Blessed are the...

Mount of the Beatitudes, site of Sermon on the Mount

 

One of the highlights for me personally, was that I got to read the Beatitudes from the Sermon on the Mount, at the location where it's believed that Jesus first preached them.    We are taking turns doing Biblical readings at each site, and this one happened to be mine.  

It makes so much more sense now...

The setting is lush and green, and the hillside truly does form a kind of natural amphitheatre.  The Sea of Galilee (which sits basically in a hole, 600+ feet below sea level, surrounded by mountains) is the backdrop.  

Jesus had moved from Nazareth and set up "headquarters" in Capernaum, a town of about 1500 on the Sea of Galilee where Peter and other disciples lived.  I now understand when the Bible says that "news of him spread quickly throughout the countryside..."   Imagine how news spreads through our small towns today, and in that time and place, all they really had to talk about was each other.  

Our wonderful guide Jimmy introduced the Mount of the Beatitudes by saying, "Jesus didn't come to the rich or the powerful.  He came to his people.  He went down to that water, and he was among the fisherman.  He was a builder himself.  He went to the poor and those who didn't have a chance.  He cared about them.  He went to the Gentile side of this lake and ministered in the Decapolis, and no one would do that!" 

Jimmy went on to say, "Do we talk about Jesus being in Tiberias, the town we're staying in?  No!  Do you know why?  Because it was a resort town for the rich 2,000 years ago, just like it is today.  That's not where Jesus was going to spend his time."  

That being the case...from the point of Jimmy, a 60+ year old, 3rd generation Palestinian Christian living in Israel...makes this reading come alive.  

From Matthew 4 and 5 (The Message)  

When Jesus got word that John had been arrested, he returned to Galilee. He moved from his hometown, Nazareth, to the lakeside village Capernaum, nestled at the base of the Zebulun and Naphtali hills...

From there he went all over Galilee. He used synagogues for meeting places and taught people the truth of God. God's kingdom was his theme—that beginning right now they were under God's government, a good government! He also healed people of their diseases and of the bad effects of their bad lives. Word got around the entire Roman province of Syria. People brought anybody with an ailment, whether mental, emotional, or physical. Jesus healed them, one and all. More and more people came, the momentum gathering. Besides those from Galilee, crowds came from the "Ten Towns" across the lake, others up from Jerusalem and Judea, still others from across the Jordan.

^1-2 When Jesus saw his ministry drawing huge crowds, he climbed a hillside. Those who were apprenticed to him, the committed, climbed with him. Arriving at a quiet place, he sat down and taught his climbing companions. This is what he said:

 ³"You're blessed when you're at the end of your rope. With less of you there is more of God and his rule.

 ⁴"You're blessed when you feel you've lost what is most dear to you. Only then can you be embraced by the One most dear to you.

 ⁵"You're blessed when you're content with just who you are—no more, no less. That's the moment you find yourselves proud owners of everything that can't be bought.

 ⁶"You're blessed when you've worked up a good appetite for God. He's food and drink in the best meal you'll ever eat.

 ⁷"You're blessed when you care. At the moment of being 'care-full,' you find yourselves cared for.

 ⁸"You're blessed when you get your inside world—your mind and heart—put right. Then you can see God in the outside world.

 ⁹"You're blessed when you can show people how to cooperate instead of compete or fight. That's when you discover who you really are, and your place in God's family.

 ¹⁰"You're blessed when your commitment to God provokes persecution. The persecution drives you even deeper into God's kingdom.

 ^11-12"Not only that—count yourselves blessed every time people put you down or throw you out or speak lies about you to discredit me. What it means is that the truth is too close for comfort and they are uncomfortable. You can be glad when that happens—give a cheer, even!—for though they don't like it, I do! And all heaven applauds. And know that you are in good company. My prophets and witnesses have always gotten into this kind of trouble.