Blessed are you…

Since the launch of my first novel just over a month ago, I’ve spent a lot of time in the world of sales and marketing. Honestly, I can’t stand it – like most authors and other artists. We feel deeply that our craft is about more than achieving, comparing numbers, and coming out on top…

We believe it’s about connecting and impacting individuals, and can therefore never be tracked accurately anyway. And yet, part of me was so proud when my book hit #1 for its category on amazon for a full day that I took screenshots and posted them on social media (I didn’t post the fact that it went back to #802 only weeks later).

With my best intentions for life to be about Jesus and others, it seems to fall back to being about me and my glory again sooner or later.

Jesus addresses this on so many occasions, you could almost get the impression that he considered it a crucial topic of his ministry. Maybe that’s why the Sermon on the Mount became so famous – and at the same time so meticulously avoided (when’s the last time you heard a sermon or read a book about this?)

Fact is, this sermon goes directly against one very dominant part of our nature. The meek, the mourning, the persecuted – they might be blessed, but it’s not who we naturally want to be. We nod our heads but secretly wish it would say that those in control, the powerful, victorious and successful, are blessed. After all, that’s what we hear and see every day from politics, to amazon prime, and all the way to our son’s soccer team. (When’s the last time you cheered for the opponent’s team just because they were behind (or even just because they were better?)

This inner conflict is nothing new. The Apostle Paul writes about it in the book of Romans, where he addresses that part of us that goes against God’s wishes, that wants its own glory and its own way. It’s part of our human nature. The eccentric, the bold and confident, express their pride more openly, while others have that same pride in them but suppress it so it comes out more subtly and manipulatively (and is therefore often socially accepted).

But there’s the other side, too. The ability for compassion, for humbling ourselves, for putting others ahead of ourselves is a unique human capacity that connects us to the divine. The work of the Christian community is to remind one another and the world that there is a choice to be made every day, and every day it’s the most important, world-changing choice we could ever make.

But why does it matter that much? Let me tell you about a guy named Friedrich Nietzsche. This famous late 19^th century atheist and philosopher wasn’t just indifferent about the Sermon on the Mount. He hated it with a passion. He saw it as a perverted ideal, and Christianity the cancer that kept it alive:

“In Christianity, the instincts of the subordinate and oppressed are highlighted. It is the lowest ranks that search their salvation in it. Christianity represents all that is weak, lowly, and failing. It has created an ideal out of its contradiction to the survival instincts of the fittest in life.”

We might be surprised by these words, because in today’s world it isn’t common to say things like this out loud. But the actions of modern society reveal that, however hidden in our subconscious, there’s more about Nietzsche’s words we agree with than we’d ever admit.

Now, Nietzsche is a complex figure, and his writings cannot be summarized easily. But we know for sure that he believed God was dead, made redundant by the advances of modern science and thought, and his fear was that the void left by religion would be filled with nihilism. He concluded that in order to avoid the terror of nihilism, the human race needed to strive for the Übermensch, a breed of “super humans” so strong and advanced that they could replace the gods.

But as always, man’s striving for greatness apart from God leads to disaster. Nietzsche might not have intended this, but the Nazis loved his books and read them like a Bible. Which is not surprising when you consider statements like the following from the book Götzendämmerung (Twilight of the idols):

“Christianity is the anti-Aryan religion par excellence. It is the reassessment of all Aryan values. It is a gospel preached to the poor, the uprising of those trampled down, the mishaps, the unfortunate – all of it in contrary to the Aryan race.”

Following the “Aryan ideal” lead to a sub-human society that massacred millions of their own brothers and sisters and plunged the world into chaos for decades. The Übermensch turns out to be just another name for our ego, and Nietzsche turns out to be mistaken.

The one thing he was right about is that it is not natural for people to strive for compassion. It is actually super-natural; to show kindness and to use your own resources to support the weak instead of getting ahead yourself is an ability given to us from God.

And yes, in terms of evolution, such behavior endangers the survival of a species. But it turns out that evolution isn’t the only reality, and, against all odds, Christianity has infinitely enriched human society instead of tearing it down.

The life of a true follower of Jesus is marked by a desire, a drive, to cultivate this part of our personality and heart. It doesn’t come naturally to any of us, but is literally God’s power in us. This is true whether we’re on top or at the bottom – any which way, we need the grace of God.

In the last episode of season 2 of the TV series The Chosen, Jesus prepares the Sermon on the Mount and discusses some of it with Matthew:

“I want to create a map with my sermon”, he says. “Directions where people should look to find me.” After considering a number of other starting points for his sermon, Jesus finally dictates the famous words to Matthew:

“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 justice,
    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 children of God.
Blessed are those who are persecuted for the sake of justice,
    for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Matthew, having recorded the words, looks up. “Yes. But how is it a map?”

Jesus looks at him, and at us.

“If someone wants to find me, those are the groups of people they should look for.”