Last week, Jesus kicked off his ministry in Matthew 4, and in Matthew 5 we find his most famous teaching: the Sermon on the Mount. We’ll be checking out the promises of blessing that Jesus gives in the first section of that sermon.

Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and when he sat down, his disciples came to him. And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying:
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 righteousness, 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 sons of God.
Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
-Matthew 5:1-12

The Beatitudes, maybe the most famous of all of Jesus’ teachings, are eight incredible promises. Anyone who reads this text longs for these to be true in his life. Yet, simultaneously, we get the gut-wrenching feeling that we don’t measure up to most, if not all, of these. I don’t know about you, but I’m certainly not pure in heart, more often than not I’m not hungering for righteousness, and humility and meekness are often hard to come by. I’m certainly not the poster child for these things, and I’d venture to guess that neither are you.

Even the one that is a bit more passive—those who mourn shall be comforted—I have a hard time believing at times. I’ve mourned a good bit in my lifetime, but sometimes comfort is hard to come by.

So what’s the deal with these promises?

First, these promises are fulfilled in Jesus.

Jesus is perfectly humble, meek, pure, and merciful. He embodies each of these promises and has fully experienced their fulfillment through his death, resurrection, and ascension. He did what we couldn’t do so that we might experience these blessings that he longs to give us. He has inherited the kingdom of heaven and the entire earth. He now reigns over all. He alone can see God because of his own holiness, and it’s truly an amazing grace that he invites us to experience these things through faith in Him.

Thus the second point: we experience these promises through Jesus.

One day we will be perfect and complete in Christ, and it’s at that moment that we will finally experience the fullness of these promises. But we can experience the fruit of these promises now as we grow in Christlikeness.

These promises are ours now and forever. The question is: will we cultivate these characteristics of Christ in our lives or will we avoid these things that the world often scoffs at?

So how do we cultivate Christlikeness?

We look at Christ over and over and over again. We do this through reading His Word to see who He is, hearing His Word preached, taking the Lord’s Supper, and living in close community with the Church and recognizing Christ in one another. Each of these shapes us little by little into the image of Christ. We need them all.

May the promises in the Beatitudes spur us on to pursue Christlikeness in this way.