email : Webview : Duane Brooks - Every Day with Jesus

August 21, 2019

Matthew 5:1-3
Now when Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, and he began to teach them.
He said:
“Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."
New International Version (NIV)

            Who is really happy? Our intuition is that successful people who have everything they want are the people who are really happy. This narrative is not new. But our experience of life may call us to question that thought. Lottery winners and people who inherit huge sums of money should certainly be the happiest people around. The evidence refutes this idea. Some of the happiest people I have ever met had almost no material wealth at all. Some of the least happy people I know are those who trusted in their wealth instead of in Christ.

            Jesus saw a crowd, sat down on a hillside and started to teach. “Blessed are . . .” he said nine times. The word means “Oh how happy are . . .” We know what we think he is going to say. Then he says the opposite. Happy are the poor in spirit, those who mourn, the meek, the hungry and thirsty for righteousness . . .” Was it Paul Simon who wrote and sang, “Blessed are the sat upon, spat upon, ratted on . . .” How can Jesus say that these people will be the happy ones? The answer is in what they receive: the kingdom of heaven, a place of comfort, the earth, and satisfaction.

            It turns out that Jesus’ Kingdom is an upside down Kingdom as Robert Kraybill calls it. Jesus’ preaching flipped the world upside down, or should we say, right-side up. The capsized Titanic world Jesus entered clearly needed help. Jesus began to set things right. Obviously there is more to come. So much in our world is not the way it should be. But in his people, the church, Jesus has started to make things right. Our happiness is in Christ. As we listen to his words afresh today we remember that things are not as they appear or as we might have assumed. Who is really happy? Happy are those who know we are His!

Pray with me:

Gracious Father, teach us what it means to belong to you. Show us our selves. Show us our Savior. Teach us as we sit at your feet today. Let us listen as the first disciples did. Let us live the way our Savior lived. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

This year our Every Day with Jesus readings will follow The Bible Project Read Scripture Plan. Copies of this reading plan are available at Tallowood Baptist Church, or download
the app at readscripture.org. Read through the Bible with us in 2019!
Joyfully,
Duane

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