The Beatitudes -- A Summary

Each Tuesday (except for one) since September 5, I've taken one of the Beatitudes and used it as the theme of a post. I've been thinking for the past week that I needed a final post -- kind of a summary of what I've discovered. On Monday evening, I printed all nine posts out, and read through them as a whole, trying to find a unifying theme for this last post. No such luck. I'm not entirely convinced that I did a very good job with them at all.

Ironically, tomorrow the chapter that is to be discussed in the class that JtM and I are teaching is one concerning the Beatitudes. While I was contemplating my posts, I was also rereading the chapter in The Jesus I Never Knew. Yancey thinks that there are three facets of meaning to the beatitudes. The first time I read the chapter, a few weeks ago, I finished it with a feeling of confusion. As I read it today, knowing that we were teaching it tomorrow, I outlined his thoughts and tried to mesh them with mine. This will have to serve as my summary for this series:

1. Dangling promises -- Jesus knows what is to come -- what the kingdom of heaven will be like in its fullness. We live in the kingdom now -- we are striving to make it come into being here, but Jesus has seen the goal -- the end product. He is telling us, especially those of us who are suffering, that there are better times ahead. We live in Saturday, but Sunday's coming! I like CS Lewis' quote, "if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires, not too strong, but too weak." Perhaps in Jesus' eyes, we are all the unfortunate -- all the suffering, and he is telling us that we should turn our eyes to the future, when the suffering will end. If we knew that, if we believed that, then perhaps we would devote ourselves more completely to making the kingdom come now, here, where we are -- especially those of us who have the means. Another good quote, "To believe in future rewards is to believe that the long arm of the Lord bends toward justice, to believe that one day the proud will be overthrown and the humble raised up and the hungry filled with good things." To go back to Weatherhead's description of the ultimate will of God, then perhaps Jesus is describing God's ultimate will -- what will come, even though his intentional will is not a reality.
2. The Great Reversal -- Does God have a preferential love for the poor? That statement goes against the idea that we are all children of God -- loved and cherished by him. Perhaps the best way to see it is that those who are poor -- whether in material possessions, family, spirit, or in any other way -- are in a position that makes it easier to reach for and to accept God's grace. "Poor people find themselves in a posture that befits the grace of God. In their (in our, when we are poor, in any way) state of neediness, dependence and dissatisfaction with life, they may welcome God's free gift of love." He gooes on to say, "Human beings do not readily admit desperation. When they do, the kingdom of heaven draws near."
3. Psychological Reality -- "The Beatitudes reveal that what succeeds in the kingdom of heaven also benefits us most in this life here and now." If the beatitudes are "dangling promises" of what life will be like the kingdom of heaven, then they are also a description of the results of losing one's life -- and gaining it back -- here and now. If "dangling promises" are a description of the result of God's ultimate will, then the beatitudes are also a description of how God will work through us, if we allow him, to bring about his will. In the here and now, living a life of purity and mercy, hungering for righteousness, taking a stand for justice, and by focusing on God instead of ourselves, can bring a life of grace -- blessings -- joy. It is a reversal of what society tell us, but Jesus is trying to tell us that in this way lies God. He isn't waiting for us only at the end of the road, but he is also standing at the beginning of the path, hoping to walk with us along the way.

I walk away from this with no real confidence that I've come to understand what the Beatitudes mean, but perhaps with a little bit more understanding of what they don't mean, and an inkling, I hope, of their depth of meaning.

List of Links:
Beatitudes
Blessed are the Poor in Spirit
Blessed are those Who Mourn
Blessed are the Meek
Hungering for Righteousness
Blessed are those Who Care
Blessed are the Pure in Heart
Blessed are the Peacemakers
Blessed are the Persecuted