The Mountain of the Beatitudes

Jesus and His disciples moved around a lot. They walked from one village to another and from one city to another, throughout the whole country. Jesus taught in the meeting place telling them the good news about God’s love. He healed all the sick people who came to Him with many different diseases.

Jesus wanted to bring the people into fellowship with His heavenly Father. Many gathered to meet Jesus. They came from different directions to listen to Jesus and to be healed. They followed Him wherever He went.

Why did Jesus travel from one place to another?

When Jesus saw the crowds following Him, eager to hear His words, He climbed to the top of a hill and sat down there so that all could see and hear Him. Jesus’ twelve disciples gathered around Him too. Jesus looked into their faces and began to tell them about the secret of real happiness: Blessed are the poor in spirit (humble), for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

God will bless everybody and will show the way to Himself if we surrender our pride and confess our weakness in the spiritual life and walk humbly on the way with Him. Humble yourself before God, then you will find the heart of God open to you.

Who are the first whom Jesus called happy?

Then Jesus continued, saying, Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.

Sadness and distress were on the faces of some listeners. They had lost their joy and hope in life. Then Jesus said to them, Blessed are you! There is still hope for you!

Yes, how blessed they were, because Jesus was in their midst. God Himself wanted to comfort them. He is the real comforter. With such a faith they were strengthened and encouraged to bear their distress patiently, looking at their Lord.

What encourages us to bear our sorrows?

The crowd listened carefully to the words of Jesus as He said, Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.

Perhaps one of the listeners thought that the opposite is true; those who are powerful and have many possessions rule the world. Maybe it seems to be this way, but such people are not happy because God’s peace does not rest in their hearts. Their descendants are not secure. At the end of the world it will be clear that the meek alone shall inherit the earth. Jesus is the proof of it; because He is truly meek.

How does a meek person live?

Jesus explained to His listeners step by step how a person can become really happy. He said, Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

Most people live with a bad conscience. They hide their sin, but in the depth of their hearts lives a hunger for righteousness and a thirst for forgiveness. Anyone who comes to Jesus and confesses his sins to Him will receive forgiveness and purification freely. God’s eternal peace will fill his heart.

How can we be justified and receive peace in our heart?

Jesus continued, saying, Blessed are the merciful, for they will find mercy.

All those who have experienced the forgiveness of their sins by God’s mercy are guided to forgive their enemies too. Jesus, the Compassionate One, will take away your hard heart and replace it with a heart of mercy if you ask Him to. He gives you power to overcome yourself so that you will be merciful with everybody.

Who represents mercy on the earth?

After this Jesus spoke to them about an exciting subject: Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.

Do you want to see God your Father in heaven? How does your heart look? Is it pure and clean?

Let us ask God to purify our hearts and to make our thoughts holy so that nothing may separate us from Him and that we can see God with our eyes in His glory in the near future.

Who will see God?

Whom does Jesus describe as being happy too? He said, Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God.

Our daily life is joyful when God’s peace fills and dwells in our hearts; when His peace reigns in our family; when it forms our relations with our neighbours; and when it prevails all over the country.

Let us seriously think and try to find ways of reconciling people where they hate and kill one another. Our God is full of peace. Jesus is the Lord of peace. If His spirit of peace fills our heart then we are sons of God.

Does peace dwell where you live? If not, what should you do?

Jesus also told His listeners that those who try to spread peace among their friends and neighbours often face hardships. Therefore, Jesus said, Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

If anyone hates us, we should first ask ourselves about the reason for it. Am I guilty because I behaved or spoke without wisdom? If it is so, then go and ask for forgiveness, so that peace will be restored.

But if you are persecuted because you are doing the will of God or if you tried to glorify Jesus by your words and good deeds, then you should remain happy in spirit in the midst of the persecution because God is with you.

How should I behave if I am persecuted?

Jesus comforted the persecuted a second time telling them: Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

Do you feel like me? We don’t rejoice when others insult us, mock us or call us liars because we love Jesus and follow Him.

If we face such difficulties we should remember that this kind of difficulty will end. Finally, we will live with God our heavenly Father forever. He is the reason for our joy and gladness. You may read that the apostle Paul was captured, stoned, beaten and often insulted because he was faithful to Christ. But in spite of all these trials he comforted the believers saying: Rejoice in the Lord always; and again I say, Rejoice!

Why do we have the right to rejoice in spite of our difficulties?

After the ninth beatitude, Jesus continued His sermon to His disciples and to all the people. If you have the New Testament you can read all His words in Matthew chapter five.

We would like to discuss two more points which Jesus mentioned in His sermon on the mount. He called His disciples and said, You are the salt of the earth. This means that we should act the way salt works. If you put some grains of salt on the food it will become delicious. Without salt, food will not taste good. Jesus wants us to be influential in our society. Just as salt affects food, so our words, deeds and all our behaviour should affect our friends and neighbours.

How does salt affect food?

Did you know that salt has a wonderful capacity to lift things? Try the following experiment: Take a cup full of water and put an egg in it. Then you will see that the egg sinks to the bottom of the cup. After that, put salt in the water. When the salt dissolves, the egg floats up to the surface. From this experiment you can see that salt has the ability to lift and keep things up. This explains the words of Jesus that any believer who is filled with God’s love is able to bear others up and to lift them up to God through prayer, faith and by being and example with kind behaviour.

How should we behave and serve others as the salt of the earth?

Jesus summarized the beatitudes in the challenging sentence: You are the light of the world.

Jesus asks us to light up our surroundings with rays of His love and truth. May the light of Christ shine through every believer in our dark world. God has appointed everyone to shine in his place.

But first we must personally receive the light of Jesus. He knows how much you love Him and He is ready to strengthen you when you spend time in prayer and reading His gospel.

Are you a shining light for Christ in the place God has chosen for you? Jesus calls you to step forward in the midst of the darkness that His light may overcome sin and hatred. Blessed is the person who lights up his dark surroundings, shining in the place which God has chosen for him.

Are you a light in your surroundings? How?

Test yourself

Fill in the blanks with the suitable words said by Jesus from the beatitudes: