What God Really Wants Us To Know: (Part 6): "Blessed" Deeper Meaning

 God wants us to know what the experience of the kingdom of God feels like. If "abundant life" is the experience of the kingdom of God there must be some explanation somewhere in the Word of God of what that experience of abundant life is like and also some direction of what we must do to begin to experience that abundant life.

The Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7) has since ancient times been considered among the most profound teachings of Christ. In this sermon, the very first word from the mouth of Jesus was the word "Blessed" as in “Blessed are the poor of Spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven”. And then Jesus continued with the remaining seven “beatitudes” which also began with the same word, "blessed". The fact that Jesus repeated the word "blessed" eight times in the first eleven verses of the Sermon on the Mount must have a profound meaning for us.

So what does the word "blessed" really mean the way Jesus used it? Well, the Greek word from which "blessed" was translated was makarios which was a word not normally associated with human beings but instead was only used in association with Greek God's where makarios meant a sublime state of ultimate, unsurpassable, complete and pure bliss ‑ a state-of-being completely inconceivable and completely unattainable for any mortal human being.

Clearly, when Jesus used the term "blessed" as the very first word in each of the Beatitudes he was describing a spiritual state-of-being which we will experience as we become poor of spirit, meek, pure of heart, etc. So we can see how Jesus expanded the understanding of the kingdom of God with his teachings of abundant life and then made the experience of abundant life more understandable with his teachings emphasizing the word "blessed".

God wants us to know what it feels like to experience the kingdom of God, ultimate, unsurpassable, complete and pure bliss. God wants us to be motivated to "seek first the kingdom of God". Through Jesus God offered humankind an irresistible motivation, namely a state of being called "blessed" – a state of being characterized by unsurpassable bliss, unsurpassable peace, and contentment – authentic, sustainable "happiness". Who would not be motivated to seek first the kingdom of God if it meant unsurpassable bliss – unsurpassable happiness?