A Primer on the Beatitudes

Is the message of the Beatitudes still relevant today?

The opening section of the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew, chapters 5-7) contains the eight verses known as The Beatitudes. The name comes from the Latin Vulgate version of the Bible in which each verse begins with the word beati (in Greek makarios) meaning blessed. In short, The Beatitudes provide us with a very succinct summary of the ethos of the kingdom of Heaven that Jesus says he has come to announce. They lay out the principles of life in that kingdom.

It should be noted that the first and last verses of The Beatitudes end with the same phrase, “the kingdom of heaven.” That phrase brackets The Beatitudes, but contemporary language and thinking takes that to mean a place: either the kingdom up in heaven or a physical place here on earth established by God for them. That is not what Jesus meant. Rather, the phrase means the rule of God, or specifically, living according to God’s rule and reign.

Considering a contemporary translation based on the original Greek is often an effective way to reconsider the way we conventionally understand the meaning. I’m using a contemporary translation which really makes clear that the teaching in the Beatitudes is about conformity to the moral and ethical norms found in the radical teachings of Jesus. 

One can also reverse the order in the sentences to really make the point about applying the principles in our lives and what the likely consequences in a fallen world will be:

Because heaven rules over your lives, you who are completely dependent are greatly favored

Or

Because heaven rules over your lives, you will be greatly harassed but are greatly favored.

To summarize, The Beatitudes are not a collection of nice sounding and poetic platitudes that happen to be the opening lines in the Sermon on the Mount. Rather, they are moral and ethical principles that lay out what the kingdom life looks like. And, because we live in the fallen world that Jesus declares he came to redeem, they also describe the likely consequences to be born by those who live by these principles.

The Beatitudes are principles to be embodied, to be incarnated. To incarnate is to en-flesh (from the Latin carne), in other words, to manifest, to implement, to live out. These are not pie in the sky positive maxims, but real attitudes and behaviors that all people of faith, leaders and followers, are to incarnate.

The kingdom that Jesus proclaimed is not a physical kingdom on earth. Rather, it is a spiritual kingdom that is in the process of coming into being. Those who follow Him enter into this spiritual undertaking, and are then engaged in the process of being conformed unto the image and likeness of Christ.

In the physical life here on earth, the answer to the question “what does that look like?” is surely found in the Sermon on the Mount and particularly in the Beatitudes. It is not about belonging to the right tribe, or residing on a specific piece of land, or even claiming to have the right beliefs (as if all others are wrong). Rather it is living a life of spiritual communion that manifests the attitudes and behaviors described in the Beatitudes.

* Contemporary translation by Mike Andrews of Greenville, SC:

https://mwandrews.wordpress.com/2013/08/07/translating-the-sermon-on-the-mount/