The Beatitudes -What is blessedness?

Part 1 – What is blessedness?

The Gospel of Matthew is a true gem. From the opening sentence it has deliberate and direct ties to the Old Testament, bridging the gap between the two. It also presents the teaching of Jesus' teaching in a clear and orderly way, making it the most used Gospel in the early church.

Jesus, the true Prince of Preachers, preached with such clarity and authority that the people were amazed at his teaching (see Matt. 7:28). The Sermon on the Mount is arguably the most famous of his sermons. His preaching routinely drew huge crowds, and this time was no different (Matt. 5:1). On this occasion a hillside served as his pulpit.

Jesus opened his sermon with these words: “Blessed are the poor in spirit” (Matt. 5:3). The Greek word that is used here often appears in the Greek translation of the Old Testament (the LXX or the Septuagint). This is the first time the word is used in the New Testament. 

What is blessedness? It is an important theme in both the Old and New Testament. Thomas Watson calls it “the whetstone of a Christian’s industry, the height of his ambition, the flower of his joy.” Aquinas called it the “ultimate end”.  To help us understand blessedness, we need to understand what it is not. 

First, it is not the accumulation or increase of worldly things. That much is clear from the passage, but that isn’t how many of us live. Much of our time and effort is expended in gathering worldly goods, yet we may miss true blessedness altogether. Solomon understood this very well: “He who loves money will not be satisfied with money, nor he who loves wealth with his income; this also is vanity. When goods increase, they increase who eat them, and what advantage has their owner but to see them with his eyes?” (Eccl. 5:10-11). Again, Thomas Watson writes: “earthly things accumulated cannot rock the troubled heart quiet”.

Second, blessedness is not the absence of trouble. Our passage makes that clear as well. There is a whole lot of trouble in the Christian life. David understood this, as he explained in Psalm 23:5: “You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.”

True blessedness, then, includes the idea of being well and happy. Sadly, we’ve so overused and diluted the idea of happiness that we need clarify what we mean. When the Bible tells us that someone is ‘blessed’ it is not telling us how they feel but what they are. John Stott explains that the “beatitudes are not an indication of their feelings but of God’s assessment of them.”

God alone can make a man or woman truly blessed. In doing so, they are made spiritually well or whole. They experience true joy, even when their circumstances are not all that enjoyable. As Don Carson explains: “Those who are blessed will generally be profoundly happy; but blessedness cannot be reduced to happiness.” Their happiness and wholeness are not rooted in their circumstances, but in their God.
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It is only by abiding in Christ that such blessedness is attained. That is why, as we will see, it is found even in the most surprising places.

​Because of Christ,
Pastor Pieter