Introduction to the Beatitudes

http://biblehub.com/parallelgospels/The_Sermon_on_the_Mount.htm

Today’s post is going to be a little different.  As I meditated on the portion of Scripture we call the “Beatitudes”, I kept going back and forth as to how to handle this iconic passage.  To be honest, I spent so much time just thinking through the structure of the passage and comparing both Matthew’s and Luke’s version of this part of the message; by the time I came to a decision on how to handle this my time for writing was just about gone. 

My first inclination was to write about each one of the beatitudes dedicating a day to each of them.  However, I decided against that because I felt like it would turn into a topical approach and I didn’t want to dig so deep into each area that the overall structure of the text became invisible. 

My next inclination was to Look at the entire passage from both Matthew’s and Luke’s perspective.  The outline would have been something like: HOW WE SHOULD BE, WHY WE SHOULD BE, WHO WE SHOULD NOT BE.  I decided against this option because there is just too much to write about in one day and I didn’t want to just skim over the surface of the text and miss the profound teaching Jesus gave.

Then I noticed that while Matthew talks about nine “beatitudes” Luke only mentions four so I began to look to see if Luke was summarizing the list into general categories.  It seems that the first area Luke mentions is a summary of the first three phrases in Matthew that all center around humility.  The second area Luke mentions seems to describe the second three phrases in Matthew that center more on our character.  The last two areas Luke mentions seem to coincide with the final three phrases in Matthew that focus on persecution.  I almost decide to cover all the “beatitudes” in one post with an outline something like: THE HUMBLE, THE HOLY, THE HURTING.  But once again it just seemed like too much to tackle in one post and would end up being too superficial.

I finally decided to spend one day on each of the three categories above so my next post will be all about the three sides of humility Matthew portrays then we will look at being holy and then look at hurting.  The next day will be about the rewards associated with “being” who Jesus teaches about and then we will wrap up this section with a post about the warnings Luke gives at the end.  I hope this strikes a proper balance.  I decided to write about my process in looking at the passage because I thought it would be helpful to see the overall structure of the text.

Beatitudes are instructions from God as to how we should “be” in order to “be” happy or spiritually prosperous.  People all over the world are pursuing that elusive goal of being happy.  The problem is that they are looking in all the wrong places and in all the wrong ways.  Jesus gives us a road map to happiness in this text.   As we read through the list we find statement after statement that take us by surprise because they go against the natural way that we think.  My prayer is that our journey over the next five days will lead us to “being” more like Jesus.