By He Reads Truth
Scripture Reading: Matthew 4:23-25, Matthew 5:1-12, 1 Samuel 2:6-10, Isaiah 61:1-3
When’s the last time you were stopped in your tracks by something new? Maybe it was a breathtaking view on your commute to work after you had just moved across the country or a rave-worthy meal at a new restaurant in town that managed to combine all of your favorite flavors. How long did it take before those things started to fade into your normal life? The view became the normal backdrop of your commute. The meal became just another in the rotation. In their familiarity, it’s easy to forget how they once filled us with surprise, wonder, and curiosity.
If we’re being honest, this can happen when we come to Scripture. If we’ve made opening our Bibles a regular practice, over time we can begin to passively read passages that would have left the first hearers confounded, stunned, or overcome.
One of the practices that can help as we read and hear familiar words—especially those from Jesus—is to engage all five senses and even a little imagination. Who was in the audience? What were they feeling? What had they experienced prior to this? What was the environment like? What might the sights and sounds have been? These kinds of questions can help us to be better readers of ancient texts that were not written to us but are indeed for us.
As we begin studying the Beatitudes—a familiar passage from the opening of Jesus’s longest and most famous sermon—these same types of questions can be helpful for us. Consider the people sitting and learning on the mountainside that day, especially Jesus’s closest disciples. Was it hot and dusty? Were they weary from the good and hard work of ministering alongside Jesus? What kinds of loss had they each experienced? What miracles had they witnessed? What was it like to literally sit down with the rabbi Jesus and have Him turn the belief system of their world upside down?
As we study this passage—inviting the Holy Spirit to illuminate all our senses and wonder—we are reminded that Jesus didn’t deliver these words of wisdom and blessing to a nameless, faceless crowd. They were given so that men and women of every age and station and background would know that in His kingdom, He redefines what it means to be blessed. From the promise that the persecuted will receive the kingdom to the declaration that the humble will inherit the earth, Jesus’s kingdom blessings brought radical hope.
The good news is that these words are as true for us today as they were for the first hearers and followers. God’s kingdom blessings are still extended to those who feel weary, forgotten, parched, empty, or full of sorrow. Wherever you are today, you’re invited to sit and meditate on these words from our Savior who delights in pouring out on us the blessings of His kingdom.
Written by He Reads Truth Team
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