Understanding the Radical Teachings of Jesus and Their Transformative Impact on God's Kingdom
The Beatitudes are a series of nine blessings that are part of a more extensive order of teachings, including the Lord’s Prayer, called “The Sermon on the Mount” (Matthew 5-7). The Beatitudes describe the virtues and attitudes of those who will inherit God’s Kingdom. The Latin beatitude derives from the Hebrew word ashrei (אֲשֶׁרִי), meaning blessedness or supreme happiness. Today, the Church of the Beatitudes is built on the traditional site where Jesus, Yeshua, spoke.
Gathering twelve disciples (fishermen, tax collectors, zealots, and other outcasts of Jewish society) and inviting them to follow Him, Yeshua began His ministry of healing, teaching, and preaching the Gospel. After many healings, demon extractions, and miracles, Yeshua gained a sizeable following of people from all over Galilee, Judea, and Jerusalem, and even as far away as Tyre and Sidon (Southern Lebanon), and Decapolis, which lies east of the Jordan River, flocking to Yeshua in the hope of being touched by His healing power. Those who came to Yeshua were the poor, sick, diseased, and demon-possessed.
Yeshua spoke these nine blessings from a hill on the northern shore of the Sea of Galilee, addressing the disciples and a large crowd that had gathered in curiosity to hear what He had to say. In Matthew, we read, “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.
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 filled.
Blessed are the merciful, For they shall obtain 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 they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you” (Matthew 5:1-11, NKJV).[i]
These declarations of Yeshua sound relatively straightforward. And yet, if we explore them more deeply, these nine simple blessings will entirely change our worldview and replace it with a clear perspective on God’s Kingdom and who will be a part of it. The Beatitudes and the Sermon on the Mount are not merely a collection of Yeshua’s moral teachings, as some erroneously think. No, these teachings follow Yeshua’s admonition for all people to “Repent,” for the Kingdom of God was at hand. And if the Kingdom of God was present, so was its King. Therefore, these teachings are a message to receive and understand God’s Kingdom.
We begin by understanding what it means to be “blessed.” Conventional wisdom would tell us that success is a measure of God’s blessings. How often do we hear “I’m so blessed.” But what do God’s blessings really look like? More than one hundred years before Yeshua, a prominent rabbi, Ben Sira, wrote a book of wisdom in which he proclaimed God’s blessings. He says, “Blessed is the man who sees the downfall of his enemies.” “Blessed is the one who does not serve an inferior.” And, “Blessed is the one who speaks to an attentive audience.” Ben Sir tells us that God’s blessings are manifested in those who conquer their enemies, move up the ranks to positions of rulership, gain prominence amongst men, and are given their appraisal. In other words, the healthy, wealthy, and the wise are blessed by God.
Contrast these statements with the words of Yeshua, when He said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and those who are great exercise authority over them. Yet it shall not be so among you; but whoever desires to become great among you, let him be your servant” (Matthew 20:25-26), “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, (Matthew 5:44), “Woe to you when all men speak well of you, For so did their fathers to the false prophets” (Luke 6:26), “For what is highly esteemed among men is an abomination in the sight of God” (Luke 16:15).
The Sermon on the Mount and its blessings, the Beatitudes, were purposefully spoken by Yeshua to challenge our conventional thinking, turn our world upside down (or should I say, right side up), and guide the disciples and those who followed Yeshua into a “new” and genuine Biblical life that reflected the attributes and values of God’s Kingdom—love for all people, even our enemies, and servitude over acquiring earthly wealth and power. These values opposed the law of retribution (eye for an eye) provided for within the Old Covenant and the Law of condemnation under the weight of sin leading to death. They also oppose the entirety of this world’s systems and values, which are measured by accumulating wealth and power. In Christ, we have a new and better covenant leading to eternal life and a soon-coming Kingdom opposite this fallen world in every way.
The mixed multitude gathered to hear what Yeshua had to say would have been electrified by His message. The good news of God’s Kingdom provided hope beyond the socioeconomic divide and subjugated poverty of the elite ruling class, as well as the oppressive occupation of the Roman Empire, its tax burdens, and heavy-handed laws. Yeshua’s message to them was: You, the outcast, the nobodies of this world, the hurting and broken, all of you with no social status or power to change the dire circumstances of your meager existence, are all welcome into My Kingdom, where you will find rest and peace. The King had invited reject outcasts of this world, people of insignificant value to society, to be part of His eternal Kingdom, and not just subjects of the King, but kings and priests who will rule the world with Him. Wow! Let that resonate for a moment.
Yeshua had affirmed everything about these broken people: the poor in spirit, those who mourn, the meek, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, the merciful, the pure in heart, the peacemakers, and those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake. So, it should be of little surprise that the rich and powerful rejected His message; Yeshua warned, “Assuredly, I say to you that it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 19:23). His message turned their whole world upside down. It challenged conventional wisdom about what His Kingdom would look like and who would be invited into it.
Stanley Hauerwas, a commentator on the Beatitudes, says these blessings are often misinterpreted as Christian ideals to strive for rather than descriptions of the type of people who will be a part of God’s Kingdom.[ii] The Beatitudes are not about trying to act a certain way but are about Yeshua recognizing and acknowledging the kind of people He first invited into His Kingdom. Further, Yeshua is not telling us that we need to try to be poor in spirit or mourning or get ourselves persecuted. Instead, He merely affirms the people who are blessed. Despite their low circumstances, they are humble and recognize their complete dependence on God. These people who are not significant or honored in society are precisely the ones to receive the honor of being invited first into God’s Kingdom.
Another essential detail is to see these blessings as the sum of the whole picture, like a stained-glassed window comprising nine interconnected panels that make up one whole. In other words, the blessings do not speak of nine different types of people but of one people group who are likely to experience many, if not all, of these nine characteristics. Most of those gathered to listen to Yeshua were financially poor, but Yeshua also said, “Blessed are the poor in spirit.” Financial poverty is often associated with spiritual poverty, but not exclusively. The poor in spirit are those in society nobody admires, looks up to, or thinks are important. Still, Yeshua tells them that their experience of being in their lowly, insignificant condition is the most favorable position they could be in, for to them belongs the Kingdom of God.
People in desperate and helpless circumstances are often the most open-minded and ready to receive help from someone outside their impoverished circumstances. In contrast, well-off and self-sufficient people usually feel they do not need someone to rescue them. It is why Yeshua said, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me” (Luke 9:23). And Paul said, “Those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires” (Galatians 5:24). It was precisely those who felt the need to be rescued from their financially, and more importantly, their spiritually impoverished condition that Yeshua came for. Another favorable misconception was the common belief that poverty and sickness were the consequence of direct or generational sin—the opposite of being blessed by God was to be cursed. In other words, these people longed for someone to save them from their sinful condition and deliver them from the curse of sin, which, they believed, led them to poverty and sickness. They hungered and thirsted for a Savior and their Messiah.
Yeshua declared: “Blessed are those who mourn, blessed are the meek, and blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.” First, let’s consider how it feels to be hungry or thirsty. These are not pleasant conditions, and one does not intentionally choose to be hungry or thirsty unless they are fasting. These conditions are forced on a person by circumstances beyond their control. Righteousness is about having the “right relationship” with God and others. And acts of righteousness either restore or maintain these relationships. Hence, connecting the physical condition of hunger and thirst to its spiritual condition infers that these people have been forcibly subjected to unrighteous relationships. Considering the corrupt rulership in Israel and the Roman occupation, it should be of no surprise to anyone that those forced out of this earthly political and economic system would hunger and thirst for righteousness. In contrast, those comfortably living within it would not be seeking any changes lest it move them outside their positions of power, affluence, and material comfort.
Here, again, Yeshua is using earthly circumstances to demonstrate spiritual principles; these physical conditions often lead people to spiritual poverty, causing them to mourn because they have a deep, unmet longing to see righteousness in the world. Yet, they know righteousness does not exist in a fallen, sinful world; they only see broken and unrighteous relationships. They have become meek, or as the world thinks, weak because they are helplessly incapable of influencing or changing anything. Therefore, Yeshua says, blessed are the people who are intensely bothered by the tragedies of this world yet are powerless to fix them. From the world’s perspective, these people are unimportant. Yet, in God’s eyes, they are the most important ones who will inherit His Kingdom. A Biblical example is Moses, who was called meek but was extremely important, maybe not to Pharoh, but certainly to God and the Israelites. It is precisely because of these dire and humbling circumstances that Yeshua appeals to the outcast and downtrodden, as these are more likely to seek a kingdom that is not of this world.
Yeshua continued, “Blessed are the merciful.” Mercy is an act of care and compassion to help someone suffering. In other words, blessed are the unimportant outcasts of this world who, despite their dire circumstances, are grieved by the pain and misery they see and will go out of their way to help others. Even their small acts of kindness, unlikely to change the world in any significant way, will manifest a small piece of God’s Kingdom. Yeshua affirmed this by saying, “By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:35).
He said, “Blessed are the pure in heart,” the people who are not looking for prestige or worldly recognition, and the only thing that is important to them is seeing God and His Kingdom. The Psalmist declared, “One thing I have desired of the Lord, That will I seek: That I may dwell in the house of the Lord All the days of my life, To behold the beauty of the Lord, And to inquire in His temple” (Psalm 27:4). Simeon, a just and devout man waiting for the Consolation of Israel, when the Holy Spirit came upon him, said, “Lord, now You are letting Your servant depart in peace, According to Your word; For my eyes have seen Your salvation Which You have prepared before the face of all peoples, A light to bring revelation to the Gentiles, And the glory of Your people Israel” (Luke 2:29-32).[iii]
Yeshua said, “Blessed are the peacemakers,” those who see all the broken and unrighteous relationships in this fallen world yet hunger to see the King and His Kingdom because they love all people, even their enemies, and hunger and thirst to see all these broken relationships restored, especially with God. These people are willing to insert themselves into conflict and seek to love all people in the hope of bringing peace and reconciliation. If we are in Christ and already at peace with God, we should be willing to insert ourselves into uncomfortable situations to bring peace to others. Therefore, we read, “Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not [d]imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation” (2 Corinthians 5:18-19). Reconciliation that restores broken relationships and brings lasting peace is one of the highest values of God’s Kingdom.
Lastly, Yeshua said, “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, and blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake.” If we see ourselves as the kind of people who are rejected by the powers of this world and if we reject the ways of this world to seek First God’s Kingdom and His righteousness, then Yeshua tells us this life will give us tribulation. He said, “If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you” (John 15:8); “In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). We will be hated, despised, and rejected by this world for following Yeshua and seeking first His Kingdom and His righteousness. And we will be despised for trying to do the right thing.
Yeshua’s Beatitudes were not a formula for a better life. They were intended to comfort and assure the insignificant, powerless, and physically and spiritually broken people that God’s Kingdom was at hand, and those who sought after the King and His Kingdom would enter into all these blessings. God’s Kingdom turns our world values upside down, and these blessings come with a challenge: Following Yeshua in this fallen world will be difficult. Hence, He said, “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it” (Matthew 7:13-14). But those who are pure in heart and worship God in spirit and truth will seek to do what is right despite what the world throws at us.[iv] We do these things not to earn God’s blessings. We recognize that we have already been blessed because our dire circumstances have caused our hearts to be inclined towards the only one who can deliver us from this fallen and broken world and that Yeshua’s Kingdom already belongs to us.
It should be evident that I speak of God’s church, His ecclesia, as those who are the blessed of His Kingdom, not nine different kinds of people, but one group of people who are all one in Christ. Paul said, “If one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; or if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it” (1 Corinthians 12:26). These nine blessings are for us, and yet if we see all nine panels of the stain-glassed window joined together, we also see a complete picture of one man who represents every aspect of these nine blessings.
Yeshua came from poor and insignificant circumstances. He mourned and grieved over the state of this world and the broken people he met. The arrival of Yeshua was extraordinarily significant, yet He did not consider himself important. Yeshua longed to see God’s world set right, so with a small act of mercy to hurting individuals, He showed his pure devotion to the cause of God’s Kingdom, inserting Himself into dangerous situations with people who hated God and hated each other. In doing so, Yeshua was persecuted and was killed. Christ is the stained-glass window, and as we are now in Christ, we are members of His body and will experience one or more of the nine circumstances that Yeshua described, and yet, we are recipients of all of His blessings.
The crucifixion of Yeshua, who is the perfect embodiment of these nine blessings, is not the unfortunate death of a great social worker. His death is how He epitomized the values of God’s Kingdom by setting aside His status. As the representative for all humanity and dying in our place, He took upon Himself the consequences of God’s judgment and justice for our sins and all the unrighteous things we have done to each other and God in this fallen world. In His resurrection, Yeshua’s commitment to the goodness of God in our world and by redeeming it, He offers hope, forgiveness, and life to the unimportant, hurting people who will lay hold of Him and follow in His footsteps along a narrow and challenging path that leads into His Kingdom. Now, that is good news.
[i] All Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Bible (NKJV) unless otherwise noted, Thomas Nelson Inc., 1982.
[ii] Jethani, Skye. What If Jesus Was Serious? Moody Publishers.
[iii] A special thanks to Pator Tim Mackie, lead scholar and creative director for BibleProject, who inspired me with much depth of revelation and understanding to write this teaching.
[iv] John 4:24.