime by quoting this promise of eternal happiness in heaven. That is not what Jesus is saying. The kingdom of heaven, Jesus said, is at hand. It is, He said, within us. He clearly meant us to experience the kingdom of heaven in these bodies, in these lifetimes.

Jesus is trying to explain that those who resist not evil, who hold fast to truth in a nonresistant, nonjudgmental way, are already experiencing the kingdom. From our limited human perspective, they must be suffering and in pain. In fact, they have reached and are experiencing a level of unconditional love that can in no way be threatened by the things and ideas of this world.

This does not mean that suffering is good. It means that when we are truly connected to the Presence of God within us, nothing can cause us to suffer. The world may try to persecute us for our righteousness—our spiritual beliefs and connections—but the world does not have that power. If we choose to not be part of the judgments of the world, then those judgments have no power over us.

I am reminded of City of Joy, the inspiring book about a French priest drawn to Calcutta to minister to the poorest of the poor—people without homes or possessions who, in his well-intentioned judgment, could truly be said to be persecuted. What he found was that theirs was, indeed, the kingdom of heaven; they were more able to extend love and compassion to him than he was to them. Conditions in the material world could not shake the peace and joy they felt in knowing their spiritual worth.

Sometimes our spiritual priorities may seem to put us at odds with the world around us. Not to worry. Nothing that others may be trying to deny us could ever be more satisfying than the spiritual imperative that we participate with Jesus in the creation of the kingdom.

Meditation

Today I affirm that I remain centered and focused on my spiritual possibilities. I release all judgment of self and others, as I feel the love that is God channeling through my heart and into every cell of my body and mind. I choose to live this day in that energy of love, to claim for myself the kingdom of heaven and to discover my role in bringing that kingdom into full expression everywhere. Thank You, God!

"Blessed are you when men 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 so men persecuted the prophets who were before you."

The Beatitudes conclude with a dramatic shift from third person ("Blessed are they ...") to second person ("Blessed are you ...") for the first statement of a theme that will be constant throughout the ministry of Jesus: The spiritual path to which we are called is not an easy one, nor are we likely to win many popularity contests as a result of the work that is ours to do.

The kingdom to which Jesus Christ calls us is "not of this world" (John 18:36), and it will make no sense to those who are not able to fully understand its spiritual power. What we experience as spiritual growth and awareness will seem like sheer foolishness to others. We can't expect to always be understood, even by people to whom we feel closest, and we certainly can't base our spiritual choices on the prevailing opinions of friends or family. Again and again as His ministry unfolds, Jesus warns his disciples that following a path of spiritual awareness and enlightenment may mean turning away from friends, family, and "public opinion."

Jesus' own life experiences demonstrate this unavoidable conflict. When He takes His spiritual message back to His hometown of Nazareth, He is rejected and scorned. And it is frequently mentioned in the four gospels that His own family did not support or approve of His ministry; indeed, they tried forcibly to bring Him back to Nazareth because they believed He must be insane. After all, Jesus was hanging out with every type of undesirable person—tax collectors, prostitutes, Samaritans—and was consistently offending the Pharisees and Sadducees, who constituted the "ruling élite" of His time. No wonder His nervous family wanted to throw a damper on the revolutionary message He was preaching. Such intense opposition must be expected, Jesus assures us. In fact, we should recognize it as a sign that we are doing our spiritual jobs. Our reward will be great in heaven—a state of consciousness that already exists within us.

In other words, we will find the rewards of our spiritual choices in ourselves, not in the support or approval of others.

Meditation

Today I release all anger and judgment in myself as I recognize the opposition and resistance I may receive from friends and family, and begin to base my life choices on a new understanding of spiritual Truth. I am called to be a prophet—to recognize and share the spiritual dimension behind each life experience. Any negative energy I may experience as a result strengthens my resolve and centers me in the indwelling Presence of God. Thank You, God!