How Happy Are You?
Matthew 5:1-12
Someone once said: “You [Christians] are like a man with a headache. He does not want to get rid of his head, but it hurts him to keep it.” We begin looking at how, in Matthew 5:1-16, Jesus counters this criticism. We will consider each of the Beatitudes and find them to be the keys to happiness. But even before we listen to that, we must examine the setting in which they were spoken. Almost every word of the introduction is freighted with meaning and becomes a part of the message. Get ready! That is what verses 1-2 help us do. Then we will find ourselves really able to hear the Beatitudes and what someone has called “the blessedness of their fearsome surgery.”