Friday, February 14, 2025
Theology

#Blessed: The Beatitudes As Facebook Status Updates 2.0

In 2016 I wrote an article imagining what it would be like if the Beatitudes from Jesus in Matthew 5:3-10 were modern Facebook status updates. The idea was that Christians often talk, and even post, about being “blessed”. And often, we think of material and relational blessings. And Jesus turns all of that on its head at the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount. Sadly, we do not often connect being poor in spirit and merciful with being blessed.

Then, in 2022, I actually did make the Beatitudes into Facebook status updates from my own life. This is a compilation of those eight posts.

#Blessed

The world values and teaches self-confidence, self-sufficiency, believing in yourself, searching for happiness, the triumph of the human spirit. “You are strong.” “You are enough.” “Look inside yourself.” “Listen to your heart.”

Jesus values the opposite. He teaches the posture of a spiritual beggar, who knows he is weak, ignorant, sinful, miserable, and powerless apart from Him. We bring nothing to God except an empty shell of humanity, utterly depraved and hopeless without his salvation.

“God is most glorified in us when we are most aware of how desperate our need for Him is.” #Blessed #Matthew5verse3

I’ll never forget the last night of Senior Camp at Camp Hope in 2013. I was the speaker and I had shared about the horrific times in my life when suffering broke me. One young man came up to me after, far away from the crowd, and told me about his circumstances and how he struggled with depression and thoughts of dying. I counseled him the best I could and after he walked away, I went into the woods and cried for 30 minutes.

It simply was not fair that this kind, gentle, respectful young man was the victim of such injustice. It was one of the most meaningful moments in my life.

I think I know what some Christians mean when they say “Choose Joy.” I think they mean something like what Habakkuk 3:17-18 says, that they are not going to let bad circumstances keep them from rejoicing. That is biblical and good. But I never want people to forget that joy is much more of a fruit than a choice. The Christian chooses Christ, and he takes care of the rest. The goal of Christianity isn’t joy. It’s Jesus.

And Jesus is described biblically as “A man of sorrows, and familiar with the most intimate suffering.” And I think if you live as he lived, you will spend most of your life either suffering or ministering to others who are. And I can think of no more meaningful or fulfilling way to live.

So while the world tells you that “you deserve to be happy,” and that “happiness comes from within,” Jesus teaches you to live a life where lament, mourning, and grief and common. And yet you can still know something far deeper, more powerful, more eternal, and more meaningful than mere happiness. Because he will give it to you. #Blessed#matthew5verse4

One of the truly amazing people I met in my 17 years in Chicago was a worker at Ames Middle School named Ray. He wasn’t a principal or teacher or teacher aide. He was a custodian. And this guy knew Jesus. It was so obvious he was a Christian that when I met him, being the introvert that I am, I had to ask. He and I bonded as a result. He was a modest, hardworking man who did his job quietly.

Yet he was so known and loved by all the students, that when one of them tragically died in a gang shooting, he had the relational capital to speak truth into many of their lives, and many came to Christ from his witness during that time.

As a definition of humility, I reject both “thinking less of yourself” and “thinking of yourself less”. Because neither puts the focus where the Bible does: on Jesus. I think the greatest definition is from John the Baptist, who once said “Christ must [by the very nature of things] increase, but I must decrease.” The way the verse reads, you know the emphasis is strong on the front half. Live for Christ’s glory and you will naturally have humility. Any attempt to try to decrease self and of itself will fail.

The world teaches you to promote yourself. To desire the spotlight. It values the attractive person. The funny one. The one with charisma. The best athlete. Popularity. Acceptance. Attention. Even Christians, myself included, tend to use social media and other venues to completely ignore verses like “When you give to the poor, do not announce it” and “Let another praise you, and not your own lips”.

We typically do not wrestle enough with how much God hates pride, so much that he says so in the same list where he hates hands that shed innocent blood.

And so Christ teaches us to value being invisible. Overlooked. Underappreciated. The willingness to be last. To do things in secret so only the Father can see. And not because it makes us noble, but because we don’t deserve the glory. Only Christ does, by the very nature of who He is as God. And what he gives in return is far better than any attention, praise or acceptance the world could ever give. #blessed#matthew5verse5

I know when I as a Christian have struggled with sin in my life, my first instinct is to try harder. To dig deeper. To vow that I’m going to do better next time. I’ve spent many moments at an altar during an invitation, vowing I will change.

But I don’t think that is the biblical approach. When Jesus taught his disciples to pray, he told them to say “Lead me not into temptation, but deliver me from the evil one.” That’s quite different to me than trying harder. It’s the voice of one in need. It reminds me of when my son was learning to walk and he’d fall and say “Help me!” It’s a cry of desperation and dependence.

The fact that those who are hungry and thirsty for righteousness will be filled by God and not by themselves makes me think this is the way God wants us to understand this. Being hungry and thirsty are conditions of desperation and dependence quite often. Especially in world history.

God doesn’t want us to overcome sin and then feel prideful about it. We are so bent toward that, that we have to see overcoming temptation as an act of grace, just as salvation is. If we do anything righteous–overcome temptation, be generous to the poor, be the best spouse or parent possible–and then feel pride in our effort, then we are just as sinful as the adulterer, the greedy, or the deadbeat.

Only when we see our obedience as rooted in how badly we need God will we be satisfied. #blessed#matthew5verse6

The world will tell you that you are blessed based on how much other people love you. That your value is in how many friends or followers you have, how many likes, reposts, and views you get, who your “tribe” is, and in things like accolades and affirmation.

But what if the truth is that you are blessed based on how you love others, even if they treat you like garbage?

The only perfect person to ever live was spat upon, mocked, stripped of his dignity, beaten so badly he was disfigured, and then executed like a vile criminal. And he prayed for God to forgive those who did that to him.

Perhaps the greatest missionary ever once wrote: “To this very hour we go hungry and thirsty, we are in rags, we are brutally treated, we are homeless. We work hard with our own hands. When we are cursed, we bless; when we are persecuted, we endure it; when we are slandered, we answer kindly. We have become the scum of the earth, the garbage of the world…”

Jesus taught numerous times, including in Matthew 18:21-35, that if you don’t forgive other people who wrong you, you will not be forgiven by God. In a belief system that says salvation is based on grace and not works, how can this be? What if Jesus is saying that the willingness to forgive others is a fruit of true Christianity? That if a person truly understands the $20 million debt they have been forgiven, they will be willing to forgive the $30,000 debt others have against them?

We are saved by grace, but if there is no fruit, then grace has not been understood. And hence not truly granted.

So while the world tells you things like when you are wronged to get even, don’t be a doormat, if you are punched to punch back, don’t take it, etc…Jesus promises that if you show mercy, he will give you something far more satisfying and fulfilling than any form of revenge ever could. #blessed#matthew5verse7

I believe the beatitudes are divided into four that deal with man’s relationship to God (Matthew 5:3-6) and four that deal with man’s relationship to other people (Matthew 5:7-10). This definitely follows the pattern of the Ten Commandments and the Greatest Commandment that Jesus gave.

As such I believe being “pure in heart” isn’t just about keeping yourself away from sin. If that verse is in the context of my relationship with other people, then it means something deeper, I think. In Matthew 23 Jesus made it clear that being pure has to do with weighty matters of the law, like justice and mercy. Meaning, not being full of greed and self-indulgence.

I also think that since Jesus said the pure in heart will see God, this is what he meant in Matthew 25 when the righteous will ask “When did we *see you* hungry, or thirsty, or sick, or in prison? Or a stranger and invite you in?” And the answer is that they saw Jesus when they exercised justice and mercy to “the least of these brothers and sisters of mine”.

Just as James 4:17 says, sin isn’t just about doing what is bad, it’s about not doing what is good. We must do good, no matter how difficult, to be pure in God’s eyes.

In Isaiah God says a fast he chooses is one that divides bread with the hungry and has the homeless poor in our homes. Maybe the American church should practice this more than we worry about whether there is a pulpit on our stage or not. Then maybe we can truly understand what truly matters to God. #blessed#matthew5verse8

I’m extremely thankful to Dr. Wong Loi-Sing at Moody Theological Seminary for helping me understand in a life-changing way how much we bring biases and pre-conceived understandings to Bible texts. And how important it is to challenge them. Not that we lack confidence completely in essential doctrines like the Resurrection. Or question them to the point they lose their power.

But other doctrines and passage interpretations are not like that. Like the story of the widow’s mite. What if it’s true that she didn’t give all that she had in the offering out of generosity, but because she was forced to out of unmerciful taxation? In both Mark 12 and Luke 21 just a couple of verses before this story, Jesus is lambasting the Pharisees for “devouring widows’ houses”. No doubt it was common for those in religious power in Jesus’s day to take advantage of the powerless.

If the woman gave the two pennies because she had to, she wasn’t a hero of generosity, she was a victim of injustice.

Matthew 5:9 is another place where I am not sure the common understanding is correct. I may be wrong, but I truly wonder if Jesus didn’t consider “peacemakers” those who help bring vertical peace to people’s lives, that is to say, peace with God, and not horizontal peace, or peace between two people or groups.

I wonder this because I believe it’s beneficial to let Bible books help interpret themselves. What else Matthew has to say about bringing peace to people is of utmost importance, more so than me reading my pre-understandings into the verse. This is why I interpret Matthew 5:8 the way I do, which I commented on above.

In Matthew 10, Jesus speaks of taking the Gospel to people’s houses (witness, sharing Christ, etc.) as taking your “peace” to each home. In that same chapter, Jesus even makes it clear that he didn’t come to bring peace to the world in the horizontal sense–he came to divide. Brother against brother, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law. Etc.

As far as it depends on us we should live at peace with others. But the Gospel does not depend on us. Our priority is making peace between God and man, more so than man and man, which is impossible on a large scale. The fact in Matthew 10 that Jesus keeps referring to God as “the father” of his followers also matches Matthew 5:9 saying “for they will be called the children of God”.

So maybe the beatitude means that God pours out his love on us when we help people find the only peace that truly matters in this world. Spiritual peace. #Blessed#matthew5verse9

Every one of the beatitudes makes me feel convicted, like the way I think is more like the world than like Christ. But if there’s one that I am tempted to feel particularly inadequate to discuss, it’s the last one. Because I don’t truly know or understand persecution in its harshest forms.

Yet just based on the verses about it, I think I can say that we do well not to think, “We have blessings in America (i.e., freedom of religion) that Christians in North Korea do not have.” Maybe so, but according to Jesus, they have blessings we don’t.

It may be the most stunning and upside down and countercultural and counterintuitive beatitude of all. No one in their right mind would say you can be persecuted and blessed. But Jesus does. It’s an amazing promise. Jesus says that governments can throw you in prison, dictators can strip you of your liberty, guards can beat you, police can shoot at you, threaten your family, try to make your life miserable, etc. And they can not stop you from being blessed. There’s a God-level protection and promise that even the most powerful, oppressive, and evil rulers in world history cannot touch.

In Genesis 39, Joseph had no family, no liberty, no home, and no money. But the refrain is that the Lord was with him. And that was all that mattered. Would you rather be free without God, or in chains with God? That’s a serious question American Christianity needs to really think about.

Lastly, I’ll add that the sharp change in Matthew 5:11 from “blessed are those” to “blessed are you” makes me believe that the beatitudes are 5:3-10 and that vs. 11-12 are a commentary on vs. 10. And what’s more, the fact that Jesus continues to use words like “you” and “your” in verses 13-16 makes me think Matthew 5:13-16 should not be separated from Matthew 5:10-12, even though most Bibles put a new heading over 13-16.

I think there’s a connection to Jesus (and, again, you see it throughout world history) between being salt and light and being mistreated. Salt is no good unless there’s rotted meat and light is no good unless there’s darkness. Christians need to be engaging the most rotten and darkest part of culture–even if it means we are mistreated–to know God’s blessings.

My fear is that we are so comfortable in America because of our freedom, that we won’t even stand up to say we believe in a literal creation because we may be made fun of.

But God will give us something when we are salt and light, even if we end up in prison for it, that the world cannot touch, or understand. #blessed#matthew5verse10

I’d guess many who claim Christianity think having a great family, a nice home, and financial security make a person more blessed than the alternative. Yet Jesus was rejected by his family (John 7:5), was basically homeless (Luke 9:57), and was poor (2 Corinthians 8:9). That kind of theology should shake us to our very core.

I hope my wife and I have at least three children, we want to build a big house one day, and we do invest money. But if I think a couple who can’t have children or a person living on the street can’t be as blessed or more, then I misunderstand Matthew 5.

I truly wonder if even some American Christians aren’t obsessed with full schedules, materialism, picture-perfect experiences, constant family trips, being busy, etc. because that fills a void intended to be filled simply by following Christ the way the Bible teaches. By cherishing his word and living in community with other believers, as Psalm 1 says. (Which also makes us blessed). We all want to prosper, but the world never lets up on lying to us about how Christians are supposed to achieve prosperity.

So I urge my fellow Christians, both in my local church and community in person, but also anyone who I can reach with social media, to meditate on what the Beatitudes teach. Let them get into your heart and soul. I strongly believe the Christian immigrants I taught in Chicago who knew no English, worked jobs most Americans wouldn’t touch and were on the lowest rung of society are happier than Tom Brady is. As Haggai told God’s people 2500 years ago, chasing after the riches of the world means putting them in pockets with holes in them. You’ll never have enough.

Jesus is just the opposite. With him, you can be grieving and mistreated and still have more than enough. Because you have Him.

Gowdy Cannon

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Gowdy Cannon

I am currently the pastor of Bear Point FWB Church in Sesser, IL. I previously served for 17 years as the associate bilingual pastor at Northwest Community Church in Chicago. My wife, Kayla, and I have been married over 9 years and have a 5-year-old son, Liam Erasmus, and a two-year-old, Bo Tyndale. I have been a student at Welch College in Nashville and at Moody Theological Seminary in Chicago. I love The USC (the real one in SC, not the other one in CA), Seinfeld, John 3:30, Chick-fil-A, Dumb and Dumber, the book of Job, preaching and teaching, and arguing about sports.

2 thoughts on “#Blessed: The Beatitudes As Facebook Status Updates 2.0

  • Steve L

    Probing…convicting….thought-provoking. You don’t have to agree with every single point of interpretation or application to have your world totally rocked and stood on it’s head. Thank you, Gowdy, for seeing and speaking like an Elijah, or John the Baptist.

    Reply
    • Gowdy Cannon

      Thanks, Steve.

      Reply

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