Analysis Of The Beatitudes

“And they all lived happily ever after” was a phrase I was used to hearing in bedtime stories growing up. It’s true- we all like stories with a happy ending. However, as I am becoming older, it is becoming seemingly more evident that such stories are not true. Living happily ever after appears only to happen in the realm of make-believe. Or, does it? In one of his most well-known teachings, “The Beatitudes,” Jesus presents the qualities that are to make for a happy, blessed life. As Luke presents the teaching, four times Jesus pronounced blessings on people with four different qualities, and four times he pronounced woes on people with the opposite qualities. To be blessed, as Jesus uses the word, can be interpreted as having inner

However, it is not that simple because the happiness that Jesus offers often entails short term pain and suffering, which leads to eventual glory and joy. The happiness the world offers, Jesus suggests is misery. It gives short-term gratification which then leads to sorrow and woe. Leon Morris points out, “Jesus promised His followers that they would be absurdly happy; but also that they would never be out of trouble” (Luke [IVP/Eerdmans, p. 127). Due to the blindness of sinful human hearts and the way that sin deceives us, many people go the way of the world and pursue happiness in ways that seemingly will bring them to success. Jesus boldly asserts that if you go in the world’s way, you may for a short moment find happiness, but in the end you will come up empty. He draws a distinct line and challenges us to come over to his side. As William Barclay states, “The challenge of the beatitudes is, ‘Will you be happy in the world’s way, or in Christ’s way?” (The Daily Study Bible, Luke [Westminster], p.

In Chapter 1, when Mary received her blessing and the announcement from the angel that she would bear the Lord Jesus, she praises God in spiritual terms by proclaiming he has “filled the hungry with good things, and sent away the rich empty-handed” (1:53). God has filled the spiritually hungry Mary with good things and has sent away those who trust in themselves empty handed. When Jesus preached in the synagogue in Nazareth, he cited Isaiah 61:1 and said that the Spirit anointed Him “to preach the gospel to the poor” (4:18). Jesus was not referring to the physically poor but to those who were spiritually impoverished who were looking for the consolation of Israel. These terms, “poor, hungry, and those who weep,” are not exclusively spiritual, but they are primarily so. Those who are rich with the world’s goods often do not sense their desperate need for God. It is often people who are in destitute that sense their need for God. But the terms are primarily spiritual in that Jesus came to deliver sinners from their spiritual poverty, spiritual hunger, and grief over sin. One writer