Beatitude Check part 1

I memorized the Beatitudes when I was still in grade school. I had no idea what they meant, but I knew they said. As I grew through jr. high and high school, the idea that this text was special stayed with me. After all, it had a name. Like the Lord’s prayer and the ten commandments, being named made it stand out from the rest of the text. Also, they had me memorize it for a reason, right? It had to be special. But I still had no idea what it meant.

I’m not sure when the first time I heard someone teach on the meaning of the Beatitudes, but I remember the excitement and relief that someone was finally unlocking this mysterious and important text. The explanation that I was taught then, and several times thereafter, was that these were the attitudes we needed to enter the kingdom of heaven.

We needed to recognize the poverty of our spirit. We needed to mourn over it. We need to carry ourselves humbly, learn to hunger for God, apply mercy, purify our hearts and be contenders for peace to the point that we would even willingly suffer for righteousness. Then the kingdom and all of its benefits would be ours.

I remember teaching this very thing in Sunday School one Sunday morning. Then I read Dallas Willard’s ‘Divine Conspiracy’ that week. The following Sunday morning, I apologized the my Sunday School class, and shared with them Willard’s view that seemed to make much more sense.

Here are a couple of the problems with the "kingdom attitude" understanding:

1. Stretching the terminology. The biggest offense is the way "poor is spirit" is explained as a realization that we cannot gain purchase God's favor with our works. How do we get this type of self-awareness from the straight-forward term "poor in spirit"? Jesus does not say that it is those who realize they are poor in spirit, but simply those who are poor in spirit. In the sermon on the plain in Luke, Jesus simply says, "blessed are the poor", making it even harder to insert the idea of self-awareness.

Once you understand the first "Blessed..." being directed toward people who actually are poor in spirit, which everyone is to some degree, the whole "kingdom attitude" thing unravels a bit.

Another misuse of terminology is in understanding meekness as humility, when it is actually more like timidity.

2. The "kingdom attitude" understanding seems to set up a legalistic qualifications for entering the kingdom and receiving the blessings therein. What if we don't mourn over our sins? Is there no forgiveness? And if I do not achieve purity of heart, then what?

It assumes that the blessings are a result of who they are (poor in spirit, mourners, meek, spiritually hungry, merciful, pure, peacemakers, persecuted) rather than a result of what they have been given (the kingdom and all of its blessings).

Next time I will sum up Willard's understanding of the beatitudes and give my critique of it.