Q1, S09 The Beatitudes
Quarter 1, Session 9: The Beatitudes
ARE YOU LEARNING TO LIVE IN GOD’S BLESSING?
Passage
Matthew 5:1–12
Concept
This session falls under Jesus’ third question: Will you learn from me? Jesus began his famous Sermon on the Mount by talking about what true blessing looks like. Jesus’ vision of “the good life” looks different than anything we would list out, but this is the entry point to the Kingdom of God.
Key Question
Through the Beatitudes, Jesus answers the question: What is the good life? How would you answer this question? How does that contrast with Jesus’ answer?
The Three Circles Tool
Do you see our tool of the three circles being played out in Matthew 5:1–12? With whom? How so?
The Beatitudes
When was the last time you recognized the brokenness of this world? This is a question none of us have to think too hard about. We can all point to major events that prove the broken state of the world: the death of a loved one, a national tragedy, the loss of a job, a strained relationship with a spouse or a child, etc. But we even feel the brokenness in smaller things everyday: aches and pains in our bodies, miscommunications with friends and family, the stress of modern life, and on and on and on. It’s all around us.
We spend so much time and energy trying to escape this brokenness and restore comfort and security to our lives. This is right, in a sense. But when Jesus began his famous “Sermon on the Mount,” he redefined what blessing looks like. We tend to consider ourselves blessed when our situation is calm, when we are materially prosperous.
Jesus began the Sermon on the Mount by inviting us into a life of blessing that looks much different than we’d expect. He does this using a list of blessings that has come to be known as the Beatitudes. “Beatitudes” is a Latin word meaning “blessings.” So the question Jesus answers is: What does it look like to be living in the blessing of God?
1. Read Matthew 5:1–12. Right off the bat, what strikes you about this passage? What do you find interesting or challenging or confusing?
Hungering & Thirsting
There is much to glean from this short section of Jesus’ sermon. We will focus on a few concepts. Jesus pronounces a blessing on those who “hunger and thirst for righteousness.” He promises that those who desire to know and to live in God’s ways will be satisfied. If this is your pursuit, you will find what you’re looking for.
But there’s also an acknowledgement of brokenness in the concept of hungering and thirsting. If we truly long for God’s ways, it means that something is missing now—that’s what hunger and thirst mean. Something is currently lacking and we yearn for it. We long to see God’s righteousness, to see his ways become reality on the earth.
There is also an echo of this in Jesus’ statement that the pure in heart will see God. Unless our hearts are pure, we will not be able to see God clearly. A dirty mirror gives a distorted picture. To the extent that our hearts are impure, we have a distorted picture of God. A pure heart allows us to see God and pursue him as he is. As we hunger and thirst for God and his righteous ways, we want to be constantly seeking to purify our desire. Are we hungering for him. Truly? Or are we hungering for better circumstances? For blessing as we define it rather than the blessing he offers?
2. In your own words, what do you think it means to “hunger and thirst for righteousness”? Have you ever seen this evidenced in your own life? How so?
The Good Life
As Jesus transforms our concept of blessing, he is also giving a unique answer to the ancient question: What is the good life? If you were to list out what “the good life” includes, none of the things Jesus’ discusses are likely to be on your list. As we should probably expect by now, Jesus’ view of this is vastly different than our own. It differs from what we’re taught and what we subconsciously adopt from our culture.
Henri Nouwen says that much of our lives are driven by a few powerful lies. Namely:
We are what we do.
We are what we have.
We are what others think of us.
But there is a powerful truth in seeing ourselves the way God sees us. Namely:
I am not what I do.
I am not what I have.
I am not what others think of me.
Instead, I am the beloved child of a loving Creator. This makes all the difference in the world. We always derail when we adopt a version of the good life that differs from God’s. With the Beatitudes, we can begin to see that God is calling us into something greater.
3. In this passage, Jesus is answering the question, “what is the good life?” If you look at your pursuits, your interests, and the vacations you’ve planned over the last few years, what picture have you been painting of what “the good life” is? Do you think your version of the good life is typical or atypical? How so?
4. How would you say Jesus is answering this question in this passage? What is the good life according to Jesus?
Re-Imagining Blessing
We actually find several Beatitudes in the Old Testament, particularly the Psalms and Proverbs. The basic idea of these is that if you do what the Lord says, things will go well for you. And that is certainly true in many ways. But Jesus basically flips this concept on its head. He gives us Beatitudes for a broken world. Beatitudes for the Kingdom of Heaven. Jesus shows us that the Kingdom of Heaven is open to everybody, to the poor in spirit, to the mourning, to the oppressed. Blessing is not about everything going your way.
The kinds of people who are blessed represent not things that we are pursuing, but rather situations we find ourselves in. We are blessed when we find ourselves in these places where we feel trapped.
For example, being poor in spirit is about recognizing our inability to rectify our situation. And that’s an actual blessing. This is the beginning point of the Kingdom of Heaven. If we are going to see the Kingdom of God in this world, it’s going to begin with recognizing that things are broken, that all is not as it should be. If we feel like things are all going pretty good, then we are blind to much of what is actually happening. Think back to John the Baptist and our discussion of the Leveling Tool. Those who are high must be brought low, and those who are low must be lifted up.
Think of it this way: How many blessings in your life have come through difficult circumstances? This is not the easy path, but it’s the path to true blessing. The good life is present even in our times of suffering. To enter the Kingdom means becoming low. We can begin to recognize the blessing and the joy of the difficult seasons. God is there, he can be found, even when it seems he is absent or inactive.
5. What is your typical mindset when you find yourself in a difficult season? Do you recognize God’s presence in these times, or is that a struggle? Why do you think that is?
6. If we shifted our values away from material blessing and general prosperity to instead valuing the things that Jesus refers to as blessings here, how would we look different than we do right now?
7. Spend some time in prayer. Ask God to allow you to see blessing as he sees it. Pray that you would develop a true hunger and thirst for righteousness.
Key Question
Through the Beatitudes, Jesus answers the question: What is the good life? How would you answer this question? How does that contrast with Jesus’ answer?