One day as he saw the crowds gathering, Jesus went up on the mountainside and sat down. His disciples gathered around him, and he began to teach them.

 “God blesses those who are poor and realize their need for him,
    for the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs…” – Matthew 5:1-3

This morning in our men’s Bible study we talked about The Beatitudes, right there at the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount.

Having finished our lightening tour of the Old Testament we are now looking at the New. We started a few weeks ago with John the Baptist’s father, Zechariah, jumped ahead to Jesus as a 12-year-old asking questions at the temple, looked at his baptism, then discussed the day he was almost thrown off the precipice after speaking at his home synagogue in Nazareth.

Today we looked at how Jesus lay out his core message and the essentials of why he was there, as he looked around at the crowd and said “This word is for you…”

One of the worst ways to look at these passages is as transactional, as if things like being persecuted or learning how to be “poor in spirit” or “meek” or “pure in heart” will trigger the commensurate blessings. Kind of how the Crystal Cathedral preacher suggested when he called them the “Be Happy Attitudes.”

Instead, or at least this is how we discussed them today, I believe Jesus looked around at the people and he described who he saw there. He saw the poor, the grieving, the downtrodden, the spiritually impoverished.

Jesus looks out and he says “God loves you. I love you. Your religion tells you God only blesses people who follow the law to the letter… but I tell you that You Are The Blessed. You are going to be filled, and comforted, and inherit the kingdom, you are the children of God…”

So I look around the room at the men who show up so faithfully, and I ask “what burdens are you carrying today?” Stress, disappointment, pain, grief, doubt, overwhelm… other evidences that we are alive in America in 2025….

“Well, Jesus loves you; I love you (and I spoke a sampling of the following names – Brookes, Bennett, Bill, Charlie, David, Edward, Harry, Ivey, Jerome, Jerry, John, John Keck, Johnnie, Lance, Leo, Monty, Rusty, Sam, Scott, Steve, Tom, William, Jim, John W., Wayne, both Billys, Chauncey, Lewis, Bryan, Garland, Weeks….).”

Jesus, sitting there on the hillside, he takes in the crowd and he names their burdens and their circumstances and he says, “You are the blessed ones.”

This is it. Unconditional. Jesus launches his ministry and he makes it clear that it is not via strict law-keeping these people will experience God’s blessings, it is because they are loved by God.

This morning we also talked a little about how we communicate this good news. Do we say:

• “Listen you miserable sinners; if you want to experience God’s blessing you need to do x, y and z.”?
• Or do we take a cue from Jesus and say, “Let me get to know who you are and what burdens you are carrying; because this is exactly where God meets us. You are the blessed ones. We want to invite you into that love.”

The Jesus way is radical, it is inclusive and it is invitational.

Once we recognize who we are as God’s loved children, then we undoubtedly begin to grow in response to being filled with light and love and renewed in grace day by day.

We are The Blessed Ones; it is us! – DEREK