The Beatitudes of Man—Matt 5:1-12

Russ Ramsey

How significant is the conflict between Jesus’ Beatitudes and what would be the Beatitudes of Men, if we were to pursue autonomy as the goal?

Happy are the rich, for they create large kingdoms for themselves.
Happy are the happy go lucky, for they have no need of comfort from grief.
Happy are the strong and brash, for they can possess the kingdoms the weak are unable to defend or afford.
Happy are the full ones—for they need nothing they do not already possess for themselves.
Happy are independent self-made people, for they do not need to tangle with the messes of others.
Happy are those who attain their own ends by doing whatever it takes regardless of ethics, for this is how the rest of the world will be forced to see them in their glory.
Happy are those who mind their own business, for they will be called harmless.
Happy are those who are secure and popular, for they will escape insult and persecution.

Let us be careful not to draw an “Us Vs. Them” conclusion about these two sets of Beatitudes, because every one of us struggles with the temptation to embrace the Beatitudes of Man. We forget we were made for another Kingdom. We don’t want to appear weak. But weakness is given so that the strength of Christ made be made perfect (2 Cor. 12:7-10).

The contradiction the soldiers and everyone else who witnessed Jesus’ death were seeing was how the Messiah—the king of God’s People, could be so easily overpowered. This is the thinking of this world. He was mocked, “If you are King, save yourself!!!” Was it a tragic failure that they took Jesus’ life from Him? Jesus told his disciples, and he tells us, “I lay down my life only to take it up again. No one takes my life from me, but I lay it down of my own accord.” (Jn 10:17-18) Jesus came to usher in a new Kingdom—born in a manger making a bee-line to the cross so that we might inherit what we cannot take for ourselves—the Kingdom of God! It was by the strength of Jesus that kept Him from “saving Himself” that we are made strong in Him.