Matthew 5 - The Beatitudes
Matthew 5 - The Beatitudes
How to be like God
In the Beatitudes, we meet “Jesus the Rabbi.”
It is here that many people begin to lose focus. They like the Jesus of power and miracles but get bored or frustrated by Jesus the Teacher.
Jesus’ first temptation was to turn stone to bread and use his power to satisfy himself, and he refused.
However, how often do we succumb to the temptation to make Jesus our bread-king, to chase the bread of miracles for our satisfaction, and to miss establishing our sustenance upon the words of his relationship?
I have seen it in many who move from place to place - church to church - for the miracle-bread handouts because when the bread moves, they find themselves left to consider true reliance on their relationship with God. And they find the relationship lacking when the bread is gone.
I am guilty of being one who, for a time, turned Jesus into my own bread-king.
The miracles are great when they come and catch our attention, but as we come to the Beatitudes, Jesus says, “Now that I have your attention, let me show you the way of life.”
Remember:
In Matthew 4:16, we have just been introduced to the people living in darkness - under the shadow of death - and now Jesus has come with light and will show them the way out.
Hint: It isn’t just following him around and watching his miracles…
The Greek word we translate “blessed” here is related to the “state of the gods.”
We can miss this, especially when we translate the Beatitudes, as some Bibles do: “Happy are the…” This is because being blessed here does not relate to an emotion. It does no good to be in the dark shadow of death and simply feel happy while still lost in the dark and as good as dead. The word “blessed” here refers to a change in our literal state of being.
The Beatitudes are how we change our state of existence from hostages of darkness and death to connecting with God to be like him - existing in light and life, as we join to the source of light and life.
Therefore, as the Greek we translate “blessed” calls to mind what the gods are like - living immortal lives above the squabbles and dramas of those held captive to darkness and death - we can begin to read the Beatitudes as:
“Like God are the poor in spirit…”
We are meant to be imagers of God; we are to be like him, and Jesus opens his ministry with how we do that.
It is to Jesus’ guidance on how to be like God that we will turn in the next post as we go through the Beatitudes…