I'm sure that most people reading this post are familiar with what is known as "The Beatitudes". As many times as I've read these, it never occurred to me until now that there is an undefined meaning in the sequence of these verses, that Yeshua gave on The Sermon on The Mount.
With the following key, you can see how that the sequence of these verses literally describes the steps of an individual's spiritual growth. Not only does this understanding illuminate these statements into a whole new meaning, it begins to show you a glimpse of the spiritual depth of Yeshua's teachings; thus reinforcing our faith in who he actually was, which was The Only Begotten Son of G*d.
Although there are nine "Blessed Are" statements, there are eight beatitudes; as the ninth statement is reiterated twice (thus putting more significance on it).
The Eight Beatitudes in The Gospel of Matthew:
And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying:
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
“Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
“Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
“Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.
“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.
“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
“Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.
Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you." - Matthew 5:2–12
Now let's examine these as a step by step guide for the sequential process of one's spiritual growth:
1) “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Step One:
Identification of The Self-Serving Ego (Poor Spiritual State)
A person begins their spiritual growth by the with the realization that they are "poor in spirit" or lacking the spiritual, thus they begin to reflect upon this. The key to becoming spiritually awakened is the true self-realization, in order to see what yourself from an objective point of view. This is the genuine realization of the self-serving nature that we must identify and overcome in order to begin spiritual growth.
2) “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
Step Two:
Mourning The Attachment to The Physical
When a person becomes awakened to their true nature, as revealed through the first step, they genuinely begin to mourn all of the time that they've wasted in life chasing what society and others think is important. This is an extremely difficult step and is painful, which is why most people never do it. This step is depressing and at the time, it doesn't feel like growth at all, but it is absolutely necessary for genuine spiritual growth. Your views begin to change and then you start to feel out of touch with rest of the world, so you're basically mourning your emotional connection to the world around you that you no longer feel.
I wrote a very personal, in-depth post regarding this particular step, which can be found here:
3) “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
Step Three:
Submission to Altruism
The term "Meek" is described as being submissive. This essentially what it truly means to be "born again", just like a child you are beginning a whole new spiritual growth process. You must begin to submit to what you know is right, regardless of how difficult or impossible it seems at the time. You put your faith above reason and stay on your new spiritual path, no matter what the cost. This step begins to happen automatically, as when you become truly self aware, you identify your diminished human nature and you know that previous reactive state only brought you brief spurts of pleasure, in between long bouts of suffering. For me personally, this step was basically a consistent struggle of not reacting to anything negative the same way that I was used to doing. You do your best to do the opposite of what you used to do everyday in nearly every aspect of your life. When we go out of our way to interpret every negative situation in life as an opportunity for personal spiritual growth and react in the correct manner, that know is right (versus how our emotion leads us to), this begins to become automatic. Always be humble and remind yourself constantly that "it's not about me", because it's really not, as your growth will inspire others to do the same (either consciously or unconsciously). When someone tells you that you're an inspiration or gives you some kind of compliment, immediately give that glory to G*d and let them know it as well.
4) “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
Step Four:
Hunger for Spiritual Growth
After the sequence of the first three steps, we genuinely develop a hunger for understanding and wisdom (Chochmah and Binah) and to develop a closeness to G*d. We begin to learn more and begin to see scripture in a whole new light. Difficult spiritual concepts begin to make complete sense and you see their application in everyday life. This illumination sparks a whole new passion for scripture. HaShem begins to show you new things and start to have revelations. You take in more and more of G*d's Word daily and you begin to understand that this is what actually feeds your soul and that it is ultimately the source for all true happiness and peace.
5) “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.
Step Five:
Mercy for Others
With the newfound wisdom that comes through altruism, we see that we are to blame for our problems, not the rest of the world. It's not that the world hasn't wronged us in the past, because it most definitely has however, it's the realization that it was actually our reaction to these tragedies caused our own personal suffering. We then begin to understand in order to truly receive mercy and forgiveness for our previous sinful lifestyle, we must show mercy for everyone that we used to blame for our previous state. We begin to see how these previous tragedies actually stemmed from our own selfish actions and how the suffering that we have experienced was actually given to us in order to prompt our own spiritual growth. This is when we begin to get an understanding of G*d's plan of creation and why "bad things happen to good people". We cannot begin to grow until we let go of the past and forgive everyone who has hurt us, for whatever reason. That pain was a blessing and was absolutely necessary to arrive at this state; most of the world never gets this far.
6) “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
Step Six:
Purification of The Heart
The result of all of the above actions begins to purify our heart and gives us a new outlook on life. This truly is a gift from G*d for all of the hard work that we've done to get to this state. At this point, we have changed our life radically. In many cases, what used to bring us joy and pleasure now seems selfish and petty. We begin to feel more for others and develop an altruistic standpoint, as we now receive more and more pleasure as we help others and not just ourselves. G*d literally begins to replace our old "heart of stone" with a new "heart of flesh". Ezekiel said it best: "And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh." - Ezekiel 36:26
7) “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.'
Step Seven:
Coming to Peace with Ourselves and Others
This is the step in which we must not only make peace with the people who we viewed as the source for our previous personal suffering and emotional torment; most importantly this step leads us to make peace with ourselves.. All past grudges must be put to rest. By this point, we truly see that the root of all our problems ultimately leads back to us. This causes us shame which we must be at peace with. We have to come to terms with the fact that we are not perfect and that we do make mistakes. We must learn from them and move on, doing our best not to make those same mistakes again. The key is to do our best in order to always retain a centered balance in life (this is the State of Perfection, known as Tifereth or Beauty). We cannot be perfect like HaShem, but we can do our best to be. On top of being our LORD and Savior, Yeshua was the ultimate teacher and perfect role model; live like him as much as possible. We have to strive for as much spiritual growth as possible, without losing our grasp of humanity.
8) “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.
Step Eight:
Welcoming Criticism
These next two "Blessed Are" statements are making the same point, which is self-explanatory, but it is most important (which is why Yeshua reiterates it twice). People will persecute you at times for standing up for what you know is right. You cannot back down from your convictions and just as Yeshua tells us, when we suffer for doing what is sound and just, we are blessed for it. We receive comfort just knowing that it is actually a blessing when someone criticizes and belittles you for what you believe in. This is comfort that we need and helps us modify the outlook that we need to have about these situations until we eventually welcome this negative criticism and gladly accept the blessing that comes from it.
I know that someone reading this may think to themselves that all of this stuff is impossible and there is no way that anyone could possibly change this much...my response to that is that you must have faith that G*d makes the impossible possible. If you put in everything that you have into all of this, G*d will help you in unfathomable ways. He will give you a new heart and will write his law on it. It all becomes automatic. He loves us so much more than we can begin to imagine, he literally made this entire universe just so he could have a place to put us where he could love us. It is our choice to make these changes, he gave us all the freewill to serve him or ourselves (ie Satan). I can honestly tell you that when you go all out and do it all his way, he will make all of this so much easier that you think. He will only reveal as much of our selfish ego to us as we have the ability to correct, as not to overwhelm us and make us give up. All of this is an ongoing process, so you just keep going though these eight steps over and over again. Nothing pleases Our Creator more than when we purify ourselves and attempt to change our nature to parallel his. This is what we have to do so that he can dwell with us in this physical reality, so do your best to make a home for him in your life; he doesn't dwell in filth. Our sin is the barrier that separates him from us. Only through our own hard work and prayers will he remove the obstacles that cause this separation between us and Him.
"For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people." - Jeremiah 31:33
"For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws into their minds, and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people." - Hebrews 8:10
"Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him." - John 14:23
Much Love and Blessings!
חסד ושלום עליכם והרבה אהבה וברכות
This is what EVERY new Christian should read right here, along with the entirety of this website itself.