Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and when he sat down, his disciples came to him. And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”

Grace, mercy and peace from God our Father and our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ!

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Today for our meditations we have one of the most famous passages in the whole Bible. The Sermon on the Mount. The first opening sentences in Jesus’ most famous address. Perhaps we could say that this is the most famous address ever. So much is written about it. It has been debated so much. So often it is misunderstood.

Because it is difficult to grasp just how radical Jesus’ message is. It would not be an overstatement to say that with these opening verses Jesus challenges almost everything that we usually hold true. He challenges the very foundations of how we naturally think about life. Instead, Jesus teaches us to see this life as our God and Father sees it. 

Now, let’s do a little test, how would we finish this sentence? “Blessed are those who…”. How would you finish it? We can probably easily come up with quite a few ways of how people usually, ourselves including, understand blessings.

Blessed you are if you are healthy. Blessed you are if you are wealthy. Blessed you are if you are happy. Blessed you are if you have a good job. Blessed you are if you have a good marriage, a good family. Blessed you are if you have children, and grandchildren.

Blessed you are if you live in peace with everyone. And so on… Blessed if you are in control of your life and get to live in your comfort zone, without suffering too many interruptions and challenges, if things happen the way you want.

I guess we would all agree that we naturally think and speak about these things as blessings. We use it in our language: “He or she is so blessed…”, and then we may add some of the good things that we mentioned above.

On the one hand, there is nothing wrong with saying that, or thinking this way. All the above-mentioned things are gifts of our generous God, and we can call them God’s blessings, and it would be great if more people acknowledged that.   

But then comes Jesus… and He says something unexpected. He turns upside down our understating about what we should consider as true blessings of our God. “Blessed are the poor in spirit… Blessed are those who mourn… Blessed are the lowly… 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…”

Okay, Jesus, what is this all about? Can you help us to understand? This doesn’t sound too good. First four of the beatitudes speak about – “being poor in spirit… mourning… being lowly… thirsting for righteousness…”. I am not sure that I want much to do with those experiences. What about you? And to call such things blessings?!

We know what the world values, what the world aspires for, and we are not immune to that as well. We are shaped by the society we live in more than we recognise. We tend to look up to those who are high achievers, wealthy, influential, in a good place in their lives, where everything is smooth sailing. We not only value such lives, but we also strive for them and consider such people blessed. We don’t dream about those poor, mourning, lowly and thirsting lives. But…

Then the next four beatitudes speak about “being merciful, and pure in heart, being a peacemaker and being persecuted…”. Would you choose to have these things on your list of how you understand what it means to be blessed? Wouldn’t we rather list successful, popular, loved, happy, recognized and appreciated? But not Jesus.

Explain it to us, Jesus! Please! And He does, He uses the best theologians, He enlightens them with His Spirit, so that we can all be encouraged by His message. So that we all too can learn to see everything from God’s perspective. Here it comes. 

Pronouncing all these blessings Jesus doesn’t speak in abstract terms. These are not God’s instructions for us either: “Do this and you will be blessed!” Jesus is not a new Moses as He is often misunderstood. In these beatitudes Jesus speaks about us, yes! about you, about those who have responded to His invitation to follow Him.

Jesus simply describes the reality of Christian lives. It begins with being in His presence, with sitting at His feet and listening to His life-changing and life-giving words. Just as those many brothers and sisters did when Jesus delivered the Sermon on the Mount. Just as you do it right now. Jesus’ presence with you is the source of all true blessings.

The first four beatitudes speak about our situation. We are the poor in spirit. How? When we grow in our understanding that there is nothing that we haven’t received, that there is nothing that we can bring to our God; that we daily live by His grace alone.

Not when we can boast of our riches, or independence, or self-sufficiency, but when we gladly rely on our Lord and our God, when we entrust our entire lives in His hands, as beloved children trust to their loving Father.

We are those who mourn. How so? The closer we are to our Lord, the clearer we see the evil and brokenness of this world. In ourselves, in our loved ones, in people around us. Not when we are self-satisfied and boastful, or indifferent about what’s happening.

We are the lowly. How? When we realize that we do not run this world. When we don’t rely on our strength or wisdom, or connections, or abilities, when we rely on the Lord, who daily opens His hand and satisfies the desire of every living thing, when God the Father is our rock and our shield.

We are the ones who hunger and thirst for righteousness. Yes, you are! The light of Christ changes the way we see the world and suddenly we see how much unrighteousness, how much selfishness, how much injustice is all around us.

And we can’t do much about most of that, we can’t change this world, regardless of how much we try, we can’t even change our hearts. Thus, we hunger and thirst for the day when God will restore the goodness of this world.

So, yes, we are the blessed ones of who Jesus is speaking. And all the many things that make us uncomfortable in this world, that make us aware of our fragility, mortality, our finitude, of how messed up this world really is, how unfair and ruthless it can be, we shall gladly count them as God’s blessings.

For if we experience what Jesus describes, it means that He has shone His light in your heart and He is drawing you out of this world and closer to Him, the true source of life and blessedness and all good things.

That is why Jesus says to you these wonderful words of encouragement and hope: “Blessed you are for yours is the kingdom of heaven… for you shall be comforted… for you shall inherit the earth… for you shall be satisfied.”

Blessed you are indeed, for all of this means that you are the children of God the Father, that you have God’s Spirit in you, that you are the heirs of His Kingdom, and your God and Father assures you that what you long for in your heart will be granted to you.

For what Jesus describes are not simply our natural human longings, they are created by the Holy Spirit who reveals us the truth and points us to the better future… and in this future, all these deep longings will be satisfied. By your Lord Jesus Himself.

The other four beatitudes speak about the fruits of the Holy Spirit in us and what it means for us as the end of this age and the Last Day draw closer. Again, these are not instructions that we need to follow. Jesus simply describes what happens with us, when we respond to His invitation, when we stay with Him, when we listen to Him.

Remember, His words are Spirit and life. They change us, they make us a new creation. For now, we are by no means finished products, but if we are with Jesus, this is what happens. His grace and mercy enable you to be merciful.

His unconditional forgiveness purifies your heart. The divine peace that He brings to us, overflows into your life, and you become messengers of His peace, doing your little part into spreading His peace in this troubled and anxious world.

And when we do that, when we go in Jesus’ name, when we want to extend His wonderful blessings to others, strangely enough – often we are rejected, we can sense that our message is not welcomed, and sometimes we can even face persecution. This is what Christian life is like.

This is what the presence of God’s Spirit does in you. This is why you are blessed. For when the Last Day comes, you shall receive mercy, and when the life in this age is over, you shall see God, and not only that, but you shall be called sons and daughters of God, for yours is the kingdom of heaven. It is yours!

It is true that many of these Christian experiences do not immediately sound like blessings to us, so Jesus goes ahead and says it once again, just to assure you that if this is what you experience, then you are indeed in the greatest company.

“Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”

Rejoice and be glad! Your reward is great! You are in the same boat with all the great saints of old, even with the prophets and the apostles. For that is exactly how they experienced the greatest of God’s blessings – His presence, His fellowships.

With these first sentences of the Sermon on the Mount Jesus indeed helps us to see everything differently. Many of our Christian experiences, which our old selfish self doesn’t enjoy, are signs of God’s loving favour and His upside-down blessings.

Blessed you are if you desire to follow Jesus, to be with Him, to live for Him. Blessed you are if your heart is full of pain for people around you, blessed you are if you desire to bring them to Jesus, to heal and comfort them, blessed you are if you are rejected and suffer because you want to remain faithful to Jesus.

Simply put – blessed you are if you are a Christian.

Blessed you are – for God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit is with you now and you will be with Him forever in the age to come. That is most certainly true.

Amen.