Blessed are the rich...

... for it is harder for them to enter heaven than for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle.

?

When did we begin reclaiming the concept of "blessing" with "getting more stuff"?


Job Promotion=Blessing

Big House=Blessing

Yacht=Blessing

Lots o Cash=Blessing

Now, I am not saying that those aren't nice things or that God is not a gracious provider... consider the lilies of the field...

but, this is a very interesting concept for me to wrap my head around. What do we call someone who has received a blessing... I think we say they are blessed.

Now, when we look in the old testament we hear a concept of blessing that much resembles our modern day concept. Let us take the story of Job... The story of a man who had seven sons, three daughters, seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen and five hundred donkeys, and had a large number of servants. He was the greatest man among all the people of the East. The man was considered blessed. Satan himself said to God that God had blessed the work of his hands, so that his flocks and herds were spread throughout the land.

blessed=increase of stuff

Jacob is another example of this concept of blessing. The whole flock increasing story is an example of this. Jacob points out to Laban that he caused Laban's livestock (possessions) to increase greatly because the Lord had blessed what Jacob had been overseeing.

blessed=increase of stuff

There is a pattern that emerges sooner or later, can you guess what it is?

blessed=increase of stuff

This sounds like a rather dandy deal.

Then Jesus arrived and stirred things up. A giant crowd from Galilee, the Decapolis (which made up ten cities), Jerusalem, Judea, and the region across the Jordan followed him. They would have been familiar with the old rule of blessing. When suddenly Jesus redefined what it meant to be blessed by saying...

Matthew 5

1 Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and when he sat down, his disciples came to him.

2
And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying:

3
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

4
Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.

5
Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.

6
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.

7
Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.

8
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

9
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.

10
Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

11
Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.12 Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

He essentially said,
"what you thought about being blessed has changed, and this is what it has changed to... learn it, live it, and receive your heavenly reward... forget what you thought you knew about blessing"

This ushered in a new season...

So, what does this mean for us? Well, Jesus did lay it out clearly... we have the opportunity to be blessed by God. He tells us what to do and what the reward is.

We can continue asking God to bless us and hope that he might hear... but in essence when we pray to be blessed what we are really asking is to; be poor in spirit, to mourn, to be meek, to hunger and thirst for righteousness, to be merciful, to be pure in heart, to be a peacemaker, to be insulted and persecuted because of righteousness for the sake of Christ.

So, with this new season we look at some of those we would consider blessed after the changeover...

The Disciples -
insulted, persecuted, crucified upside down, beheaded, flayed alive, stabbed, stoned, beaten, burned, speared, and sawn in half... all for the sake of Christ.

Paul -
(his words from 2 Corinthians)

"I am talking like a madman--with far greater labors, far more imprisonments, with countless beatings, and often near death. Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea; on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers; in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. And, apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches."

Where does this leave us?

I suppose we fall into the same category as Paul and the Disciples, and I think we should strive to be blessed by God. Jesus told us what that means and what to focus on and showed us what it meant to live that out. His followers did the same. I think it is our turn now.