The Beatitudes

Among the sermons recorded in the Bible, the Sermon on the Mount is perhaps the best known. Jesus’ hearers literally were astonished when they heard Jesus’ words for the first time. Gently, yet forcefully Jesus expounded the Old Testament with a New Testament focus. It is aptly called the Constitution of the Kingdom of God. In this series we will limit our study to the opening passage of the sermon, commonly known as the Beatitudes. No Scripture equals the description of the citizens of Jesus’ Kingdom than the elementary yet comprehensive sketch of His genuine subjects.

  In the previous talk, I have drawn attention to the fact that Jesus’ seven Beatitudes are carefully structured. You recall, hopefully, that I compared them to a person with a rib cage of six ribs, with a breastbone connecting in the middle—the fourth one, and then three on both sides. Let me add a different mental picture, and this is the picture of a fruit tree. The first three of the Beatitudes, compare those to the roots feeding into the trunk—poor, mourning, meek. The second set of the three are the fruit bearing branches that come out of the trunk. That makes the fourth Beatitude a massive, solid tree trunk.

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Rev. A.T. Vergunst is minister of the Gospel in the Reformed Congregation of Carterton, New Zealand.