Blessing

We talk a lot about blessing.  “God bless you!”  “Have a blessed day!”  “I’m blessed!”  While we might all have our own definition of what “blessed” looks like, I think most of us see it in terms of general happiness and contentment in life.

We are not so crass as to see it simply in financial terms, through undoubtedly, that plays a part.  We may think about health, good family relationships, job satisfaction, etc.  For some, the state of our spiritual life would also rank high in a blessed life.

But what does the Bible mean by blessed?  On Sunday we will read Luke’s version of “the beatitudes”.   Click here to read it.

Luke’s telling is a bit different than Matthew’s, which is the more popular.  No doubt, Jesus talked about these things many times with different emphases and details, so we should not be troubled by the differences, but rather see an opportunity for a fuller understanding of Jesus’ meaning.

Luke’s version is more stark and challenging.  Where Matthew begins “Blessed are the poor in spirit . . .”, Luke just has “Blessed are you who are poor . . .”  While we can get our heads around humility as a good, even a blessed thing, most of us have a hard time seeing that being poor might be a good thing.  And that kind of challenge continues through the rest of the “Blessed…” sayings.

The upshot is that Jesus had a very different understanding of what brings blessing than we do.  And it is difficult to get our minds around.  Even in my clergy Bible study, we kept defaulting back to very human, comforts of this world as our understanding of blessing.

So what is blessing in the Biblical worldview and how do we get there?  Of course, that is a lifetime journey, but we can begin today.  More on Sunday!

Where might Jesus see blessing in your life where you do not?

This column appeared in the February 13, 2022 edition of St. John’s eNews. Click here for the complete issue.

If you are reading this at a different time, you may click here for the current eNews.