INTRODUCTION
Jesus opens His sermon pronouncing blessings. The Beatitudes imply certain attitudes and kinds of behavior, which are spelled out in the rest of the sermon. Above all, the Beatitudes are promises. As the one anointed by the Spirit, Jesus announces that God is working to turn the world right side up, and bring blessing to His people (cf. Isaiah 61:1-3).

THE TEXT
“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 . . . .” (Matthew 5:1-12).

BLESSING
Humanity began in a state of blessing (Genesis 1:28). Adam was blessed in that the Lord gave him the ability to be fruitful, multiple, fill the earth, subdue it, and rule it. The Lord blessed Adam by giving him the ability to flourish and so to fulfill his purpose in creation. A blessed man is like a fruitful green and growing tree (Psalm 1:3; 92:12-15), a blessed woman like a vine (Psalm 128:3). Because of sin, we don’t flourish; our hopes and plans are frustrated. Jesus comes to announce blessing, which is to say, life, abundant life.

ISRAEL’S HOPE
Israel knew that the world was not as it should be. Yahweh had promised to raise up Zion as the chief mountain, and fulfill His promises to Abraham. It hadn’t happened yet. Yahweh has done this before. When poor persecuted Hannah mourned and hungered for righteousness, He raised up her son Samuel to put Israel back on track. They hoped Yahweh would do the same again, on a grander scale.

REVERSAL
Jesus says that He comes to fulfill these hopes, but He seems to fulfill them in a paradoxical way. Poverty, sadness, hunger and thirst, and persecution are the very opposite of blessing. Some think Jesus is saying that in the New Covenant, we can only expect “spiritual” flourishing, not flourishing in all of life. That’s not what Jesus has in mind. Poor hungry mourners who are being persecuted are blessed because they can have confidence that God will eventually turn the world back around.

For example, the “mourning” Jesus has in mind is not mourning for one’s own sin, but rather mourning for the state of the world – the fact that the wicked triumph and the righteous suffer. The comfort that Jesus promises is the comfort of the world put right. Hunger and thirst for righteousness includes yearning for personal righteousness; but it also means that we hunger for justice and for the vindication of the right. We will be filled when God acts to right wrongs and destroy the impenitent wicked. This hope is so real that Jesus’ disciples are blessed already in the present.

BLESSED JESUS
The Beatitudes are a description of Jesus. He is meek (11:29). He mourns for Jerusalem (26:36-46). He fulfills righteousness (3:15). He is merciful (9:27; 15:22). And for His trouble He is persecuted, reviled, slandered, and killed. Yet, He is blessed above all men, for in His resurrection He receives the kingdom, is comforted, inherits the earth, is filled, sees God, is declared Son of God.