A Wisdom Reading of the Beatitudes
By: The Rev. Christina Miller
When I traveled throughout Israel as a student in seminary, I went to the historical site where it is believed Jesus gave his beatitudes—or the teachings we read in our gospel this morning. While much of the holy land is dry and arid, this was a nice grassy hill. So I am picturing Jesus on this hill, but at a slightly lower level than his disciples and crowd of people, as he is looking up at them to give his teaching.
This crowd is full and diverse. People have come from all over Judea, Jerusalem, and the coast of Tyre and Sidon. They have come with hope and expectation that Jesus will impart valuable teachings to them and heal them of their diseases. And they find what they have come for—those troubled with unclean spirits are cured. Jesus’ teaching is part of their healing, as it gives them insight and wisdom into how to be blessed by God. Or in other words, how to live fully, be satisfied and fulfilled in God.
Jesus’ teaching is unexpected, as it turns all of their assumptions about what it takes to be happy and fulfilled upside down. Those who are blessed are the people who we normally deem as woeful, and those who are woeful are those who we normally think of as blessed.
In The Wisdom Jesus by Cynthia Bourgeault—which I referenced in my last sermon and our Deep Dive book group is currently reading—she says these reversals are not just moral teachings, but deep calls to awaken to a new way of being in the world. From this perspective, each beatitude teaches us how to let God’s Spirit come alive within us. This is an internal process that leads to transformation—and this morning, we are going to focus on the first two.
Jesus begins by saying, “Blessed are you who are poor for yours is the kingdom of God.” The poor are not just those who don’t have economic wealth. The poor are those who have let go of their attachments to all that wealth represents—ego, security, and worldly power. And in emptying themselves of these attachments they have made room for God to fill them.
Later in Luke’s gospel, when the religious leaders ask Jesus when the kingdom of God will come, he says, “The kingdom of God is within you,” illuminating that God’s kingdom isn’t a distant reality, but a state of consciousness we already embody. The kingdom of God is God’s Presence coming awake in us and being made manifest all around us. So in letting go of what is part of this material reality, we are making space for what is eternal and our true source of abundant life.
Jesus then says, “Blessed are you who are hungry now for you will be filled." This also isn’t just talking about physical hunger, but about those who spiritually hunger for God. Those who yearn to know God in their innermost being. And as the Christian mystics would say, it is God’s Spirit who is doing the longing in us and through us. Or as the poet John O’Donohue writes: “May you come to accept your longing as divine urgency / May you know the urgency with which God longs for you.”
So our first two beatitudes can be read in sequence. We become spiritually poor by emptying ourselves of ego attachments to make room for God, which uncovers our ravishing hunger for the Divine. But this hunger is actually a sign that God is coming alive in you, longing to be known, and starting to transform you from the inside. Bringing every cell of your being back into Loving Presence. Filling you with spirit and light.
I wonder…what do you long for? And underneath this longing, might there be a deeper longing for God, and even deeper, God’s longing in and for you?
We go through life longing for many things, and our attachments aren’t necessarily bad things. It is wonderful to have thriving relationships, a stable home, and things in your life you enjoy or surround you with beauty. It is important to have a sense of identity, a role you play in the world, and accomplishments you are proud of. It is when we start holding onto these things as our source of life that they become a problem. We often forget that things, experiences, achievements, even people and our own mortal bodies, are impermanent. As the Psalmist says: “The life of mortals is like grass. They flourish like a flower of the field. The wind blows over it and it is gone and its place remembers it no more.”
If we spend our whole lives focused on our impermanent attachments and longings, we will never nurture what is eternal in us. Our comforts and pleasures, as well as our stressors and anxieties, will crowd out our underlying, more authentic longing for God, disconnecting us from God longing for us from within our innermost being. We will be rich and full without knowing we are really poor and starving. As Jesus goes on to say: “Woe to you who are rich for you have received your consolation. Woe to you who are full now for you will be hungry.”
In The Wisdom Jesus, Cynthia Bourgeault tells a story about a woman who travels a long, long way to see a very wise monk. She has spent years waiting to meet this man to glean from his wisdom. He invites her to sit down to tea, and she begins to tell him about all that she has learned and studied up to this point—all of her formative experiences, thoughts, and insights. As she talks the monk keeps pouring the tea, until it begins to spill over the sides of the cup and pour out onto the table. Alarmed, the woman cries out, “Stop! You’re spilling the tea!” But to her surprise he keeps pouring. Then he says: “How am I supposed to teach you when your cup is already full?”
Isn’t this true of all of us? We fill ourselves up with knowledge and thoughts and opinions and judgments, to the point that we don’t even have room to listen for the more subtle stirring of God’s wisdom that wants to be encountered in the present moment. So again, knowledge, thoughts, and opinions are not bad things, but when we hold onto them they crowd out our more authentic need for God—we already have it all figured out! We already know everything! Even the good things we have collected and gleaned in our lives become obstacles in hearing and receiving from God today.
But when we stay open we begin to, in the words of Matthew’s gospel, “hunger and thirst for righteousness.” We hunger for God’s presence to fill us, as well as God’s presence to fill the world around us. We hunger for compassion, justice, and mercy.
And so we are reminded that the Beatitudes are not just moral teachings, and they are also not just spiritual teachings for our own personal transformation. They are a vision of the Kingdom of God on earth where those who are physically hungry are fed, and those who are poor and marginalized are given integrity and honored as divine beings. The Beatitudes are a vision of life lived under God’s blessing where all people are thriving, fulfilled, and satisfied in God. Where God’s wholeness is at the center of everything. In this way, the Beatitudes call us to deep inner transformation, while also calling us to bold external action to help transform the world around us.
So may we have the courage to live into this wisdom, so that we may awaken to a new way of being in the world. May we let go of our ego attachments, so that we may be met with our deeper spiritual need. May our longing and yearning uncover God’s longing in and for us, and our spiritual hunger lead us to what will really fulfill us. And may our radical love and works of justice enable all people to live under God’s blessing.
