You don’t have to scroll down far on your Facebook or Twitter feed to see someone that is ” feeling blessed”. The word “blessed” slips so easily off our lips. But what does it actually mean? What do we mean when we ask God to bless our children, our activities, or our church? What would blessed children look like, or a blessed church service? Only recently in church someone prayed from the front, “Lord, we are so blessed!” What did they mean? I suspect they were acknowledging in a very general way the absence of hardship here in Australia; perhaps the prosperity that the nation enjoys, probably the freedom we have to be a Christian without fear of reprisal.
But if that is what it means to be blessed what does that mean for Christians in countries where the hardships are greater and the freedom is restricted? Are they not blessed?
A friend of mine visited an African country a few years ago and one of the African Christians said to him: “It must be so hard to be a Christian in Australia.” My friend asked him what he meant. The man responded, “You have so much it must be hard to depend on God.”
Humbling perspective, but there is no doubt that this is how Jesus views things. At the end the first century the resurrected Jesus told the church at Smyrna, “I know your afflictions and your poverty—yet you are rich!” (Revelation 2:9a), while he told the church at Laodicea, “You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realise that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked” (Revelation 3:17). One church is poor and yet they are rich. The other is rich and yet they are poor. Quite obviously then, blessing has nothing to do with a high bank balance and the absence of hardships. Yet this is a contrast to the way many Christians think and speak about what it means to be blessed.
Jesus’ tells us what it means to be blessed: “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you” (Matthew 5:11-12). Notice the reason that persecuted people are blessed is “because great is your reward in heaven.” Jesus doesn’t link blessing to circumstances that in the end will not last forever, he links it to the kingdom of heaven.
To be blessed means to be in the kingdom. That is the only criteria. This is why Jesus compared the “kingdom of heaven” to a “treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field” (Matthew 13:44). The kingdom is worth everything and one should do whatever they can–sell all they have if necessary–to make sure they are in it. Only then are they blessed.
What this means is that anything that brings us into contact with God’s kingdom is to be viewed as a blessing. As it so happens, persecution will do that far more effectively than prosperity will. When, therefore, we pray that God would bless us, what we are ultimately asking for is that God would do whatever it takes to bring us more under his kingly rule–which sounds very much like “your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10).
Here is an example that I have often given in the past and was reminded of recently. Jesus had just fed the five thousand and it was time to leave. “Jesus made his disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to Bethsaida, while he dismissed the crowd” (Mark 6:45). Now would there be any better place than where Jesus had “made” you to be? How many times have we asked the question, “Is this where Jesus wants me?” The disciples need not ask that question here. They know. They are exactly where Jesus wants them.
But Jesus does not go with them in the boat. He goes off to pray. Later on in the night “the boat was in the middle of the lake, and he was alone on land. He saw the disciples straining at the oars, because the wind was against them” (Mark 6:47-48a). Now don’t forget, the disciples are exactly where Jesus wants them. He made them get in that boat. Furthermore, what happens next suggests that the strong winds and their struggle to make headway is also where Jesus wants them. Notice that as soon as Jesus saw their predicament he could have done something to alleviate it. After all Jesus can simply “say the word” and heal people (Matthew 8:9-13). Could not Jesus bless them and get them out of this mess? Certainly, but the question is, would that be a blessing?
Look what happens next. “Shortly before dawn he went out to them, walking on the lake. He was about to pass by them but when they saw him walking on the lake, they thought he was a ghost. They cried out, because they all saw him and were terrified” (Mark 6:48b-50). Why doesn’t Jesus do something? The answer is, because he wants to bless them. “Immediately he spoke to them and said, ‘Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid’” (Mark 6:51). Commentators will often point out that the phrase “It is I” in Greek means “I am” and, therefore, may very well be Jesus’ way of identifying himself as the “I AM” who appeared to Moses at the burning bush (Exodus 3:14). What greater thing could Jesus have done that night for these disciples than reveal his true identity to them? Would there be a greater blessing than that–to know that the “I AM” is with you? But what if Jesus had simply dispelled the winds and made it easy for them? What blessing would they receive then?
Here is the point. To be blessed is to see more of God. This has always been the case. God’s design “to bless the Israelites” (Numbers 6:23) was to pray:
“The LORD bless you
and keep you;
the LORD make his face shine on you
and be gracious to you;
the LORD turn his face toward you
and give you peace.” (Numbers 6:24-26)
Notice that the prayer in the first line–“The LORD bless you”–is developed in the third line–“the LORD make his face shine on you”–and then again in the last line–“and give you peace.” In other words, to be blessed is to see God’s face.
God may dispel the winds in our lives and take away whatever it is that is causing us to strain at the ores, but will that bring us peace? Moses knew, and the disciples came to know it too, peace would only come through having God make his face to shine upon us. And that is precisely what he has done in the person of Jesus Christ at the cross. It is at the cross that we see the magnificence of God’s character and identity. But it is also, typically, at those cross-like moments in our own lives where the wind is howling and we are straining at the ores that we also are in a position to see more clearly the character and identity of God. And at that point, we are blessed. We are precisely where God wants us to be.
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