One of the most referenced sermons of Jesus comes from the Sermon on the Mount, specifically the section known as the Beatitudes. As one reads each blessing, it’s easy to accept them as a distant reward for living  well. However, if one were to replace the term “blessing” with “happy,” a new interpretation is possible. What Jesus is attempting to do through the Beatitudes is to offer his audience a new way. I believe that the Beatitudes are a key to happiness. So, when Jesus sits down to teach in Matthew 5, he is not merely referencing things in the future, but offering a better way to live in the present.

The happiness that Jesus offers is not emotion-based like we often understand it to be. Rather, the happiness that Jesus extends comes from growth and completeness by living the way that God intended to us live. In his book, The Good Life, Dr. Derwin Gray wrote, “The Beatitudes are a picture of what God’s people, under his rule and reign of grace, live like on earth. They are the ethos of heaven invading earth. It’s like God’s people bring the currency of heaven and spend it on earth, enriching everyone’s life.” 

So how do we live the Beatitudes? We do our very best to reflect the nature and actions of Jesus Christ. Each of the Beatitudes represent a characteristic of who Jesus was and how he lived. And when we begin to live this way, we begin to reflect Christ. Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 2:15, “For we are to God the pleasing aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing.” Let us go out and be good neighbors, empower others, and continue to spread the aroma of Christ in our world.