What Does It Mean to Have a Blessed Life?
Luke 6.20-26
Known as the Beatitudes, this passage describes what it means to have a blessed life. Jesus addresses this teaching directly to his disciples and envisions the kind of life that they will live. As Luke writes further in the Book of Acts, the disciples, who are later called the apostles, live a life of poverty, hunger, sadness, and persecution. Yet, according to the Beatitudes, they live a blessed life.
Many of the disciples had to leave their life of financial security, whether it was the lucrative job of tax collecting or the stability of being a fisherman. Being poor in the ancient Mediterranean was even more difficult than it is today; there were no societal virtues or values to help those who are poor. Instead they were largely ignored. We, too, can identify with the feeling of lack and vulnerability that the disciples experienced. However, just like the disciples, we can be assured that God will provide for us. Although the world will try to distort what it means to have a blessed life, according to Jesus, it is one where we find our provision in God.
The apostles eventually experience much sadness and weeping, especially as the early Christians were being martyred and imprisoned (e.g., Acts 8.12; 12). This is another area where we can also identify with the apostles. Living with Christ entails seasons or moments of intense sadness. At Uptown, there are many people who are presently going through this. We should be encouraged that some of this sadness is because God is sharing his heart with us, burdening us to love those around us. Additionally, this passage reminds us that God is our comfort in the midst of our weeping.
Lastly, the apostles are also persecuted and ridiculed (e.g., Acts 4). Jesus is saying that even in those moments, the apostles can rejoice because they will be rewarded by God (e.g., Acts 5.40-41). Similarly, some of us have expressed how we feel ostracized or alienated by our faith. This passage is reminding us not to feel sorry for ourselves; rather, we should rejoice and know that God will reward us.
This passage correctly defines what it means to have a blessed life. Contrary to what many of us think, the truly blessed life is one where it finds its ultimate provision in God alone: those who are poor and hungry are truly blessed because God gladly gives them his glorious kingdom; those who weep are truly blessed because they are comforted by God; and those who are ridiculed and persecuted are truly blessed because they will be rewarded by God.
