The first hearers of these words were mostly low-status, powerless Israelites on the fringes of mainstream society.

What would it have felt like to be in the crowd and hear these words?

“From our perspective, we see a world of violence and corruption where might makes right. But for Jesus, there is a realm where generosity reigns, where there’s justice and peace. It's a world where love is the final word. It’s God’s heavenly reality, which might seem far off. But Jesus was claiming that Heaven was coming to Earth right here and now, beginning with these people.”

“The word ‘blessed’ is makarios. It is a word used to describe someone that you think is experiencing blessing, that is, God’s favor and abundance. Jesus isn’t proclaiming a blessing; he is pointing out who is blessed—and it’s not who you’d expect!”

“The story of the Bible begins with God bringing life out of darkness, ordering our beautiful world, and then blessing all of its creatures. Not only are we one of God's creatures that can generate new life, we've also been appointed as God's representative image to rule and oversee this whole flourishing world on God's behalf. And God wants us to rule while trusting in his abundance, to eat from the tree of blessing that is the tree of God's own eternal life.”

“The logic of these nine sayings depends on Jesus' claim that he is bringing the Kingdom of God as it is in Heaven. And the Kingdom of God brings total reversal of our value systems and our estimations of who are the fortunate ones. And that's the work that these nine sayings are doing.”