12/26/2025
Thoughts as we consider the Beatitudes:
REJOICING AND LEAPING IN LOVE
People had come to the hill to be healed and delivered, and they were, indeed, healed and delivered. Then, they received even more as Jesus began to teach them. Jesus expounded to them the law of love for God and neighbor.
"And he lifted up his eyes on his disciples, and said, Blessed be ye poor: for yours is the
kingdom of God."
"Blessed are ye that hunger now: for ye shall be filled. Blessed are ye that weep now: for ye
shall laugh."
"Blessed are ye, when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you from their
company, and shall reproach you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of man's sake."
"Rejoice ye in that day, and leap for joy: for, behold, your reward is great in heaven: for in the
like manner did their fathers unto the prophets."
These blessings, and the woes that followed, were counterintuitive, counter-cultural, and counter to every notion of reality that people embraced then and embrace now. Yet, they went to the heart of Jesus' teaching.
He taught the people to look for blessings and joy in unexpected places.
A semi-literate preacher of the 1800s misunderstood a text about the l***r, Naaman and
thought it read, “leaper.”
“Naaman was a leaper,” he proclaimed. “He didn’t just walked; he leaped. When there was a job to be done, he leaped to it! You could always count on him; he was an eager beaver!”
That preacher may have been a bit off-base about Naaman, but imagine how that l***r felt
when he was healed. He was filled with joy and gratitude.
Imagine how it might be for us if we took Jesus' Beatitudes seriously and lived by them.
Oh, the joy that awaits us!
