Not Your Father's Beatitudes

Douglass Church - Douglass Blvd Christian Church

So when Jesus says that those who will be blessed are the poor in spirit in God's kingdom, he’s not talking about the fainthearted. He’s talking about those who are actually poor, those who are so far down the economic ladder that their spirits are characterized by the constant despair that they’ll ever be able to go to bed at night without the gnawing horror of hunger to keep them awake.

When Jesus says that the new world God is creating will bless those who mourn, he’s not suggesting that people go out and find things to be sad about—the people whom Jesus grew up with, and lived and worked with, didn’t have to go searching for sadness. On the contrary, the very nature of their existence meant that sorrow, suffering, and grief had already built an evil home among them. No, what Jesus is angling at is that because oppression isn’t what God intended, it should be mourned. And the people who mourn oppression will be blessed because they’ll be part of a new realm set up with them specifically in mind, one that conquers oppression.

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Sermon text: web | doc