BLESSED BLESSED BLESSED

Matt.5:3 – Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

The beatitudes are a great description of our lives as Christians. The key word is the word blessed. The Greek word used by Matthew is makarios which means extremely blessed, fortunate, well off, and happy. Jesus is describing the life of a Christian. It’s as if He is describing an opposite world; the first shall be last, give and it shall be given. This is a new kind of life that we enter into after we met the Lord and began to yield to His work in our lives. You could say that Jesus was proclaiming or declaring the blessing of the Father on all of those who follow Him. It is a call to enter into this life of blessedness. Here is how Barclay describes His teaching.

“Jesus did not speak the beatitudes in Greek; he spoke them in Aramaic, which was the kind of Hebrew people spoke in his day. Aramaic and Hebrew have a very common kind of expression, which is in fact an exclamation and which means: ‘O the blessedness of …’. That expression is very common in the Old Testament. For instance, the first Psalm begins in the Hebrew: ‘O the blessedness of those who do not follow the advice of the wicked’. That is the form in which Jesus first spoke the beatitudes. The beatitudes are not simple statements; they are exclamations: ‘O the blessedness of the poor in spirit!’
That is most important, for it means that the beatitudes are not pious hopes of what shall be; they are not glowing, but vague prophecies of some future bliss; they are congratulations on what is. The blessedness which belongs to Christians is not a blessedness which is postponed to some future world of glory; it is a blessedness which exists here and now. It is not something into which Christians will enter; it is something into which they have entered.”

Jesus starts this teaching where we all must begin our spiritual journey, total dependency. I can’t fulfill any of God’s commands in my own strength, being poor in spirit acknowledges exactly that, I need Him. Needing Him does two major things, first it glorifies the Lord. It is His work in me and through me that can walk in the ways of the Lord. He gets all of the glory for any fruitfulness in our lives. Secondly, as I walk in this place of surrender which leads to intimacy with God, I am filled with joy unspeakable. This is the beginning of our Christian life, dependency on the Lord assures that He is glorified and I am filled with His blessedness.