“Blessed,” or “Happy”—the Beatitudes

“And seeing the multitudes, He went up on a mountain, and when He was seated His disciples came to Him. Then He opened His mouth and taught them, saying: ‘Blessed are the poor in spirit, For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.’ “ (Matthew 5:1-3, NKJV)

The past fifteen devotionals have explored sixteen of the fifty-one parables Jesus gave during His teaching ministry. I pray some of the thoughts we’ve shared have helped you to explore insights to the stories Jesus told to teach important spiritual truths. He began what we call the Sermon on the Mount with the Beatitudes. He was apart from the crowds in a secluded place on the mountain. His chosen disciples were with Him. It was an important teaching time. These statements, the Beatitudes, are deep insights into life in the kingdom. He wanted His disciples (and us) to look at some important aspects of life and attitudes and gain new insights and perspectives. The way He proposed was not the usual, as we will see by looking at the Beatitudes.

I have a vivid picture of the place held to be where Jesus delivered the Sermon on the Mount. In the summer of 1978 my husband Grover and I had the happy privilege of spending a month in the Holy Land. We were not on a usual tour but had gone to visit his sister, Estelle Bunn, who served as a missionary there. With her, and in a rented car, we were able to go to many of the significant holy places. One afternoon, just as the last tour bus and a large crowd left, Grover, Estelle and I parked the car near the “Church of the Beatitudes” overlooking the Sea of Galilee, a beautiful spot where Jesus had gathered His disciples to give them the Sermon on the Mount. With great reverence, my dear husband read Jesus’ sermon from Matthew 5-7. Being in the place where these very words of Jesus were delivered in person, and hearing them from the lips of my husband, an humble and devoted minister of the gospel, was an unforgettable experience. In that high and holy moment, I was filled anew with gratitude for the life and teachings of our Lord, and for the miracle of His truths having come to us.

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Blessed, happy, fulfilled is anyone who is poor in spirit—who has come to the end of his own rope (as we say) and is dependent upon the Lord! For with this attitude is the kingdom of God gained! There in Galilee on that afternoon in July, 1978, I had a keen sense of the Lord inviting me personally to deny myself and enter into His way of humility and self-denial. Every day, not just in the Galilee-related days of our lives, He invites this humility. It is putting off self and putting on Jesus. O, God, help me so to live!

c Ethelene Dyer Jones; Monday, September 13, 2010