The Structure of the Beatitudes

In this first post I want to begin to talk about the beatitudes of Jesus as a pattern for contemplative prayer. One way to look at the beatitudes is to see them as four parallel statements: 

• verses 3 & 7 — poverty of spirit and mercy

• verses 4 & 8 — mourning and purity of heart

• verses 5 & 9 — meekness and peacemaking, and

• verses 6 & 10 — hungering and thirsting for righteousness and being willing to be persecuted for the sake of righteousness.

The chart below offers a brief explanation of my reasoning… 

Foundational Attitude of Heart	Resulting Development of Heart
3. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. A person who comes to see the spiritual poverty of their own heart…	7. Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy. … can be merciful to others because they know their own need for mercy.
4. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.                      A person who mourns over their personal wrongdoing and the brokenness of the world…	8. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. … begins to become more sensitive to evil and to God’s  ways which call for loving obedience from the heart.
5. Blessed are the meek (gentle NIV), for they will inherit the earth. A person who practices meekness, refusing to control others and to demand their own way…	9. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God. … can begin to seek ways to be at peace with others.
6. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied. A person who, recognizes their spiritual poverty and desires to be righteous…	10. Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. … will value what is right to such an extent that they are willing to suffer persecution and rejection.

I believe that Jesus offered these beatitudes as contemplative wisdom statements. At first look, most people would reject the idea that being poor in spirit is a blessed state. To be poor in spirit suggests a kind of sadness, a lack of energy, what modern people might describe as low self-esteem. Why would Jesus want to say that such a person is blessed?

But when we pair the beatitude of being poor in spirit with the beatitude of mercifulness, then Jesus’ intent becomes clearer. The person who meditates on the poverty of their own spirit, or their spiritual condition, will become more aware of their sin, of their resistance to God’s ways and will. Such a person will come to see how they have been and are hardhearted towards God. They will recognize, if they are a follower of Jesus, the depth of their need for God’s mercy, and the greatness of God’s grace for them in Jesus’ Christ. And the more a person comes to see the greatness of God’s mercy towards themselves, the greater their capacity to show mercy towards others becomes. This is a work of grace by God’s Spirit, through meditation on scripture and contemplation of the nature of our relationship with God.

However, information is not what changes a person’s heart. Meditation on scripture and contemplation of God are a matter of listening to God through the words of scripture, opening our heart and mind to see how they speak directly into our lives, our situations, our motivations and attitudes. Meditation on scripture and contemplation of God through scripture is a means by which God’s grace enters into our hearts and affects us deeply.

In the next post I will talk about Matthew 5:4 and 8, spiritual mourning and purity of heart, and about some stages of prayer that we can go through in response to what God shows us in meditation and contemplation.