Mt 5:1-12
What God wants: Matthew begins the Sermon on the Mount with nine beatitudes. A beatitude is a declaration of what is happening and what will happen. Each beatitude begins with the word “blessed,” meaning happy or sharing in a characteristic of God.
What God wants: Matthew begins the Sermon on the Mount with nine beatitudes. A beatitude is a declaration of what is happening and what will happen. Each beatitude begins with the word “blessed,” meaning happy or sharing in a characteristic of God.
Each beatitude has an inherent contradiction; happiness is contrasted to the state of the person described. Those persons who hunger and thirst for righteousness are declared to be happy now; they are usually unhappy!
Matthew declares that those who are persecuted for doing God’s will are happy now; they are usually not happy!
Matthew is employing hyperbolic language in order to get his point across. The person who desires what is right, like one hungers for food and thirsts for water, is happy and is behaving as God wants. Likewise, the person who endures persecution for the sake of what is right is happy; he or she is also doing what God wants. In the future, their hunger and thirst for righteousness will be satisfied.