The Beatitudes for the Fourth Sunday of Epiphany

For the Fourth Sunday of Epiphany, we will hear The Beatitudes from Matthew 5:12ff. These blessings are very familiar to those who have been members of the church for very long. They are so familiar and appreciated that even those outside of the church are familiar with some of the blessings, even if they aren’t sure who said the blessings. It is quite easy for many people, Christian or not, to love sayings like this:

“Blessed are the merciful” and “blessed are the peacemakers.”

Our broader culture’s current favorite beatitude is the extremely condensed – #blessed.

But what do these blessings pronounced by Jesus have to do with Epiphany? “Epiphany” means manifestation or appearance. How is Jesus manifested as the Son of God through The Beatitudes?

The Beatitudes are the first set of Jesus’ teachings in Matthew. We understand that the enduring wisdom, authority, power, and beauty of these blessings could only be wise, authoritative, powerful, and beautiful if they come from the One who is true God of true God. Apart from Him, the blessings of The Beatitudes could not be true. The opposite would be true. The “blessed” ones would be the rich, the comfortable, the strong, the merciless, and the mightiest warriors, for the kingdom of earth would be theirs.

This is where #blessed really gets it wrong. No one ever posts a picture of themselves on social media when everything goes wrong and tags it with #blessed. Only on a fun vacation, or happy times with loved ones, or when a teen gets a new Xbox does our culture post the tag #blessed.

Gratitude is rightly given to God for every good and perfect gift, including food, loved ones, fun, happiness, material goods, etc. However, for those of us who trust that Jesus truly is the Son of God and King of Kings, we know that we are blessed no matter how well or poorly our lives are going. Even if we are persecuted, reviled, and have all kinds of evil uttered falsely against us on Jesus’ account, we are blessed. Therefore, in the good and bad of this life under the sun, we are glad and rejoice, “for [our] reward is great in heaven!” (Matt 5:10-12)

One other important aspect to remember about these blessings of Jesus. He never says the conditional, “if” in these blessings. The Beatitudes are authoritative declarations by the Son of God about the reality of the Kingdom of God. The world doesn’t believe in the Kingdom of God. “The word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God” (1 Cor 1:18). All who are given the grace of God in Christ Jesus are, and always will be, eternally blessed.

Fr. John Laffoon
Minister to Youth and Families