These words are the first of what we normally call the beautitudes. They were spoken by our Lord Jesus Christ at the beginning of his Sermon on the Mount.

Every person is homesick for a happy life. In the first paradise God gave mankind a happy and blessed life. What abundance of life, what goodness and what beauty filled that garden of Eden! Yet man rebelled. God had to expell man. Ever since then man has yearned for the return of the ideal life, how­ever that may be imagined or described. Ideals are pursued, and if not reached, disillusion and bitter disappointment grows. Yes, that is what we see across the face of the globe. Instead of that original bliss we find much unhappiness and unrest.

Jesus has come to bring true blessing. To do so He instructed men and women to become his disciples, his followers. But He begins with pronouncing his blessings. Through his teachings Jesus wants to lead them to a to­tally blessed life. He will not disappoint us as so many leaders and philosophers have done. For example, Marxism and communism promised a wealthy and happy life for the masses of workers. Yet in the last year we have experienced the turbulent overthrow of many communist regimes in Eastern Europe, where the experiment started. Jesus will not disappoint us like that. He will deliver on his promises.

This first beautitude tells us that such a blessed life comes from heaven. For happi­ness does not consist of the fulfilment of all man's wishes and hopes. Bliss is not living in an unreal world of Santa Claus. Jesus points us the way back to a real paradise. We must find the path back to God! Our human life on earth must be directed by heaven. For the expression, "the kingdom of heaven", means that God in heaven is king over earth and directs all human affairs; his truth, justice, love, power and rule prevail. The rebellious territory of earth again submits to the rule of God in heaven. Soon Jesus will come in glory and all rule and power on earth will indeed belong to God and his anointed One, our Lord.

This means that the followers of Jesus are expected to life in a certain manner. Their life shares certain characteristics. That is why we find three aspects in every beautitude:

1. the pronouncement of blessing,
2. one char­acteristic of a Christian, and
3. one specific blessing Christians will inherit.

To be pronounced as blessed is not the same as to be happy. A blessed man is one who lives in covenant with God and who finds himself living under the favour and grace of God. Even though his circumstances may be difficult or oppressive, God favours him. Think of Jacob whom God blessed. Life was often hard and oppressive. Yet God blessed him. To me happiness stresses more the feel­ings. A blessed man will indeed feel happy, but conversely, not all happy people are truly blessed. Many people who feel happy are (blissfully) ignorant of the dangerous state in which they live. They live under God's judg­ment, not blessing. To be blessed therefore means you live in a bond or covenant of favour with God as Adam did in the model garden.

Who are pronounced blessed? Those who are poor in spirit. This characterisation has been variously explained. We do not have room for all those interpretations. The term "poor" refers to a street beggar, a down and out beggar. Some lands have many of them, visible at the street-corners. They beg for food, for basic survival. Famine and food shortages produce many who stretch out their arms to beg. But how many spiritual beggars have you seen lately? How many feel their spiritual poverty to the point that they stretch out their hands to heaven? To be poor in spirit means we confess our own bankruptcy, our guilt and need for mercy from heaven.

Many surrounded Jesus. Multitudes followed Him. Why? Matthew 4:23-25, the passage just before the beautitudes, tells us that Jesus went throughout Galilee preaching and healing. He healed all manner of sicknesses. As a result many stretched out their hands to Him – "have mercy and heal me." And He helped them. But then He takes them along to the mountain to teach them how to be truly and totally blessed and happy. They must be poor in spirit. Seek your success, happiness and blessing from God and not from yoursel­ves. Stretch out your hands to God as a con­fession of your own poverty.

That is a teaching we all need, especially in a country where material poverty is virtually non-existent for us. We are quite rich. That means we often feel quite content and com­placent. To be poor in spirit is seen as un­necessary or undesirable. Yet to be truly happy one needs to seen one's own spiritual poverty.

For then we inherit the blessing of the kingdom of heaven. That kingdom comes when Jesus comes in glory. Before that time God gives us time to grow as Christians. We must grow in consciousness of our poverty, for example. Our guilt towards the Creator must grow as Christians. We need to be rehabilitated before we live in the new paradise with God. On earth only a foretaste of the heavenly bliss is given.

But when Jesus comes in glory then heaven and earth will be united. God will come to dwell on earth with man. Revelation 21, 22 tells us about this wonderful new kingdom, this new rule of God on earth. Truly it is good to follow Jesus.