I
don’t think we really understand the concept of “blessings” or
“being blessed” today, and the end result of that
misunderstanding is that there are a lot of people who walk through
life thinking that they’ve never been blessed; more than a few,
perhaps, who feel as if they’ve been cursed. Over the last few
weeks I’ve been working my way through some reflections on what are
known as The Beatitudes – that portion of the Sermon on the Mount
in which Jesus pronounces blessings on a variety of people. What’s
truly shocking is to see exactly who it is that Jesus declared
blessed. They’re the poor in spirit, they’re those who mourn,
they’re the persecuted. To those seeming unfortunates – and more
– Jesus says “Blessed are those …” But why those people? Many
in the modern world would look at those in such conditions and think
of them as anything but blessed, and when we face such things we
don’t feel ourselves blessed. So what does Jesus mean?
One
of the problems is that we’ve started to equate “blessedness”
with “happiness.” In fact, one popular translation of the Bible
(the Good News Bible) translates the Beatitudes not as “Blessed are
those …” but as “Happy are those …” That’s a problem,
because blessedness and happiness are not the same thing. Happiness
is merely an emotion. It comes from within us. It’s what we feel
when things are going well in our lives and many good things are
happening. It’s something we generate for ourselves. It doesn’t
even have to be big things. If happiness is all Jesus meant in the
Sermon on the Mount then He might as well have said, “Happy are
those who are eating ice cream.” It would make more sense than
“Happy are those who mourn.” I’ve mourned. It’s not a happy
time. I was anything but happy when I was in mourning. That’s the
problem with thinking of blessedness as happiness. Happiness is just
temporary; it’s totally dependent on your circumstances at any
given time. People being persecuted are not happy people. People at
picnics are happy people. Let’s understand the difference.
Blessedness
is not something that we generate for ourselves. Blessedness is
something that’s given to us. Who gives it? In the Sermon on the
Mount, Jesus pronounces a state of blessedness upon the most
unexpected people, which means that blessedness is a little bit like
grace – it comes from God, even to those who seem to be the least
likely to receive it. Blessedness is offered to us by God no matter
what our circumstances are. Blessedness in fact comes to those who
may be the most desperate, unfortunate, poverty-stricken (spiritually
or otherwise) people in the world – because God offers His blessing
most powerfully to those who need it the most.
It
isn’t happiness. You can be both sad and blessed at the same time,
or you can be entirely happy but bereft of blessings. Happiness is
human; blessedness is divine. Blessedness, in fact (at least if we
take Jesus seriously in the Sermon on the Mount) seems to come most
powerfully and most directly to those who might be the least happy.
So
if life doesn’t seem to be treating you fairly right now, if you’re
down in the dumps, if everything seems to be falling apart around
you, and if you feel as if you have no place to turn – it isn’t
so. There’s one place you can turn without any hesitation – and
that’s to Jesus. Let Him pronounce a blessing over you. Let Him
give you peace rather than happiness. Happiness is only temporary,
but God’s blessings will last for an eternity. Perhaps that’s
what Jesus meant when He said “I am with you always, to the very
end of the age.”
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