Seeing the crowds,
he went up on the mountain,
and when he sat down,
his disciples came to him.

And he opened his mouth
and taught them, saying:

“Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

Matthew 5:1-3 ESV

The French mathematician Blaise Pascal once wrote:

All men seek happiness. This is without exception. Whatever different means they employ, they all tend to this end. The cause of some going to war, and of others avoiding it, is the same desire in both, attended with different views. The will never takes the least step but to this object. This is the motive of every action of every man, even of those who hang themselves.

Pascal seems entirely correct to me. We only endeavor to do difficult things only under the hope and promise that greater future happiness will come from it. And, yes, even the person who commits suicide does so believing that death is the least miserable option. Indeed, our country’s founders declared their belief “that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

And we have certainly engaged in that pursuit. The general method by which we chase happiness can be seen in our culture’s platitudes. Follow your heart. Be yourself. You do you. You’re perfect just the way you are.

Unfortunately, the method of finding happiness through self-fulfillment and self-gratification and selfishness is clearly not working because our society is statistically becoming more depressed and anxious every year. Our drugs of choice reflect our most pressing conditions. The Proverbs speak our alcohol as a pain-reliever, and since ancient world was fille with pain, it was a go-to drug. Of course, alcohol still used today, but our drugs of choice are more entertainment and marijuana. Entertainment, whether from the screen in our pocket, on our mantle, or on the slot-machine, provides distraction from the weight of our daily problems. Likewise, marijuana seems to slow down and put at a distance all those same problems.

Now Jefferson and the founders almost certainly had a different idea of happiness than we do. We tend to think of happiness simply as feeling good and cheerful. They, however, would have thought about happiness more in line with Aristotle, who said, “He is happy who lives in accordance with complete virtue and is sufficiently equipped with external goods, not for some chance period but throughout a complete life.” Or as Seneca argued:

True happiness is to enjoy the present, without anxious dependence upon the future, not to amuse ourselves with either hopes or fears but to rest satisfied with what we have, which is sufficient, for he that is so wants nothing. The greatest blessings of mankind are within us and within our reach. A wise man is content with his lot, whatever it may be, without wishing for what he has not.

Both Aristotle and Seneca were great philosophers, representing the best of the Greek and Roman traditions. And those are both true enough answers, as far as they go. Indeed, as far as human reason is concerned, that may be the best answer that we are able to give. A person will be far happier, in the end, by pursuing virtue rather than self-gratification. But while philosophers like Aristotle sought to think logically, the Logos became flesh and tabernacled among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

Over the next several weeks, we will hear from the Logos’ own mouth what true and lasting happiness is.

THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT // VERSES 1-2

The Beatitudes (Matthew 5:3-12), which will the subject of our study, form the opening prelude to Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7). And before we can establish an overview of them, we must consider their context. Matthew 1-2 concerns the birth and infancy of Christ, while Matthew 3-4 display the beginning of His earthly ministry. In chapter 3, John the Baptist is described, and the chapter ends with Jesus being baptized by him and hearing the voice of His Father. Chapter 4 begins with Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness and ends with Him calling His first disciples and a summary of His ministry to great crowds of people in Galilee, the Decapolis, Judea, and beyond. At the center of that chapter, however, is Matthew’s description of how His ministry began:

Now when he heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew into Galilee. And leaving Nazareth he went and lived in Capernaum by the sea, in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali, so that what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled:

“The land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali,|
the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles–
the people dwelling in darkness
have seen a great light,
and for those dwelling in the region and shadow of death,
on them a light has dawned.”

From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

This is the essence of Jesus’ ministry for around three years. He preached for people to repent because God’s kingdom was near to them. Matthew 4:23-24 tells us that Jesus did a multitude of miracles, but these were ultimately to confirm His teaching, which He considered of prime importance. Beeke and Smalley write:

[Jesus] announced his ministry in Nazareth by reading from the prophecy of Isaiah that God “hath anointed me to preach the gospel” (Luke 4:18; cf. 7:22). When his teaching stirred interest in Capernaum, people tried to make him to stay there. Jesus replied, “I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God to other towns as well; for I was sent for this purpose” (4:43 ESV). Hence, he “went throughout every city and village” preaching the gospel (8:1). When he came to Jerusalem, knowing that the time of his death drew near, he taught the people daily in the temple (19:47-48; 20:1; 21:37-38).

When Jesus reviewed his life’s work just before he surrendered himself to those who would murder him, he prayed to the Father, “I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do… I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world… I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me… I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it” (John 17:4, 6, 8, 26). Christ said to Pilate, “To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth” (18:37). (Reformed Systematic Vol 2, 930-931)

This is critical for properly understanding Christ’s ministry. He is certainly far more than simply being a great teacher, but He is also nothing less than the Great Teacher. He is the Word of God, manifested in the flesh, to bring us the word of God. He is the great Prophet of whom Moses prophesied would come (Deuteronomy 18:18). Thus, as we read His words as they have been given to us by the apostles and through the Holy Spirit, we must give them our full attention.

Thus, we come to the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount:

Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and when he sat down, his disciples came to him. And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying:

If Matthew 4:17 is the summary of Jesus’ teaching, the Sermon on the Mount is a sample of it.

Many have wondered how this sermon relates to Luke’s version, which has numerous similarities as well as differences. The answer seems simple enough: they were two distinct sermons, preached on two distinct occasions. Luke 6:17 says that Jesus “stood on a level place” to teach them, which has led to many calling Luke’s version the Sermon on the Plain. Regardless, we know that Jesus was an itinerant preacher, who went from town to town. It makes sense that He would have often taught on the same topics but used different wordings for the different occasions. So, we should not try to piece together the Gospels into what Jesus really said; instead, we should take each Gospel as complementary portraits of Christ given to us by the Spirit. This means that we can read the parallel beatitudes (and woes) in Luke 6:20-26 as a complement to Matthew’s text, taking care not to divorce the two entirely nor to blend them together into one text.

Of course, we call this the Sermon on the Mount because Jesus taught it from a mountain. But we should also note who was the original audience of this sermon. Verse 1 gives two groups of hearers: the crowds and His disciples. Thus, I believe John Blanchard is right to conclude:

What Jesus preached was what we call a ‘double-barrelled’ sermon. It was crammed with meaning for believers, challenging their lifestyle and testing the depth of their commitment. But it also had a devastating message for unbelievers, shattering their illusions as to the kind of life which is pleasing to God and satisfying to man. (27)

WHAT DOES BLESSED MEAN? // VERSE 3

So it is with the Beatitudes at the beginning of the Sermon, and we see this in the chief word of our present study: blessed. Each of the Beatitudes begins with this word. Indeed, it is repeated nine times in these verses. This word, then, is the great key for properly understanding the Beatitudes, for each is a description of what it means to be blessed.

So what does blessed mean? The Greek word is μακαριος, and it can be translated as blessed or happy. In Greek literature, it is often used alongside the word ευδαιμονια, and the two are often treated as synonyms. Blanchard notes that “as its literal meaning was ‘under the protection of a good genius or demon’ none of the biblical writers ever used it” (54). Notably the translators of the Septuagint used μακαριος in places like Psalm 1:1 and 119:1, so the writers of the New Testament were likely building upon and intentionally connecting to that usage.

Blessed is probably the better translation because of how we view happiness today. But if we think of happiness in terms of satisfaction, peace, and fulfillment, then using the word happy can easily fit. Indeed, even the pagans viewed this happiness as more than a fleeting emotion, for they often used μακαριος to refer to the dead.

But even the earliest of Greeks questioned what really made someone blessed or happy. There is a scene in The Odyssey, where Odysseus is traveling through the underworld, and he sees the spirit of the Greek’s greatest warrior Achilles, who chose fame and glory in battle over a long, comfortable life. And in greeting him, Odysseus calls Achilles the most blessed of men, yet here is Achilles reply:

No winning words about death to me, shining Odysseus!
By god, I’d rather slave on earth for another man—
Some dirt-poor tenant farmer who scrapes to keep alive—
Than rule down here over all the breathless dead. (Book 11)

Thus, even from the beginning of literature, we have the question raised: what good is earthly happiness if it does not go beyond this life?

Indeed, using the word happy has at least two great benefits. First, Thomas Manton writes that “all desire it; Christians, pagans, all agree in this…Among Christians, the good and bad, that do so seldom agree in anything, yet agree in this, every man would be happy, and not miserable… out of a principle of self-love, all would be happy; they would have good, and they would have it forever” (Vol. 6, 5-6). This universality of happiness is one reason that we should not entirely abandon the word.

Another reason is that using the word happy can help us see how shocking Jesus’ statements here are. Because we associate blessedness with spirituality, we think little of the blessed being those who are poor in spirit, mourners, etc. However, pause to read them with the word happy: Happy are the poor in spirit… Happy are those who mourn… Happy are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. That does cause us to raise our eyebrows a bit. We may associate a number of things with poverty and persecution, but happiness is not one of them. And saying happy are those who mourn sounds like an outright contradiction. Yet those are precisely the questions that Jesus seems to be inviting. G. Campbell Morgan notes:

There is no doubt that the finer and fuller word is “blessed,” always providing we understand its true meaning, as indicating a consciousness and a condition, rather than as referring to bestowment from without. It is true that the blessing is bestowed, but the word “blessed” here, refers to a condition, and therefore to a consciousness.

Pause. Another Greek word ευλογεω is closely related to μακαριος, but generally seems to be used more in texts where a blessing is being bestowed, such as Numbers 6:24 and Ephesians 1:3. Indeed, we see how Luke uses both in Elizabeth’s words to Mary:

Blessed (ευλογημενη; used as a pronouncement) are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! And why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. And blessed (μακαρια; used as a condition or state of being) is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord. (Luke 1:42-45)

Back to Morgan:

But the word “happy” more easily suggests the simple thought of the Greek word in its common use. “Blessed” is correct if we understand it in the sense in which we use it of God in the phrase–“The glorious Gospel of the blessed God.” Yet that may be translated with equal accuracy, and perhaps with a finer sense of its real meaning. “The Gospel of the glory of the happy God.” (42)

This understanding of μακαριος as a condition or state of being is significant because Paul also uses it as an attribute of God. Morgan was quoting 1 Timothy 1:11, which reads: “in accordance with the gospel of the glory of the blessed God with which I have been entrusted.”  Likewise, Paul again calls God μακαριος at the end of the book, saying, “he who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immorality, who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see. To him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen” (1 Timothy 6:15-16). This means, as Mark Jones notes, that “in him exists a perfect union of all good things. He has an eternally infinite fullness, delight, and joy in himself… As a perfect being, who is fully actualized in his being and whose attributes all gloriously harmonize with one another, he enjoys a most happy life. Where there reside infinite holiness, wisdom, goodness, power, knowledge, and so forth, there must be infinite blessedness” (God Is, 97).

God Himself is the source of all blessedness and happiness. David expresses this truth in Psalm 16. First, in verse 1, he says to Yahweh, “You are my Lord; I have no good apart from you,” acknowledging that “every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights” (James 1:17). Then in verse 5 he confesses his continual dependence and sustenance from God: “The LORD is my chosen portion and my cup; you hold my lot.” Finally, at the end, David’s heart is glad and his very being rejoices in the security of the LORD, for “You make know to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.” What a beautiful picture of the blessedness and happiness of God!

Indeed, just as David is able to rejoice in God’s blessedness, Jesus is not here declaring the blessedness of God but of God’s people. But we are still speaking of a condition and state of being. Similar to the blessed state of God, Jesus is, in the Beatitudes, describing those who are blessed or happy. This means that the Beatitudes are not an eight-step guide for being truly happy; instead, they are an eight-fold description of who the happy ones are. Iain Duguid rightly notes:

Jesus lays down eight attributes that we are to have. These are not tasks we can do and then check off on a little list. They are defining characteristics, heart habits that mark the core of our being. These Beatitudes are the “attitudes” we are to “be.” However, Jesus doesn’t simply describe for us in abstract terms what a Christian hero ought to look like. His description has power because he himself came and lived out all of these attributes for us. He has shown us in living, breathing flesh what we ought to be, and what a faithful Christian should look like.

But Jesus is not simply a good role model to follow. He himself has completed the course in our place. For us who are Christians, his perfection is already attributed to our account, exactly as if it were our own. Studying the Beatitudes is not, therefore, simply an exercise in self-criticism, in which we mentally beat ourselves up for not being what we ought to be… By grace, all of these virtues are even now attributed to every Christian’s account; by grace, all of these attributes will ultimately be evidenced in our own hearts through the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit. Here we may only make small beginnings toward imitating our perfect model, but thanks be to God that he will not give up on us until every one of his people is a perfect reflection of the Christian hero!

The blessed ones are those who belong to the Blessed Himself, and the Beatitudes are their distinguishing marks. These are not like the gifts of the Holy Spirit, which vary according to His good will. No, these are characteristics of a citizen of God’s heavenly kingdom, and all Christians ought to display them, however imperfectly. As we study through these Beatitudes, if we find them utterly foreign to us, then it may be best to conclude that we are not yet among the blessed. That thought ought to be rightly frightening because the characteristics described do not come naturally to anyone. Although many are born poor, no one is born poor in spirit. Throughout our lives, we will encounter plenty of reasons for mourning, but none naturally mourn over their sin. And so on.

These qualities only come through the working of the Holy Spirt at our new birth. Only the Blessed God can give us blessedness. As Psalm 144:15 says, “Blessed are the people whose God is the LORD!” Thus, our study of the Beatitudes ought to cause us, first and foremost, to ascribe praise to His blessed name and to repent of our sins before Him, confessing our dependency upon Him. Indeed, our confession of sin can only come through some degree of recognition of our spiritual poverty, and as we will discuss in the coming weeks, the Beatitudes necessarily form a kind of chain reaction with one another. Spiritual poverty leads to mourning over our sin, which leads to meekness, which then leads to hungering and thirsting for righteousness, etc. Thus, paradoxically, confessing our insufficiency to live out the Beatitudes actually brings us to the first Beatitudes, which then launches us into the rest.

Although that is the point that will be reinforced next week, let us keep it before us now as well. True and lasting blessedness and happiness only comes from God. Indeed, from the lips of the Great Teacher Himself, we now learn that blessedness is far beyond a state of happiness or satisfaction; it is being favored by God. The pleased beaming of the sovereign Creator’s face upon us, as father upon his beloved child, is the blessing. Though all the wealth in the world were exclusively ours, His delighting in us is better still, for gold and silver only exist by His command. Were all people to crown us the global king or queen and pledge to do our every bidding, even this honor is rubbish compared to the privilege of being the least servant to the One in whose presence the seraphim cover their faces in awe. Blessedness is hearing the same voice that formed light, say to us, “Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master” (Matthew 25:23). Blessedness is being our Father’s beloved children. Blessedness is knowing our names to be “written in heaven” (Luke 10:20).

As the great promises of the Beatitudes show, eternity for those within Christ’s kingdom is not the perpetual despair of Achilles. Rather, they shall be comforted, inherit the earth, be satisfied, receive mercy, see God, and be called children of God. Indeed, their reward is great in heaven. Amen!

But there is even more goodness to be found than the promises of eternal happiness, as wonderful as that is. I will let Spurgeon bring us the good news:

Note, also, with delight, that the blessed is in every case in the present tense, a happiness to be now enjoyed and delighted in. It is not “Blessed shall be,” but “Blessed are.” There is not one step in the whole divine experience of the believer, not one link in the wonderful chain of grace, in which there is a withdrawal of the divine smile or an absence of real happiness. Blessed is the first moment of the Christian life on earth, and blessed is the last… Blessed is the babe in grace, and blessed is the perfect man in Christ Jesus. As the Lord’s mercy endureth for ever, even so shall our blessedness.

Indeed, notice that the Beatitudes are also bookended by two promises that are also in the present tense: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven (vv. 3, 10). Remember: repetition means pay attention. While we are still praying for God’s kingdom to come in its fullness and finality, we do so knowing that it is also already here. Jesus is already reigning as King, and we are His. He is the Good Shepherd, and we are the sheep of His pasture. Yes, upon either our death or Christ’s return, we will finally be freed from sin and enter into the fullness of His eternal happiness, but we are already begin experiencing that blessedness here on earth. Knowing the Blessed and Happy God is eternal life, and we begin knowing Him now.

In Psalm 23, David pictures the favor of God upon Him as an overflowing cup and as a banquet that he can enjoy, even in the midst of his enemies. That too is the symbol of the Lord’s Supper before us. One day, after evil has been overthrown for good and all things are made new, we will share together in the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. But this bread and cup are reminders that our blessedness in Christ begins now. Even in the midst of our enemies (our own hearts being chief among them!), our Lord summons us to eat this bread and drink this cup in remembrance of Him, to remember that there is more mercy in Christ than sin in us and to remember He alone is true bread and true drink. True and lasting happiness does not come through possessions nor even ultimately through being virtuous; instead, it comes through knowing, loving, and belonging to Jesus Christ, the Son of the Blessed, for only in Him does this blessing come to us:

Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered;
Blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sins. (Romans 4:7-8; quoting Psalm 32:1-2)