Living the Beatitudes


Last week Jesus invited his brand-new disciples, and anyone else who was with them, to stand on a hill and look at their broken world. As they looked, he taught them who they might aspire to be: the poor in spirit, those who mourn, the meek, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. Imagine a world based on these aspirations. This is what God longs for this world. This is what God has always longed for. It is at the heart of the law and the prophets. In Matthew, Jesus does not come to replace the law and the prophets. Jesus is not offering a new revelation. Jesus is fulfilling the law. 

That raises some questions for me. Questions like 

  • What is the purpose of the Mosaic law? 
  • What did Jesus mean by saying he has come to fulfil the law? 
  • How might the beatitudes and Isaiah help us answer these questions?

An answer might include that righteousness is when we join God the Creators longing for this world and God’s people, when we live as image bearers of God’s creative love and generosity, when we become lights in a seemingly dark world, and become the salt plates that get the dung fires of God’s justice and hope burning once again.

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