Article October 17, 2011 Issue

A deep dive into the Beatitudes

By Abby Hillman

“What do they actually mean?” The question stared me in the face. I was preparing to present Jesus’ Beatitudes from his Sermon on the Mount to my Sunday School class, and it struck me that I didn’t have a firm grasp of their spiritual significance. 

I’d investigated the verses from Matthew 5:3–12 quite a bit in various Bible commentaries and translations, but it still seemed my perception of them was mainly on a human level. I didn’t feel the depth of their spiritual power to transform lives. 

Then one day I read this verse in Psalms: “But the meek shall inherit the earth; and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace” (37:11). The similarity to the third Beatitude, “Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth” (Matt. 5:5), couldn’t be just coincidental—of course Jesus must have known and loved this Psalm. In fact, there must have been something about it that impelled him to take those words—which also were undoubtedly familiar to his Jewish followers—and bring out their spiritual meaning. 

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