“Blessed”

“Blessed….” (Matthew 5:3)

Corn bread, collard greens, and black-eyed peas – these are the Southern staples for a blessed year. Each of us want to begin the year “blessed and highly favored.” But what does it mean to be blessed? We say “bless you” and “bless his heart,” but these are only pleasantries that pepper sickness and scandals. Surely, blessings are far more than these earthly things. When Jesus says “blessed,” what does he mean? Blessings on earth are dividends paid from heaven’s store. As Caleb and Joshua tasted a bunch of grapes before actually possessing the Promised Land, so too Christians taste future joys in present blessings. The blessings of heaven to come work backwards into our present moments, transforming even the trying and trivial into moments of exceeding joy. Blessed in mourning and in meekness, blessed in hunger and in harm – this is heaven’s upside-down economy at work. To be blessed is not to be found in the absence of trials; blessedness is the presence of Christ in the midst of them. Only the coming blessing of heaven can make such present suffering profitable, for in them Christ prepares us for an eternal weight of glory.

If we are to be “blessed and highly favored,” blessings will not be found here below. Riches will leave us like the morning frost, wine will waste away the better part of our years, and this world itself is passing away. The first lesson of the Sermon on the Mount is that blessedness can only be found in Him who has come down from heaven. When all things on earth recede, Christ remains forever. He makes us most blessed forever, for He makes us glad with the joy of His presence. Instead of corn bread, collard greens, black-eyed peas, how about we replace those with “the word of Christ dwelling in us richly,” with “psalms and hymns and spiritual songs,” and with “thankfulness in our hearts to God”? Like these first disciples, let us come near the mount, and let the Most High teach us how to live as the most blessed.