One day, early in their life together, Jesus sat down with his followers to tell them about his hopes and expectations for them. Not long before, each of them had made a monumental decision to walk away from what they were doing to join up with him; They walked away from the old meaning of their lives—as fisherman, tax collectors, tradespeople.
He took them away from the crowds that had begun to gather wherever he went, up on a hillside, and sat down, as a rabbi sits with his students, and teach them something about the meaning of their lives, what they were for, and beyond and beneath that, God’s own agenda for the world, God’s hopes and dreams and expectations for them and for all God’s children.
He began, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven Blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted Blessed are the meek, . . . those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, . . . the pure in heart, . . . the peacemakers, . . . the persecuted.
The Beatitudes: we’re not sure what to do with them, are we?. Theologian Charles James Cook says he is “struck by their poetic beauty and overwhelmed by their impracticability in our world” (Feasting on the Word, Year A, vol. 1, p. Reinhold Niebuhr called them an “Impossible Possibility.”
It seems like The Beatitudes just don’t fit with the real world we live into and yet it is striking reminder that we have one life to live, and it is a matter of supreme importance for each of us to have some sense of what we are for, to set our hopes and expectations high, and then give ourselves to them.
Dr. Willy L Mafuta, Ph.D, Th.D
Senior Pastor,
Hopewell United Methodist Church, Hopewell, NJ 08525