9 Ways to Be Happy According to Jesus (Part 1)

The Sermon on the Mount is the greatest sermon ever given and it may be said it is the Christian equivalent to the giving of the law in the OT. In it is the keys to the Christian life. Though spoken to a crowd of people a very long time ago, it is a message given to those who will follow Jesus. I believe it is safe to say that the other letters of the Bible in which we are instructed by are extensions of its truth. Our lives must be built on a continual study of the words of Jesus as given in this great sermon. No one study can suffice in mining all of the gold within its words. As I write this I am overwhelmed with any idea that I could properly give it its due. There are some salient messages though that I would like to share.

Jesus gave us nine statements right off the bat. We call them the Beatitudes.

Matthew 5:3-11
 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.  “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.  “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.  “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.  “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.  “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.  “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.  “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.  “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.

In this we see that there are nine things that the blessed will be. But what did Jesus mean when He called them the “Blessed?” What Jesus was talking about in the using of that word would have meant this to the people of that day; “divine joy and perfect happiness.” To those present that day, the word didn’t really speak of a happiness humans would know, it spoke more of a word for something much more ethereal in nature. We might say it was a heavenly feeling or emotion. It implies a joy that does not require outward circumstances to be even considered. I would suggest it is what every human heart longs for and the lack of it is why we look to drugs, alcohol, sex, or whatever it is in life we pursue in the quest for happiness. So in these nine blessings, lies the secret to life.

So let us dig in and see what these things are in particular.

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

On the surface this sounds strange. Substitute the word happy there and you get “Happy are the poor in Spirit.” How does that work?

The poor in spirit are those who have recognized that he is powerless in this life to even approach the idea of finding happiness in self or in the things of the world. But it goes past that. It also speaks of those who see that they have no value in terms of self-righteousness and thus are unable to approach God because of their own sinful nature. The poor in spirit are happy because without a repentant heart they cannot see the kingdom of heaven, with repentance comes hope. This is the first step towards salvation. The poor in spirit will receive the free gift of salvation, which comes with entry into the kingdom.

“Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.”

Once again this seems backwards. How do those who mourn find happiness?

Typically people interpret this as if to say, “Oh good. The sadness I feel because my loved one died will be taken care of.” Well, yes Jesus does bring us comfort in times of mourning, but that’s not what this means. It is an extension of being poor in spirit. Those who know the depths of their own sinfulness and repent begin to see who God is and just how Holy God is. When we start to really love God we begin to find our sin a terrible affront to His holiness and thus we mourn over our sin. If you have never broken down and wept over your sin then it sounds as if you have yet to grow deeper in your relationship to Christ. The better you know Christ the more you will see your own sinfulness. The better you know Christ the more you will see the true value of salvation. We must be a people that agonize over our sins and to never be content with victory over one sin, while others remain in us, until the day Christ completes us in Him. We must recognize the truth as we read it in Jeremiah 17:9, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?” When we finally break down and fall before Christ with this type of confession we will be comforted because then we can know the true value of salvation.

“Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.”

Ah, meekness. This term is most often misunderstood. Usually we replace the term “weak” for “meek” and this is just not accurate. To the Greeks the word used here described a horse that had been broken. Most of us have never been around a wild horse so maybe we don’t understand the danger of an animal so powerful. But there is nothing wrong with power and strength as long as it is under control. An unbroken horse serves no good purpose to us, but a horse that is finally broken can be used to do great things. This is what it means to be meek. Obviously Jesus was a meek man. Jesus was anything but weak though. He possessed the power of life in His hands, yet to fulfill the Father’s will in His earthly ministry, He allowed Himself to be bent to the will of God. Humility is the trait here and it is the greatest virtue we can seek for to attain it makes us the most like Jesus. Philippians 2:5-8 explains how this looks. “Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.  And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”

So here are three traits we can seek in our lives as we seek to find happiness. Next time we will look at the next three in this great sermon. Until then it might be good to open up your Bible to Matthew 5 and talk to God about these beatitudes and ask Him to empower us through His Spirit to live these out.