Blessed Broken Given, Week 2: Blessed vs. #Blessed
Genesis 1; Matthew 5
Good morning. I’d like you to have your Bibles open to two different places. (Weird, I know). The first place will be Genesis 1. Then, I’d like you to put a bookmark in Matthew 5.
We are continuing the series we started last week, called Blessed, Broken, Given. The organization of the series comes from a book by Glenn Packiam. But the title comes from the pattern we see in Scripture, particularly in the gospel of Luke, of what happened every time Jesus had bread in His hands: He blessed it, broke it, and gave it. We spent a lot of time last week on how when we put our lives in the hands of Jesus, He will bless us, break us, and give us to the world.
So today, we’re going to talk about the word ‘blessed’.
Imagine that an alien were to land on our planet and observe how we use the word, ‘Blessed’ and determine it’s meaning solely by how it is used on social media. First off, this alien would be confused about how to spell the word, because everywhere you see it on social media, it’s #blessed, not just blessed.
From there, the alien would start to look at all our facebook posts, Pinterest walls, and Instagram feeds. And his conclusion would be that #blessed means living the good life. Sipping an artisan coffee or a craft brew in a remodeled kitchen that opens out onto a patio overlooking a Key West sunset as you hold hands with your supermodel wife, while your children frolic in the surf with your purebred designer dog.
Sometimes when you search #blessed, the results are just weird. Like this one [snake skeleton picture] You may not be able to read the caption, but it’s someone who was super excited to find a framed snake skeleton at goodwill for $4.98. “I love snakes… I love skeletons… so, #blessed.
But that has nearly nothing to do with what the Bible means by blessed. Many of the things we associate with a blessed life—health, provision, beauty, and more—are, of course, gifts from God. But they are just hints and shadows of the real and true blessedness. Like the song Blessed Assurance—they are just a foretaste of glory divine.
When the Bible talks about being blessed, what does it mean? Let’s get an Old Testament answer and a New Testament answer.
In the Old Testament, the word blessed first shows up in Genesis 1. Here, you see the first three of over two hundred times the word blessed is used in the Old Testament. The word is “barak,” and it means “to endow with power for success, prosperity, longevity, etc.”
Look at it with me: When God created the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, verse 22 says,
22 And God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.” 23 And there was evening and there was morning, the fifth day.
There it is: first use of blessed. Skip down to verse 28. After God creates human beings, verse 28 says,
28 And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
God says the same thing to human beings that he says to birds and sea creatures, but with one HUGE difference. God gives us a job to do. Take care of my creation. Have dominion over every living thing.
The word blessed shows up just one more time in the creation story. We’ll look at the last part of Chapter 1 and the first part of chapter 2:
31 And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.
2 Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. 2 And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. 3 So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation.
So, the only other thing God blesses in the creation story is the Sabbath. And because God blessed the seventh day and rested on it, His people understood, even before the Ten Commandments, that the seventh day was to be a special, sacred day of rest.
Here’s why this matters: The Genesis account of creation isn’t the only creation story from ancient Mesopotamia. The Sumerians had their creation story, too. In it, the god of heaven, An, falls in love with Ki, the god of the earth, and he creates humans as a kind of wedding present for Ki, so that they will serve her and keep her from having to work.
Which is at least a little more romantic than the Enuma Elish, the Akkadian creation story. In this one, the god Marduk becomes more powerful than all the other gods, and he basically goes on a killing spree. He kills the goddess Tiamat and splits her body in two—half of it becomes the earth and the other half becomes the sky. Then Marduk kills Kingu, and spills his blood on the earth. The drops of blood become human beings, and Marduk enslaves them as a warning to all the other gods that you don’t mess with Marduk.
So ancient people didn’t wonder whether God made the world. For them, the question was which god (or gods) made the world, and why. And when you look at it that way, the Bible gives the best answer.
The Bible says there is only one God. Genesis reveals that YHWH is the supreme, sovereign God. Unlike the way their neighbors thought, Israelites did not have a separate god of the sea, god of the land, or god of fertility. There was and is only one God. The foundational statement of faith for the Hebrews is Deuteronomy 6:4—the Shema: “Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one” (Deuteronomy 6:4).
As the lead character in the opening scenes, God not only exists but also acts. God is all through the opening passage as the only active character. There are no rivals and no one else adding input or ideas. There is simply God, who speaks, forms, makes, calls, and blesses.
God creates the world on purpose and with purpose. Creation wasn’t the result of a bloody battle among the gods. Human beings weren’t the gods’ way of getting cheap labor or a warning to other gods.
God created the world carefully, deliberately, methodically, and even poetically: The opening chapter of Genesis has a song-like cadence to it. Genesis 1 and 2 were meant to be a purpose story, a song about why we’re here and why it matters. And just what does Genesis say about why we’re here? It tells us we are here because God called us into being. God made us on purpose and with a purpose in mind. Not for cosmic labor but for divine relationship. That’s why there’s a special blessing for the Sabbath day. God establishes the pattern of work and rest. Fulfill your purpose, and enjoy my creation.
Thirdly, God blesses what He creates. Not only is God the sole sovereign and an intentional creator, but He is also the God who loves and blesses what He creates. This is different from other ancient accounts of the beginning of the world.
From the beginning the God who creates also blesses what He has made. He called it good. And when He got to humans, Genesis 1:26 says that God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good. The word good has many meanings, but in some usage it has resonances with what we might call “beautiful.” In a very real way, all that is good and beautiful in the world is the result of God’s blessing.
Let me pause and ask you: Good and beautiful. Is that how you see yourself?
Maybe on a good day. But we often struggle to see ourselves as good or beautiful, let alone both. We’re too aware of our shortcomings or our plainness. I’m not really good; I’m a bit of a mess, actually. And beautiful? Well, I definitely wouldn’t say that. Maybe just ordinary. The Genesis story grounds us in God. God Himself made us on purpose and for a purpose and blessed us by calling us good and beautiful. That is our origin story.
Now most people believe that Genesis was written by Moses, some time after Israel was led out of Egypt, but before they came into the promised land. There are some scholars that give Genesis a much later date of authorship, suggesting that it was written during the Babylonian exile. But either way, it was written for a group of people who probably didn’t feel very #Blessed. Either they’ve been wandering in the desert for forty years, or they’ve been living in exile for seventy years, and either way, they are looking around, trying to see some evidence of God’s hand in their circumstances.
Then they remember: This world was made by God! God called this world good. And God has blessed us above all His creation. The blessing of God would have provided comfort and an opportunity for worship for a people wandering in the desert, or for a people living in exile in a pagan culture, under a hostile government.
Now, fast forward a few thousand years, and you get to the New Testament. Once again, God’s people are living under an oppressive foreign government. They may be back in Israel, but Israel sure ain’t what it used to be. The Romans demand high taxes. Caesar Augustus has declared himself to be the son of God. And even their own religious leaders have made religion itself a burdensome, legalistic, joyless, empty ritual.
Then, along comes Jesus. I want to show you the first place the word blessed shows up in the New Testament. It’s in Matthew 5, at the beginning of the sermon on the Mount, in the passage that has come to be known as the Beatitudes. Look at it with me:
5 Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and when he sat down, his disciples came to him.
2 And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying:
3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
4 “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
5 “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
6 “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
7 “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.
8 “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
9 “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons[a] of God.
10 “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
11 “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. 12 Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
Now, look at this list. There’s almost nothing on this list that is even close to #blessed. Remember-- #blessed is lattes and beachfront and Instagram worthy honeymoons and designer dogs. And snake skeletons. How does being poor in spirit fit with that? How does mourning fit with that?
How does being persecuted for the sake of righteousness fit with that?
It doesn’t. The biblical idea of blessing has nothing to do with living the world’s definition of the good life. Now, full disclosure, there are actually two words that are translated as blessing in the New Testament. The other one is “eulogeo” which means to speak well of, or to speak a good word over. Its where we get the word eulogy. And that’s actually the word that is used when Jesus blesses the bread and breaks it, and gives it.
But it’s a different word in Matthew 5. In the Beatitudes, the Greek word is Makarios. And that makes sense. Look at verse 11—“Blessed are you when men insult you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me.” Eulogeo wouldn’t make any sense in that context—“It’s a good word about you when people say bad things about you.” See?
No, Makarios means something different. The theological dictionary of the New Testament defines it as “referring overwhelmingly to the distinctive religious joy which results from our share in the salvation of the kingdom of God.”
In 2 Corinthians 11-12, Paul was reflecting on all of the hardships he had endured in his life—the shipwrecks, the beatings, the stonings, the death threats, the betrayals from people he thought were his friends. He alludes to some kind of physical problem—he called it a thorn in the flesh. He says he prayed over and over for God to take this thorn in the flesh away, and God wouldn’t do it.
Would you say Paul was blessed, by the world’s standards? Was he living his best life now? Was he #blessed?
No. Not by the world’s standards. But look how Paul ends this section of the letter to the Corinthians:
9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 10 For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
Paul considered himself blessed because he had a share in the kingdom of God. Even when nothing in his life was Instagram worthy, he knew that his life allowed the power of Christ to rest upon him.
What about Jesus Himself? Was Jesus #blessed?
By the world’s standards, no. In 1926, a Canadian pastor named James Allen Francis wrote an essay called One Solitary Life:
He was born in an obscure village, the child of a peasant woman. He grew up in another village. He worked in a carpenter shop until He was thirty. Then for three years He was an itinerant preacher.
He never owned a home. He never wrote a book. He never held an office. He never had a family. He never went to college. He never put His foot inside a big city. He never traveled two hundred miles from the place He was born. He never did one of the things that usually accompany greatness.
While still a young man, the tide of popular opinion turned against him. His friends ran away. One of them denied Him. He was turned over to His enemies. He went through the mockery of a trial. He was nailed upon a cross between two thieves. While He was dying His executioners gambled for the only piece of property He had on earth – His coat. When He was dead, He was laid in a borrowed grave through the pity of a friend.
Is this the portrait of someone who is blessed?
Not if you define blessed the way social media does. But if you define it the way the Bible defines blessed, then absolutely. Remember, the Greek word for “blessed” describes “the distinctive joy resulting from one’s share in the salvation of the kingdom of God.”
Jesus was not #blessed when he became obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. (Philippians 2). But Hebrews 12 says that “for the joy that was set before Him,” Jesus “endured the cross, despising its shame, and is seated at the right hand of God.” You see, three days after being laid in that borrowed tomb, God raised Jesus from the dead. God gave Him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus, every knee will bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Beloved, if you have confessed that Jesus Christ is Lord, then you are blessed.
Being blessed is not a circumstantial state—it’s a salvation story.
See, there is a difference between “feeling” blessed and being blessed. You are blessed when you have a share in the salvation of the kingdom of God. And this doesn’t go away even in the face of mourning, or poverty, or persecution. If you share in salvation, all those earthly hardships are going to evaporate.
In contrast, you can “feel blessed” when you are enjoying all the benefits of God’s good creation. The love of family, the sun on your face, the feel of sand between your toes, a breathtaking sunrise. But if you don’t have a share in the salvation of the kingdom of God, all those earthly blessings are going to evaporate.
Let me put it another way: If you are here this morning and you don’t know Jesus, then enjoy every opportunity to be #blessed. Make the most of that Caribbean cruise. Take delight in your kids opening their Christmas presents. Enjoy time with your family at Thanksgiving. Just realize that without Jesus, that is the closest to heaven that you are going to get. And one day, your knee will bow, and your tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, but it will be your only glimpse of the glory of God before you are separated from Him forever at the final judgment.
But if you do have a relationship with Jesus; if you do have a share in the salvation of the kingdom of God, then take comfort in your mourning. Be blessed in your brokenness. Endure persecution with joy. Why? Because this is the closest to hell you will ever have to endure. Your knee has already bowed. Your tongue has already confessed that Jesus is Lord. And one day, Jesus will say to you
“Come, blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.”
Oh, beloved, don’t just settle for #blessed. You can leave this place today truly blessed. Bow the knee. Confess with the tongue that Jesus is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Let us pray together.
