Are You Blessed?

   Jesus had been preaching for some weeks in Galilee. His fame had spread throughout the land. People were gathering in ever increasing numbers to hear Him speak. And then came a day when, with a large audience around Him, that He took a seat on a mountainside and began to teach them. Every eye was on Him; everyone leaned forward to hear what He would say. And when He opened His mouth, the first word from His lips was “Blessed!”

Blessedness would be the subject of Jesus’ sermon that day. It was an appropriate subject, because every one there wanted to known how to be blessed; every one there longed for it. And Jesus would tell them; He would show them in what true blessedness consists. The word Jesus used was the same word Paul used of God when he wrote about “the glorious gospel of the blessed God” (1 Tim. 1.11). God is the innately blessed One, and He is willing to share His blessedness with us according to our capacity to receive it. (To be blessed, we have to be blessable.) You probably know that in some translations of the Bible, instead of blessed it says happy. There is nothing people want more in this life than happiness, but the world has always despaired over its inability to find lasting happiness.

Among the ancients, Solon, one of the legendary “Seven Wise Men of Greece,” said that “no mortal man is truly blessed.” Philosophers looked at life and concluded it was best not to be born, or if born, to die as soon as possible. The pagans were extremely pessimistic about the possibility of blessedness/happiness. When they tried to define what constituted happiness, they talked about the euphoria that came from some victory or triumph, from receiving a gift, from health, wealth, or youth, from work, etc.

The common thread in all their notions of what constituted happiness is that it depends on circumstances, happenings, chance. Christ, however, taught that blessing/happiness is dependent on character. As such, true happiness is superior to all circumstances. It’s not accidental or incidental but essential and assured. It abides within. Worldly happiness comes and goes, but kingdom blessing can be a permanent part of one’s personality.

Kenny Chumbley