What is happiness?
How do you get it? How do you
experience a truly fulfilled life? Getting
an answer to that question doesn’t come so easily. I know.
I tried. I went to that font of
all information, Google to find out. It
gave me 128 million results and an advertisement for Scientology.
Still, I did learn some things from my little
search. I learned that pretty much
nothing around us will bring us happiness, or at least a happiness that lasts
for any length of time. In a famous
study researchers looked at two different groups of people. One group
had won millions of dollars in the lottery.
The other group became paraplegics, sentenced to a wheelchair for the
rest of their lives. Now a year after
both these things had happened, guess which group of folks were happier?
When you averaged it out, both groups experienced the
same level of happiness. Study after
study has shown similar things. Nothing
we do or acquire or experience can bring us happiness. So what does? Interestingly enough, in the words we’re
about to hear, Jesus tells us. How do
we become happier, truly fulfilled? In some
of his most famous words, Jesus shows us the way. Let’s listen and hear what Jesus has to say.
Likely like me, you’ve heard these words of Jesus’
many times. But do you really understand
what they mean? They sound nice, even
poetic. But what in the world was Jesus
trying to tell us? Jesus was telling us,
telling the crowds. You want happiness,
a fulfilled life? Then let me show you
how such a life comes. Jesus isn’t describing a series of different
people here. Jesus is describing in
these beatitudes, the characteristics of one person, the person who is truly
happy.
Essentially that’s what the word blessed means. It means happy. And in these words, Jesus is giving us a map
to happiness. No, let me take that back. Jesus isn’t giving us a map. That would imply that somehow it’s up to us
to get to happiness. And at the
beginning, Jesus makes it clear. Happiness
only happens when you realize there is no map; when you realize that not only
do you not have a map, you are already on a dead end road.
That’s why he starts with those words happy are the
poor in spirit. Jesus is saying that happiness comes to only
those who see how utterly spiritually bankrupt they are. Happiness only comes to those who realize
that when it comes to their spiritual bank account, they have nothing, nada, a
big goose egg.
But doesn’t that seem a little harsh? A lot of folks would acknowledge that maybe
their spiritual bank account has insufficient funds, but to call it empty? Their internal conversation might go like
this. Sure, I need God’s forgiveness. I’ve done some bad things. I’ve made some mistakes. But it’s not all been bad. I’ve done my share of good things. I’ve got something in the bank. It may not be enough to cover my debts, but
it’s something. But is it?
Jesus is saying that happiness only comes when we
realize that whatever our something is, is actually nothing. How does that happen? It happens when we realize that even our
good deeds were done with mixed motives.
If we’re honest, can we say that any good deed we
performed came without any mixed motives at all? Sure.
We had genuine desires to serve others, to love and care for them. But was that all of it? Did we also do it because we wanted others
to like or approve us, or because it made us feel better about ourselves? When have we ever done a good deed without
having a bit of ourselves in the mix, some degree of self interest in the midst
of our motives?
What happens is you realize how utterly bankrupt you
actually are, that even the assets you have, your good deeds, are essentially
junk bonds with no real value at all? And
when that happens, what do you do? Well,
you grieve. You mourn. But paradoxically, it is this very mourning,
this grief that opens the door to true happiness. Because our grief changes us. Another
word for this grief of which Jesus speaks is the word repentance. That is the sort of grieving we are doing
here. And what does this word repentance
mean? It literally means a change of
mind, to the way we think. Our realization
of our poverty leads us to a grief, a grief that transforms our minds, our very
thinking.
How does it transform our
minds? It makes them meek. Now
our word meek doesn’t come close to what Jesus is telling us here. Our word meek typically means timid or
fearful, but Jesus doesn’t mean that. The
word Jesus originally used actually means a humble and gentle attitude that
comes through a loss or time of difficulty.
This humility and gentleness comes because through our loss, we have
submitted our lives to a larger reality. The Greek word, Praus that the gospel writers
use for Jesus’ Aramaic word points to this.
The Greeks used this word praus
to describe a number of things. It could
mean a soothing medicine or a gentle breeze or a broken colt. Now each of these things have one element
in common. Do you see what it is? They all describe a great power under
control. Meekness isn’t weakness, not
at all It’s rather our strength acting under
the authority of a strength greater than ourselves. It is a
giving up of our power that actually makes us more powerful than ever before. Why? Now our power is given over to God, a
power infinitely greater and wiser than ourselves. We are
a horse that now has a rider.
This is what develops from
the inward experience of poverty and loss Jesus describes. This is the first fruit we bear, a fruit that
becomes evident not only inside of us but to the people around us. We become less angry, less reactive. We become more patient and forgiving. When something unjust happens, we stand up
against it, sure. But we come from a
different place, one where our strength flows through a strength greater and
wiser than our own. We are a horse whose rider leads us where we
really need to go.
And from that place, we
realize what truly matters. Instead of hungering
and thirsting after success or money or the approval of others or any of the
other false ways to happiness that the world offers, we hunger and thirst for
something profoundly different. We
hunger and thirst for a deeper, more intimate relationship with God, with our
rider so to speak. That’s what
righteousness means. It simply means a
right relationship with God.
This past week, I heard
from an old friend, who first came to this church to get his daughter
baptized. But the baptism was about more
than his daughter, it was a desperate act to save a floundering marriage. Somehow he thought that this ritual might
restore the relationship. It didn’t.
And over the next years, this
very accomplished man saw his life collapse.
In the space of one week, he hit bottom.
His relationship with a woman he planned to marry crashed and burned. He
lost his job with little prospect for another.
And he wondered how he was going to provide for himself much less his
daughter. That’s when he came to me, broken and bereft. And in that pain, he was ready. He was ready to face his poverty, to begin
the process of grief that facing that poverty would mean. And literally overnight a man who had been
full of arrogance, a jackass by his own admission, transformed into a man of
gentleness and humility. But that
transformation didn’t become apparent to me for a while, what showed me just
how profoundly God had changed him was a text message I received a few days
after we had first met. At our first
meeting, I told him that he needed to read the whole Gospel of Luke by the next
time we met which was about a week away.
He looked at the Bible and said to me.
That’s like 30 pages. That’s a
lot for me. Then three days later, I got
this text. I finished Luke. I’m thinking John would be next. Then two days after that, I got another text. I finished John. What’s next?
I told him Acts or Matthew. Do you see what was happening? This man was hungering and thirsting.
Think about those
words. If you are hungering and
thirsting, how do you deal with it? Do you
go? Wow, I need to plant a garden so I
have some food. Or sheesh, I need to
find some work so I can buy something at the grocery store. No, when you are hungering or thirsting, you
seek nourishment wherever you can. You
beg for it. You look for anyone who has
it. You are desperate for it. This guy had that hunger, and he hasn’t lost
it. He is now once again quite
successful but as he texted me this week. He wrote. I still hold God’s hand daily. This man at one time was the famous chef GordonRamsay’s boss. He had reached the pinnacle
in his profession, but was he happy?
No. But when he faced his
poverty, when he felt that grief, it changed him. It led him to hunger and
thirst for what ultimately mattered. And
when he did, God answered. God filled him up.
God opened the way to true happiness in his life.
All that follows this
beatitude is simply Jesus describing what this happy, fulfilled life looks
like. It means you don’t hold grudges,
that you are filled with mercy towards others.
Why? You know how merciful God
has been to you. You see things
clearly, with a purity of heart that enables you to see God even in the most
difficult of places. You become a person
who brings greater wholeness and peace to the world, someone who knows in their
heart of hearts that they are a child of God.
So even if hard times come, even persecution, it doesn’t destroy you, it
only leads you to hold God’s hand more tightly, rely on his strength more
deeply. Your happiness doesn’t
diminish. It simply grows deeper and
stronger than before.
So this is the path to
happiness. This is a fulfilled
life. But how does it happen? How do we face our poverty, enter our grief,
submit our power, and get filled with God’s presence. We realize.
Jesus didn’t just preach these words.
Jesus lived them.
How can we inherit the
kingdom of heaven? Because Jesus gave it up.
Jesus, who was rich became poor so that through his poverty we might
become rich. How in our grief can we be
comforted? Because when Jesus cried even tears of blood, no one comforted him. How can we give our power over to God and
inherit the earth? Because Jesus, gave
up every bit of his power, even his life, in order that we might. How can we, when we hunger and thirst, be
filled? Because Jesus hungered and
thirsted first, even emptied himself for us. How can we receive mercy? Because Jesus didn’t. How can we see God? Because Jesus in the purity of his love for
us, lost sight of God so that we who were blind might see. How can we become peacemakers? Because Jesus
became our peace through his dying for us.
Do you see how Jesus, the
truly blessed one, lived out these words for you? The more you see that, the more you and I
will see how profoundly poor we are. The
more you see what Jesus did for you, the deeper your own grief will be. And in that grief, you will gladly submit your
lives to the one who give up his for you.
When he says, 28 “Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and
I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in
heart, and you will find rest for your souls. You will trust the truth of those words. You will hunger and thirst for them. And in doing so, you will be filled like
never before with the grace, the favor, the utter fulfillment that only Jesus
can give.
Where today do you need to face up to your
poverty? Where today do you need God to
fill you? This is the way to happiness, because Jesus is
the way to happiness. Let Jesus love
you. Let Jesus fill you. Let Jesus give you life as only Jesus
can.
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