We read the Beatitudes without considering their context. We would enhance their meaning, however, if we kept them in the flow of the Gospel. Jesus’s public ministry had just begun. Matthew offered us scenes from his adult life prior to the ministry. John baptized him and the devil tempted him. And he called his first disciples, Peter, Andrew, James, and John. The call to discipleship influences these promises.
To communicate his reading of the times, Matthew also gave us an ominous record of the Lord’s infancy. The magi (foreigners, pagans) arrived in Jerusalem, upsetting the king and all of Jerusalem. The king plotted to kill Jesus. The magi completed their trip, paying homage to Jesus. For fear of Herod, Joseph fled with his family to Egypt. The king had all male children under two around Bethlehem massacred.
To continue his preparation of future disciples, Matthew also told us that Jesus began his ministry right after John was arrested.
Troubling times, indeed. Jesus responded to his times with acts of compassion and healing (4:23-25). He does his messianic work even before preaching the way into God’s kingdom. In this context, the Beatitudes are much more than food for piety. They raise the essential question: How does a Christian live in this world? How does a Christian respond to the times? Please re-read the nine propositions as the Christian response to a troubled world.
Note the tenses of each of the nine. Seven of the nine are future tense. The Beatitudes are eschatological; they are about the end time, the time of fulfillment, the completion of God’s kingdom. Adding complexity, two of the nine are present tense. God is always and everywhere; so, God’s kingdom is always and everywhere. Matthew emphasizes this point. John the Baptist preached that the kingdom is at hand (4:2). Jesus repeated the good news (4:17). Later the disciples teach it (10:7). God’s eschatological kingdom breaks into history. It is both not yet and now. Disciples can navigate the times—no matter how difficult—full of expectation of the kingdom’s realization. Even so, one of the two present-tense Beatitudes warns disciples that the world surrounding them remains a threat (5:10).
The Greek word translated blessed is makarios. Scripture scholar R. T. French tells us not to translate the term in a theological or religious manner (p. 161). Happy may be better unless the word has overtones of a beer commercial. Satisfied and content work when we consider the context. If we engage this world in the spirit of the Beatitudes, we will enjoy a deep satisfaction, an inner peaceful contentment. The blessedness, then, is this-worldly. The world will continue its sometimes-evil ways. But when we participate in the counter-reality that Jesus preached—His way to be in this world—we will find gratification in the construction of a better world.
Just as we began by putting the Beatitudes in context, we can finish with the context. Continue reading verses 5:13 through 5:16. Jesus calls each of us to discipleship. We are “salt of the earth” (5:13) and “light of the world” (5:14). True disciples manifest the kingdom of God in this world.