When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain,
and after he had sat down, his disciples came to him.
Jesus is presented here as a new Moses. Moses went up a mountain in order to receive the ten commandments on the tablets of stone, given to him by God. But Jesus was one greater than Moses and did not go up the mountain to receive but rather to give. The setting itself was an indication that we should pay special attention to the teaching with which Jesus "began to teach them". It was, in a way, the new law of the New Covenant, not so much in the sense of presenting a list of moral obligations, but in the sense that, as the decalogue in particular became the paradigmatic lens through which Jews viewed all of life, so too would the beatitudes now become the new interpretive keys to life in the Messianic age.
Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
At one level, this was a reversal of the common expectations of the world that it was the rich who were blessed and the poor who were cursed. Not only were the poor not under a curse, Jesus said, but they were loved in a special way by God. At another level it was meant to apply to everyone, even those not materially poor. Jesus called everyone to a poverty, at least of spirit, if not of wealth. The opposite of this beatitude can be seen in the rich young ruler who went away sad because he had many possessions (see Matthew 19:22). Yet possessing the possessions was not the primary problem. It was rather that they impinged his freedom to follow Jesus. Jesus himself was the exemplar of one who did not allow riches to deter him from his mission.
For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich (see Second Corinthians 8:9).
Although we tend to find the first of the beatitudes admirable the second seems more difficult, still counterintuitive even to the modern Christian mind.
Blessed are they who mourn,
for they will be comforted.
It seems as though we still secretly expect Christianity to be a way of life that can remove all sorrow from our hearts and from the world. We either expect it can do this in a subjective way, by numbing us to it, or else by fixing all of the disordered social structures in the world. But either way, we seem to expect a world where mourning is no longer necessary or appropriate. Jesus, however, seemed to be saying that his disciples would live amidst imperfection and yet should hold on to the desire and vision for something better. They would live in a world marred by sin, that of themselves, and that of others, and they would mourn that sin. Jesus knew that it was necessary for his followers to mourn as a part of maintaining compassion, both for themselves and for others. It was the only way that mercy could be received, because the alternative was a lukewarmness that was indifferent to the need for mercy. As with the first beatitude so too here we see Jesus himself was demonstrating the principle in his own life.
When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled. And he said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.” Jesus wept. (see John 11:33-35).
Blessed are the meek,
for they will inherit the land.
It did not seem to people in Jesus' day that the meek would inherit the land. It seemed rather that it would be the prerogative of the strong to do so. The Romans did in fact seem to have all but inherited the land in virtue of their strength. Many expected that the Messiah would restore the promised land to Israel in virtue of a strength that was greater still. But it was rather by his weakness that Jesus would open the promised land to his disciples. As God he was in fact so infinitely strong that he had no need to compete with the world on its own terms. Even his weakness was stronger than the strength of men.
For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men (see First Corinthians 1:25).
Meekness has been defined as "strength under control". It is not meant to be the posture of doormat that has no role in the world but to be dormant, inactive, and trampled. It is rather an active role that nevertheless does not rely upon force, upon any strength stemming from the self, but rather relies on God in the absence of self-sufficiency.
Rather, God chose the foolish of the world to shame the wise,
and God chose the weak of the world to shame the strong,
and God chose the lowly and despised of the world,
those who count for nothing,
to reduce to nothing those who are something,
so that no human being might boast before God.
Jesus knew that meekness was an important prerequisite for those "who hunger and thirst for righteousness". That level of discontent with the lack of righteousness in the world would be dangerous for anyone seeking to bring it about by human strength. But Jesus did ask his followers to experience the privation of righteousness in a visceral way. In a sense, he was saying it was more important than mere food and drink. But what, finally, was righteousness? It was not simply everyone in the world acting in a morally upright way. If there was to be that sort of righteousness it could only be a subset of individual righteousness before God. And that was something which could not be obtained for oneself by oneself alone. It could only come as a gift, "not a result of works, so that no one may boast" (see Ephesians 2:9). Again, we see Jesus was the exemplar of each beatitude he taught, prioritizing that which was fitting to "fulfil all righteousness" (see Matthew 3:15) above even food and drink.
My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work (see John 4:34).
Those who did not allow themselves to become lukewarm were the ones who would know the need of the world for mercy, and their own need especially. Jesus taught, paradoxically, that the mercy they now recognized they needed was could only be obtained by those willingness to show mercy. Only those willing to become a conduit for the divine mercy could truly experience it themselves. One who could receive the master's mercy and yet not show that same mercy to others had not truly allow mercy to run its course in his heart (see Matthew 18:23-35).
Blessed are the clean of heart,
for they will see God.
The clean of heart are those who ultimately see God because they desire it above all else. The heart is like a lens that is meant to be transparent to the light of God. But so much can accumulate on that lens as the render it almost completely opaque. The first layer of grime that must be removed is that of sin, but that is not the only layer that accumulates. We must next learn to free ourselves of that which is vain, desires which promise ultimate happiness that they cannot ultimately deliver. All of this is meant to train our hearts to desire that which alone can satisfy us. But this training is emphatically not something that we can control. On our own we will likely find our desires to be wild and untamable. We need the fire of the Spirit to burn away the worldly accumulation and to burn himself within us enabling us to desire, if we may put it this way, with his own desire.
Who shall ascend the hill of the LORD?
And who shall stand in his holy place?
He who has clean hands and a pure heart,
who does not lift up his soul to what is false
and does not swear deceitfully (see Psalm 24:3-4).
Jesus called peacemakers blessed. But he did not chiefly mean those who surrendered, or even those who worked for a political peace, but rather those who genuinely worked to establish understanding and overcome division, between individuals a nations, yes, but also and especially between individuals and God. For it was this sort of peace, peace that the world could not give (see John 14:27), that was of the greatest concern for Jesus himself. Only being rooted in the peace of Jesus in their hearts would allow them to bring anything resembling peace into the world.
Blessed are they who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
The world is fundamentally unequipped to understand the way of righteousness or the path to the Kingdom. If the world was to express its beatitudes they would be almost a complete inversion of those given by Jesus. But since Jesus was the exemplar of the beatitudes he taught, since they were expressions of his own deepest heart, it was therefore Jesus himself who was the most misunderstood and maligned by the world. If we must too are asked to suffer for the sake of making the kingdom of heaven more of a reality in ourselves and in the world we can take comfort in knowing that we do not suffer merely for the sake of abstractions. We are in fact embracing Jesus himself, and by our union with him, allowing him to live out his life again through us. We can therefore take comfort in the midst of our afflictions, for they can all be united and shared with with Jesus himself. And when they are thus united they lead inexorably to the resurrection. We should add that this is not a promise only for the future life, but something which we can even now experience by faith. Hence the present tense of the promise, "theirs is the kingdom of heaven". The fullness, however, is yet to come.
Rejoice and be glad,
for your reward will be great in heaven."
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