The Beatitudes: What it takes to be happy

One of the most beloved passages in the entire Bible is called the Sermon on the Mount. It is found in chapters five through seven of the Matthew gospel. At the beginning of the passage is found a group of sayings that constitute the Jesus formula for happiness. We call them the beatitudes.

Each saying begins with the words “blessed are.” The word “blessed” is not an adequate translation of the Greek text, but neither is any other word. Some translations say “happy are,” but that is an inadequate translation as well. If we could find a word that included happy, contented, fulfilled, complete, whole and healthy we would be coming close to the idea behind the sayings.

Imagine ideal life, the way things should be for maximum fulfillment, and we are on the right track. That is what makes the first saying difficult; “Blessed are the poor.”

This saying cuts across the grain of our human experience. Who wants to be poor? There is little doubt that Jesus’ primary audience was made up of the rural poor. Further, much of his teaching touched on issues of wealth and poverty. Jesus never had much hope for rich people. Jesus was the friend of the poor. It was with poor folk that he found hope.

When the crowds of poor people heard this saying, what did they hear? What did they understand?

Was Jesus suggesting that the world would be happier if everyone were poor? I don’t think so. The truly good life is not found in abject poverty. The realities of poverty are poor health, short lifespan, hunger and disease. The image of God’s kingdom in the teachings of Jesus was a banquet table, not a soup kitchen on skid row. Godliness is not found in starvation.

Jesus was, in fact, bringing a message that most of us do not want to hear. Jesus taught that a person’s wellbeing and happiness are not bound up in what he has. A person cannot serve both God and wealth. If one pursues wealth, disillusionment is sure to follow.

I am sure the rural poor to whom Jesus spoke so often were prone to cast an envious eye at the wealth found in the city of Sepphoris to the north and of Caesarea to the east. The wealth of these cities was seductive. Jesus was constantly telling his followers not to take the bait!

Jesus offered an alternative — renounce attachment to wealth and follow him. This is the truest meaning of being poor. The poverty Jesus endorsed is a different kind of poverty because it is chosen. It is not due to victimization or bad fortune. It is a poverty that is chosen because of commitments to God and to neighbor.

George Gershwin captured some of the Jesus dynamic in his song from the play “Porgy and Bess,” “I Got Plenty of Nothing.”

“I got plenty of nothing

“And nothing’s plenty for me.

“I got no car, got no mule

“I got no misery.

“The folks with plenty of plenty,

“They’ve got a lock on the door.

“Afraid somebody’s gonna rob ‘em

“While they’re out a making more — what for?

“I got no lock on the door, that’s no way to be

“They can steal the rug from the floor that’s OK with me

“’Cause the things that I prize, like the stars in the skies, are all free.”

In America today there is no more dangerous dynamic than our attachment to wealth. Still, we also seem to be a very religious people. We want our wealth and the blessings, happiness, fulfillment and wholeness of Jesus at the same time. In the Jesus way of understanding, the complete life never comes out of wealth. The complete life comes out of a deliberately chosen poverty.

Blessed are the poor.

The Rev. Howard Bess is pastor of Church of the Covenant, an American Baptist church in Palmer. Contact him at hdbss@mtaonline.net.