The Beatitudes: Jesus’ Teaching for Human Flourishing

One of my grandchildren had a move when he was little that still makes me laugh.

If he didn’t like something or if things weren’t going his way, he would squinch up his little eyes and just stare at you. Hard. We started calling it his “angry eyes.” He was not happy, and he wanted you to know it.

Bless his heart.

Here’s the thing, though. We’re not so different, are we? When life isn’t going our way, most of us have our own version of angry eyes. Maybe we don’t squinch up our faces, but something in us tightens up when happiness slips out of our hands.

And it does slip. That’s the nature of happiness.

The sun is out, and it’s going to be a glorious day. But wait, it’s 95 degrees, and the air conditioning is making a funny noise. Just like that, happy is gone. Happiness chases circumstances, and circumstances never hold still.

But Jesus didn’t come to give us happiness. He came to offer us something that doesn’t move.

As we settle into Matthew 5, the crowd has gathered on that hillside. His disciples are close. But others have come too, from all different places, each one carrying something. Some wanted more of Jesus. Some just wanted somebody to get rid of the Romans. All of them came with their own version of angry eyes, pointed at a life that wasn’t what they’d hoped for.

Does this description resemble someone you are acquainted with?

Jesus begins each Beatitude with a word we throw around quite casually these days. I see it on t-shirts. On farmhouse signs. I even write it at the bottom of my cards.

Blessed.

But what does it mean?

The Greek word used here is Makarios. It means to prosper, be fortunate, and flourish. Some theologians describe it as the state of a person who is truly thriving in the Kingdom of God. Not just getting by. Not just surviving another Tuesday. Thriving.

Now you might be sitting there thinking what I was thinking when I first dug into this. Kathy, what does any of this have to do with joy?

Glad you asked.

The Greek word for joy is Chara. Got Questions describes it as the natural response to God’s work, whether promised or fulfilled. True joy, the kind that holds steady when happiness has packed its bags, is only found in fellowship with God. That’s what makes it complete. That’s what makes it different from every other good feeling we chase.

So, here’s where we are. Makarios is the state of flourishing in God’s Kingdom. Chara is the joy that flows from walking with God himself. Put them together, and you start to see what Jesus was doing on that hillside.

He wasn’t handing out a self-help plan. He was showing a worn-out, beaten-down, Roman-oppressed crowd how to truly flourish. How to find the kind of joy that circumstances cannot touch.

And just like those people sitting on that hillside, we are about to have our world turned a little upside down.

Because Jesus starts this lesson in the most unexpected place imaginable.