{"id":1834,"date":"2017-04-26T14:32:35","date_gmt":"2017-04-26T14:32:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gchristopherscruggs.com\/?p=1834"},"modified":"2017-04-26T14:32:35","modified_gmt":"2017-04-26T14:32:35","slug":"the-blessed-life-part-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gchristopherscruggs.com\/?p=1834","title":{"rendered":"The Blessed Life (Part 1)"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is Part 1 of three on Discipleship and the Blessed Life. Comments appreciated.\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>We live in an unusual age. Never in human history have people in the developed world had so much in terms of material wealth. Paradoxically, never before have people suffered from such anxiety about life, the future, about their ability to continue to consume at or above their current level of consumption, and about the meaning and purpose of their lives. Young people in almost all Western democracies, but most notably in the United States, the leader of the so-called \u201cfree world,\u201d demonstrate a profound lack of trust in the institutions that provide for them the highest standard of living in human history. For Christians, most sadly, fewer and fewer of these same young people live as disciples of Christ. Churches in Europe are nearly empty, and those in the United States and North America are rapidly following the European example.<\/p>\n

Almost every social commentator, Christian or non-Christian, liberal or conservative, traditionalist or radical, notes that there is something deeply sick and decadent about our society. Almost no day goes past without someone publishing an artice with a title like, \u201cAre America\u2019s best days behind her?\u201d Each of these articles focus on some indication that there is something deeply wrong with our society. These commentators just do not agree on what is wrong or what to do about it.<\/p>\n

One reason we have so much trouble in resisting the temptations of our culture is that most of us have a deeply ingrained, culturally formed notion of \u201cthe Good Life.\u201d The Good Life is the life that results in happiness. Most people believe that hard work, healthy habits, and self-sacrifice will lead to a better life. Some people believe that government will help in some way to create this better life, and some people believe it will be created by private industry, but almost everyone believes in a kind of earthly messianic kingdom that meets our human expectations and desires. [1]<\/a><\/p>\n

Just as the Jews were wrong when they reduced the promise of the Messiah to an earthly kingdom run by an anointed Son of David, when we reduce the gospel to a political agenda we are always wrong.\u00a0 In our culture, Christians need to be prepared to show people the error of expecting God\u2019s kingdom to be just like our kingdom only wealthier, politically stronger, and more defensible. When Jesus appeared before Pontius Pilate, and was accused of opposing Caesar, he replied that his kingdom was not of this world (John 18:36). This doesn\u2019t mean that we shouldn\u2019t be trying to bring his kingdom into this world; it just means there\u2019s more to God\u2019s kingdom in this world can or will ever know.<\/p>\n

Jesus and the Blessed Life<\/strong><\/p>\n

Jesus never talked to his disciples about the desirability of seeking to live to old age, of attaining a degree of physical beauty, of staying healthy, of acquiring wealth, of getting ahead in the world, of maintaining the current geopolitical balance of power, or any of the other preoccupations of our day. He did, however, speak of what he called \u201cthe blessed life.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>His teachings concerning what it means to have a blessed life are completely at odds with what our culture considers blessings. It is thus surprising that more young people have not been attracted to the teachings of the Master. Perhaps it is because the churches and Christians have done a poor job of representing Christ to the world. When people in our society use the word \u201cblessed\u201d in any of its forms, it almost always is about something concrete we have received. We say, \u201cI am blessed with good health.\u201d \u201cI am blessed with a strong heart.\u201d I am blessed with a wonderful spouse.\u201d I am blessed with four children.\u201d \u201cI have been blessed financially.\u201d \u201cI am blessed with a new job.\u201d \u201cI am blessed with a promotion.\u201d The list of our blessings could go on an on, but they have this in common: they relate to physical blessings that contribute to our sense of emotional and physical well-being.<\/p>\n

Jesus, on the other hand, in the Sermon on the Mount says, \u201cBlessed are the poor in spirit.\u201d \u201cBlessed are those who mourn.\u201d \u201cBlessed are the humble.\u201d \u201cBlessed are the merciful.\u201d \u201cBlessed are the pure in heart.\u201d \u201cBlessed are the peacemakers.\u201d Worst of all, Jesus says, \u201cBlessed are the persecuted.\u201d In Luke<\/u>, the words are even less palatable to modern ears. In Luke<\/u>, Jesus is recorded has having said, \u201cBlessed are the poor,\u201d not just the poor in spirit. He says \u201cBlessed are the hungry,\u201d not just those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. He says, \u201cBlessed are those who weep,\u201d and repeats, \u201cBlessed are you when men hate you, exclude you, and insult you.\u201d [2]<\/a><\/p>\n

Jesus challenges our human presuppositions about what it means to be blessed. For Jesus, the blessed life is not something exterior to ourselves that we acquire. Instead it is something within ourselves that we experience<\/strong>. Furthermore, because of the nature of the blessing\u2014the fact that the truly blessed life is not something we would naturally seek, we can only receive it as a gift from God.<\/p>\n

Natural reason alone will not permit us to see and understand the truly blessed life. It was true in Jesus\u2019 day; and, it is true in our day. The blessed life must be received by faith from God. We cannot discover it on our own. Someone under the inspiration of God will have to tell us about it and show us what it looks like. That is why Christ came.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2017, G. Christopher Scruggs, All Rights Reserved<\/strong><\/pre>\n
[1]<\/a> This point is made powerfully in lay language in W. T. Wright\u2019s new book, Simply Good News: Why the Gospel is News and What Makes it Good<\/em> (New York, NY: Harper One, 2015), 109ff. In the modern world, we are all subject to a culturally reinforced worldview that considers progress to be an automatic result of human striving. Recent history casts doubt on this view. What is needed is a new kingdom not the result of human striving and schemes.<\/p>\n
[2]<\/a> See, Matthew 5:3-12; Luke 6:20-22.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This is Part 1 of three on Discipleship and the Blessed Life. Comments appreciated.\u00a0 We live in an unusual age. Never in human history have people in the developed world had so much in terms of material wealth. Paradoxically, never before have people suffered from such anxiety about life, the future, about their ability to … Continue reading The Blessed Life (Part 1)<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1834","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4CzBH-tA","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gchristopherscruggs.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1834","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gchristopherscruggs.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gchristopherscruggs.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gchristopherscruggs.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gchristopherscruggs.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1834"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/gchristopherscruggs.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1834\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1838,"href":"https:\/\/gchristopherscruggs.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1834\/revisions\/1838"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gchristopherscruggs.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1834"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gchristopherscruggs.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1834"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gchristopherscruggs.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1834"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}