Blessed Are...

Our Lord Jesus, ascending a hill, a mount, sat down and began teaching His disciples. What followed is arguably the most famous of His speeches, the Sermon on the Mount. In particular, the section that has since come to be called the Beatitudes which we read today, are among the most familiar and yet most misunderstood passages in all of Scripture.

“Blessed are the poor in spirit... Blessed are those who mourn... Blessed are the meek…” I think it is a fair assumption that many of us find these words family, poetic, and even beautiful. But if we stop and think about them we ask a simple but needed question, “How are people suffering these things blessed?”               

Poor, mourning, meek, persecuted; none of that sounds like a blessing! And yet Jesus declares them blessed. He speaks these words not as advice for how to become blessed, but as a description of what His kingdom looks like and what it means to belong to Him. The Beatitudes describe the reality life of faith, the life that flows from Christ’s righteousness, and the life that clings to Him even when suffering in weakness.

Find out more in this sermon from St. John's Lutheran Church of Oakes, ND!