God's Promise of Blessing

Blessed Despite the Circumstances

Do you ever get the feeling God’s idea of being blessed and this worlds idea of it are two different things? If you said yes that’s good because they are. This world will tell you’re blessed if you’re successful. If we were to think of blessed people by the world’s standards we’d most likely think of Jeff Bezozos or Ellon Musk before we thought of the poor person in street with the cardboard sign. God’s promise of blessing requires us to turn things upside down.

Today God’s promise of blessing challenges us not to look at our present circumstances, but recognize the blessing of life in the Kingdom that is here now, and is coming. It challenges us to trust God, even when our situations are difficult or impossible. It’s in these spaces God is at transforming something messy into something beautiful. Lent is coming. A journey that starts with ashes, that remembers the suffering and death of Christ, but God from those ashes, from that suffering raises Christ and us to new life in the Kingdom. Life in the upside down Kingdom is the blessing.

The Sermon on the Mount

Today’s text is the beginning of Christ’s sermon on the mount, a challenging sermon even today on how to live life in the Kingdom. In Matthew 4:17 Jesus calls people to repent and turn to God. To turn to life in the Kingdom, fishermen and crowds begin to follow him and he went up the mountainside and began to teach his disciples and the crowd on life in the Kingdom.

Jesus begins with a list of blessings. The word used in the greek makarios means someone who is fortunate or happy because of circumstances. However the list he goes through aren’t what most people think of when they hear the word blessed. Blessedness is a reality now not because of the circumstances, but because of the consolation, the comfort and the reward that await in the coming Kingdom. It’s important to note that this list of blessings begins and ends with the Kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. The first blessing in Matthew focuses on spiritual poverty, it’s in our spiritual poverty we can recognize our need for God and hear and respond to the call of Christ in Matthew 4:17. This is where God’s promise of blessing begins in our hearts and transforms our lives.

A common refrain in the blessing are the words for they will. The blessing isn’t in the situation but what God will do in the situation. Jeremiah 29:11 “11 For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope.” One of the most well known promises of blessing in the Bible comes at a time when God’s people faced 70 years of exile in Babylon. Despite being ripped from their homeland, their temple and city being destroyed, Jeremiah still dared to have hope. Lamentations 3:19–23 “19 The thought of my affliction and my homelessness is wormwood and gall! 20 My soul continually thinks of it and is bowed down within me. 21 But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: 22 The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end; 23 they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.”

Romans 8:24–28 “24 For in hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what is seen? 25 But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience. 26 Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words. 27 And God, who searches the heart, knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. 28 We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.”

God’s promise of blessing isn’t in our situation, but is in what he will do in and through it. God’s promise of blessing is in life in the Kingdom. A life we can only enter when we recognize our spiritual poverty and answer the call of Christ to repent and turn to God.

It’s at the most trying points in our lives God is at work in and through the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

Matthew: A Commentary in the Wesleyan Tradition In the Text

The Beatitudes express truth about God and his reign, whether it is reversal of plight for the meek and poor or reward for the merciful in the future. At the same time, the Beatitudes manifest kingdom ethics in the present. Life under God’s reign results in transformed lives characterized by humility, purity, and peace as well as welcome for the oppressed and marginalized. In light of this, Jesus declares that his disciples are salt of the earth (v 13) and light of the world (v 14).

The Fork

God’s promise of blessing is a lot like the promise of desert. Not everything on our plate is always going to be our favorite food. We might be expecting a steak and lobster dinner but served liver and onions. To get to the promise of desert we need to get through the liver and onions.

At a dinner gathering, a guest noticed everyone putting their forks down after their meal. But one person kept their fork in hand. Curious, the guest asked, 'Why the fork?' The guest replied, 'Because the best is yet to come!' This simple act reflects our faith in what God has promised. Just like holding a fork signifies hope for a delicious dessert, holding onto God’s promises signifies our expectation for the joys He has in store for us, even when we face challenges now.

Hebrews 12:1–2 “1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, 2 looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the sake of the joy that was set before him endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God.”

The blessing the joy wasn’t in the cross but the empty tomb.