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…- St. Matthew 5:1, 2a
So begins what has come to be known as the Sermon on the Mount, one of the greatest discourses of all time. There is no cathedral which would be a more beautiful setting than where it took place, with the sky as the ceiling and the mountain as the pulpit, it is another Mount Sinai.
On the original Sinai, God handed down his commandments, which outline what must be done to be God’s Holy People; and now, on this other mountain, this second Sinai, there is handed down the Beatitudes, which outline that which makes God’s people “blesséd.”
What does Christ mean when he says, “Blesséd”? “Blessed are the poor in spirit… blessed are those who mourn… blessed are the meek… blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness… blessed are the merciful… blessed are the pure in heart… blessed are the peacemakers… blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake…” What is this “blessedness?”
Although it is sometimes translated as “happiness,” it is much deeper than that. We think of people being happy when everything’s going well for them. People are happy when they’re cheerful and good-natured and loved by their family and friends, and that can be part of what we think of as blessedness. But to be “blessed” implies a deeper joy, a holier joy, than what can be caused simply by outward circumstances. “Blessedness” is inward; it is abiding. Outward prosperity cannot give it, nor can adversity take it away. “Blessedness” is rather like the ocean: the surface changes – sometimes it is calm and smooth, sometimes the wind tosses it into huge waves – but deep under the surface there is changeless rest and silence and peace. It is this peacefulness and changelessness which Christ gives to the idea of “blessedness.”
It says that the world is wrong about many things. Good fortune is not blessedness; rather, blessedness is the gift of God. What He gives cannot be taken away by the chances and changes of this mortal life. Blessedness is not an outward ornament of life; rather, it is something that belongs deeply to man, because it has been given to man by God Himself. It is in the heart; it is woven into the inner being. It is holy; it is spiritual; it is heavenly. It is the character and the privilege of the children of God’s kingdom, and man has it because he bears the image of the King in whose kingdom he lives.
With the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ, the heavenly life of God was exhibited upon earth. It had never been seen in its fullness before, and it was altogether different from the portraits of virtue which had been drawn by the ancient philosophers and writers. Christ’s life was not simply a good life; He came as Goodness itself. Christ does not simply show what it is to love; He came as Love itself. Christ did not come simply to show us the truth; He came as Truth itself. And Christ did not come simply to speak about God; he came as the Incarnation of Almighty God Himself, the Divine Second Person of the Holy Trinity.
In Christ, God came. He came so that we could know Him. In Him, and only in Him, can we find real rest for our souls – that security of living “in God” – that blessedness of which Christ spoke in His great sermon on the mount. And the blessedness we find in Christ will never pass away, because it is the blessedness of heaven itself.
To be blessed in heaven, we must live a life of blessedness here on earth, and at the very beginning of the Beatitudes, Christ sets out how we can achieve that. He says, “Blessed are the poor in spirit…” – He was not referring necessarily to the poor in worldly wealth. Simply having little or no money does not automatically make someone “blessed” or holy. Nor is He referring to those who are poor in the endowments of intellect or strength. That does not lead inevitably to the blessedness Christ is speaking about. No – it is the spirit which is to be poor.
The spirit, which is that highest part of man’s immaterial being, which was breathed into him by God himself, which enables man, alone in creation, to seek and to find God, and to form an idea of God – that spirit which is receptive to the Holy Spirit, and can, when enlightened by God’s gracious presence, live in communion with Him. It is the spirit which is brought into an intimate relationship with God. And when we have that relationship with God, we know our own littleness; we know our own sinfulness as we stand in the presence of God. Led by the Spirit of God, we are brought near to Christ, and we learn the grace of lowliness from Him, who, being in the form of God, made Himself of no reputation, and humbled Himself, becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross.
It is for this reason that poverty of spirit comes first in Christ’s description of the blessed life. Lowliness is the beginning of holiness, and we can make no real progress in the spiritual life without it. Christ was lowly in heart, and He raised that word – the whole idea of lowliness, which the world regards as being abject or pathetic – to be one of the highest of all Christian graces.
So those who would be near to Christ, those who would be great in the Kingdom of God, those who would be “blesséd” – must be like their King and Saviour Jesus Christ. They must be unaffectedly humble. They must lay aside earthly ambitions as being ends in themselves, and they must be willing to take what appears to be the lowest place. They must learn the difficult lesson from St. Paul, that “in lowliness of mind, let each esteem others better than themselves.” This is the fixed, immutable law of the Kingdom of Heaven: “Whosoever shall exalt himself shall be humbled, and he that humbles himself shall be exalted.”
For those who are poor in spirit, the Kingdom of Heaven will be theirs. In their lowliness they will have, by God’s grace, put down “self” from the throne of their hearts, and they will have allowed Christ to reign in their lives. Remember: only the heart that is emptied of self can be filled with Christ.
This is the key to an abundant life in Christ: to put prideful selfishness aside, to seek the humility we find in the life of the Lord Jesus, to esteem others as being greater than oneself. It is in that kind of poverty – the poverty of the spirit – that we will find the untold wealth of eternal life.
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Painting: "Jesus Preaching on the Mount"
by Gustave Doré (1832-1883)