Jesus is the Blessed One!

Over the past two months, we have given a lot of time to the same portion of scripture: Matthew 5:1-12, in which Jesus pronounces blessing upon blessing. These "blessed are" statements were common in Jesus’ time – Jews were used to knowing who was blessed by God, why they were blessed, and specifically how they were blessed. The promise of Shalom, blessing, wholeness, and salvation was often what carried God’s people through, especially when they experienced tough times.

Unlike traditional Jewish blessing statements, however, which usually come one at a time, Jesus pronounced multiple blessings, blessing upon blessing, if you will, on those who know and understand their need for God, who mourn their sin and the sin of the world, who willingly place themselves in subordinate obedience to God, who want a right relationship with God more than anything, who show mercy, whose hearts are pure, who make peace, and who are persecuted because of their relationship with God.

The blessings: They get the Kingdom of Heaven, comfort, the earth as an inheritance, satisfaction in a right relationship with God, mercy, they will see God, they will be called God’s sons, and theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven – great is their reward in Heaven.

If you’ve been reading these, you’ll notice that the rewards given in the first and the last of the beatitudes are the same: yours is the Kingdom of Heaven. This is on purpose: it’s a literary device called "inclusio" meaning "bookends." When you see this, you can be assured that everything in between goes together. In this case, we can understand that all of the blessings Jesus pronounces are "Kingdom of Heaven" blessings.

Does this mean that we won’t get any rewards for living this Jesus-kind of life until we’re dead? No, because in the Person of Jesus Christ, the Kingdom of Heaven has already broken into the world! The Kingdom of Heaven is among us even now, so the blessings Jesus presents are available to us now!

We Christians sometimes throw the word "blessed" around pretty willy-nilly (I know I’m guilty of this), but the blessings Jesus pronounces are anything but. The blessing Jesus talks about – this Shalom, is the end goal of all of life, and only God can bless us in this way. The blessing God presents demonstrates God’s character: who is God? Is God good? Is God just?

The conditions of the blessings – these conditions that Jesus pronounces, they are hard. Make no mistake: it’s not simple to be a Christian. When I was a teenager, I thought it was supposed to get easy when you became an adult, but it doesn’t. It is hard. But the truth is this: it is absolutely worth it. The rewards Jesus announces are so worth it.

Why? Because there is only one thing that will satisfy, and that is God Himself, and that’s what God gives us. When we look at the blessings Jesus pronounces, there is something unique. Jesus Himself satisfies every condition. Jesus Himself is THE Blessed One, and He is the One whom God sent to us.

Let’s look at it a little deeper.
Blessed are the Poor in Spirit. In Philippians 2:5-7, we read this: Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.

Our God became flesh. Jesus, who was by nature everything, emptied himself, becoming nothing. He spent countless hours in prayer. Before his ministry started, Jesus spent forty days and nights, fasting in the desert. This is someone who had all the credentials to do it all himself, yet chose to follow the Father.

Blessed are those who mourn: In John 11:35, we find Jesus weeping over the death of his friend Lazarus. But not only did Jesus mourn the death of his friend, Lazarus, in Matthew 23:37-39, we find Jesus mourning over Jerusalem. "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing. Look, your house is left to you desolate. For I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.’" Jesus wants everyone to come to him, and it grieves his heart when we don’t.

Blessed are the meek: Jesus embodied meekness. He was all-powerful – did you realize that when the soldiers approached him to arrest him, they all fell to the ground before him? Yet this is the way he was described in Philippians 2:8-9: And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death— even death on a cross! This is the Jesus who pleaded with God, "If there’s any other way this can be done, please do it. But not my will, but Your will be done."

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. The Jewish view of righteousness went something like this: righteousness was given to Israel and to humanity as a main part of creation, and the Torah (the first five books of the Bible) is the guide on the way to righteousness. They believed that the Torah, when rightly interpreted, was the means by which the hunger and thirst for righteousness could be met. One of Matthew’s goals was to demonstrate that Jesus embodied the Torah – that He was the One who was greater than Moses, and that it’s Jesus Himself who we are to hunger and thirst after. After all, according to Matthew 3:15, Jesus fulfilled all righteousness. When he died on the cross, Luke 23:47 reports the centurion saying, "Surely this was a righteous man."

Blessed are the merciful: You cannot look at Jesus’ life without noticing his mercy. Jesus constantly went to the people on the margins. He touched the untouchable. His life was characterized by serving the outsider, the poor, the hungry, the broken. He healed bodies and forgave sins, and, in his death and resurrection, he did the ultimate in showing mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart: Jesus embodied the pure heart. Listen to what two of his closest friends had to say about him: 1 John 3:5 But you know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins. And in him is no sin.
1 Peter 2:22 "He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth."

Blessed are the peacemakers: Jesus wasn’t just a peacemaker; he is the Prince of Peace. It was his death on the cross that allowed us to have peace with God. Romans 5:6-11


You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die

But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners,
Christ died for us.

Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through him! For if, when we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! Not only is this so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.



Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness: Jesus was insulted, beaten, lied about, betrayed, and killed on a cross. He never sinned, but he willingly faced death, as that was God’s will.

As we travel along this journey toward our ultimate "great reward" we receive reward after reward as God unites Himself with us, reconciling Himself to us through Jesus Christ, setting
us apart (sanctification) and transforms us more and more into Christ’s likeness until one day we will be receive our ultimate goal of perfection.

Know that the blessing God gives will satisfy every desire. It’s not just a "sit on a cloud and play a harp" kind of boring version of heaven; it is having every single desire satisfied.

  • Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven: If you know your utter need for God, He will give you Himself.
  • Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. If you mourn your sinful condition, God will give you Himself in the person of Jesus Christ, who died for your sin.
  • Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. If you willfully place yourself in obedience to God and are satisfied in all circumstances, God will give you Himself – as well as dominion over His creation.
  • Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. If you seek for God with everything, He will give you Himself, and you will be satisfied.
  • Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. If you are merciful, God – whose name is Mercy, will give you Himself.
  • Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. If you’re pure in heart, God will give you Himself.
  • Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God. If you make peace with others, rooting out sin, God will give you Himself.
  • Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. If you build your life around a right relationship with God, you will be persecuted. Stand firm in persecution, because God gives you Himself.

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