The Context of Our Beatitudes
It’s with intense sadness that we close the pages of the Old Testament. Almost five dispensations have run their course. If the 4,000 years of humanity were succinctly summarised, we would ultimately conclude two things: there is the utter ruin of man, and the unfailing grace of God. That which was pronounced in the beginning upon the human race is now echoed into the ears of the Hebrew race, Malachi referencing God’s judgment with a curse multiple times (Mal 2:2; 3:9; 4:6). Little did the nation (or the world) understand the gravity of these words. Closing the OT record, God paused His communication to this world. During the next 400 years, no prophet would be raised to speak for God. The next agenda on the calendar of this world would be the incarnation and birth of God’s eternal Son. If the OT concluded with the dark prospect of judgment, it’s with great contrast that the doors to the New are thrown open! The condemnation of the Law given by Moses gives way to the sublime combination of grace and truth through Jesus Christ (Joh 1:17).
It may be surprising and somewhat naturally disappointing that only four of the 89 chapters of the Gospels impart anything about the first 30 years of Christ’s life, and only two writers at that. John, who accepted the responsibility to care for Mary the mother of Jesus (Joh 19:26-27), mentions nothing, and Mark, whose family evidently knew Peter and the other disciples (Act 12:12), likewise is silent. The man who gives us the most information is the Gentile writer Luke, who never personally met Christ, and countless saints down the centuries have poured over those fragments. Having silently graced this world for 30 spotless years, our Lord stepped into the spotlight on the bank of the River Jordan. Hundreds had made their way into these waters, confessing their own sin, symbolising the truth that for such a person to have eternal life they must first die and be raised again. A hush fell upon the crowd as the carpenter from Nazareth stepped down. Even John the baptiser, the forerunner of Christ, hesitated. Matthew records the Lord’s words: “Suffer it to be so now: for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness” (Mat 3:15).1 How necessary for our Master to enter these waters and identify Himself with a people for whom He must literally die and be raised again. This was the stepping stone for what lay ahead.
The Cost of Our Beatitudes
The word “beatitude” comes from the Latin meaning “the perpetual state of happiness.” Is it really possible for fallen humanity to experience this? The world promotes happiness at any cost; entertainment, social media, sports, hobbies, lottery, alcohol and drugs are some of the endless pursuits in search of the seemingly elusive state of happiness. As Christians, however, we understand that there’s a vast difference between human happiness and Holy Spirit joy. Happiness is based upon happenings, but true joy is rooted in justification!
To comprehend what it means to be “blessed,” we must first understand what it meant to be “cursed.” The Bible word “curse” literally means “execrate” – to be denounced as loathsome, detestable, deplorable, miserable, woeful, wretched. Perhaps part of the power and nastiness of “execrable” lies in the word’s similarity to excrement – waste matter separated from the body. To be cursed by God is to be abhorred and cast out from His holy presence.
With this in mind, the writer shrinks from attempting to communicate what comes next. Maybe the only sensible thing is to quote God’s Word, allowing the Holy Spirit to convict our hearts. “For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2Co 5:21 NKJV). “Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree” (Gal 3:13). Can we therefore understand in a measure the terrifying cry of our sinless Saviour: “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring? O my God, I cry in the daytime, but thou hearest not; and in the night season, and am not silent. But thou art holy …” (Psa 22:1-3, emphasis mine). We borrow Jonah’s words here: “For thou hadst cast me into the deep, in the midst of the seas; and the floods compassed me about: all thy billows and thy waves passed over me. Then I said, I am cast out of thy sight; yet I will look again toward thy holy temple” (Jon 2:3-4, emphasis mine). Before eternal blessing could ever be received by us, Christ must undertake baptism in all its dreadful fulness.
Thirteen times in the Bible we read the statement “Blessed is the man …” Only one of these is repeated, and unsurprisingly it is, “Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin” (Rom 4:8; cf. Psa 32:2). An appreciation of the cost will elevate our hearts to grasp our blessings.
The Consequence of the Beatitudes
Our Lord was not always happy. He wept, expressed sorrow and disappointment, and even displayed righteous anger, but He always possessed the true joy of the Lord. It was with this deep-seated joy that He climbed the mountain to pray all night to His God (Luk 6:12). With the same calm delight He selected His disciples, knowing one would ultimately betray Him (vv13-16). Sleep deprived and undoubtedly physically exhausted, our Master made Himself available for the multitudes who trekked up the mount to hear Him. Descending to the plain among the people, He selected a place to sit in order to teach. Any man who has had the divine responsibility to teach on God’s behalf understands the solemn weight of such a task.
The audience was mixed; some would go away “supremely blessed” but others only came to find fault. Nothing deterred Him. The one who could provide people with “the perpetual state of happiness” was one who lived in the good of it Himself – the joy of the Lord was His strength (Neh 8:10). The similarity between Nehemiah 8 and Matthew 5 is striking. On both occasions the Word of the Lord was spoken, its sense distinctly given, with the intended outcome that the people would enter into supreme blessing. Nehemiah 8 was the feast of tabernacles looking forward to the coming Kingdom, and in Matthew, the King Himself was present, depicting the day when He will dwell in the midst of a people most blessed.
In the next article, we begin to focus on each of the eight beatitudes, through which we too may experience the joy of the Lord!
1 Bible quotations in this article are from the KJV unless otherwise noted.
