We must realize by His own definition Jesus was Himself most happy, most blessed, and most flourishing. In His study on the Beatitudes Billy Graham has written, “If by happiness [blessedness] we mean serenity, confidence, contentment, peace, joy and soul-satisfaction, then Jesus was supremely ‘happy.’ We never read of His laughing, though I am sure He did. He was not given to pleasure-seeking, hilariousness, jokes or poking fun at others.… His happiness [was not] dependent on outward circumstances. He did not have to have an outward stimulus to make Him happy. He had learned a secret that allowed Him to live above the circumstances of life and fear of the future. He moved with calmness, certainty and serenity through the most trying circumstances – even death!… Certainly if anyone had genuine happiness, blessedness, and was flourishing, it was Jesus.”
Is it not true that when we turn to the Beatitudes, we find them to be a portrait of Jesus? Who is the man who was poor in spirit but who possessed the kingdom of heaven? Jesus! Paul can say about Him that He “humbled himself and became obedient to death-even death on a cross” for which cause “God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow” (Ph.2.8-10). Who is the man who mourned and yet was comforted? Certainly, it is Jesus! The 22nd Psalm describes it. It is possible to find verses that identify each statement of character in the Beatitudes with Jesus, to show that He is the meek One, the One who hungered and thirsted after righteousness, the merciful, the pure in heart, the peacemaker, the One persecuted for righteousness’ sake, and so on.
Now, if Jesus was flourishing in this deep spiritual sense, then it follows that we too can flourish. For Jesus became like us – in all our suffering, in temptation, in disappointment – in order that we may become like Him.
We must realize, however, that if we are to find this happiness we must not look for it in the world’s ways. The world looks for happiness through money, but there is no real happiness there. A man thinks he will be happy if he can save ten thousand dollars, but when he gets his ten thousand, he begins to think in terms of fifty thousand and then a hundred thousand. If his fortune carries him so far, then he wishes he could become a millionaire. After that he starts on his second million, and his third, and his fourth. His frantic pursuit of money indicates that he is searching for something, but that the money itself has failed to supply it. Happiness does not come through fortune. It was a Texas millionaire who said, “I thought money could buy happiness – I have been miserably disillusioned.”
Some men try to find happiness through fame, but fame does not guarantee happiness. Voltaire was one of the most famous men in Europe during the eighteenth century. But as he lay dying this noted French infidel is reported to have cried out to his doctor, “I am abandoned by God and man. I will give you half of what I am worth if you will give me six months’ life.”
Another man thinks he will be happy with power. So he runs for the office of city council, and wins. Immediately he thinks of being mayor. Once he is mayor he turns his eye to the governor’s chair. If he succeeds there, he turns to national politics. Power does not satisfy the heart. One of the world’s greatest statesmen once said to Billy Graham, “I am an old man. Life has lost all meaning. I am ready to take a fateful leap into the unknown.”
No, if we are to find true happiness, we must not seek it in the world’s way. We must look for it in the way outlined by Jesus. And according to Jesus the way to happiness is found in a poverty of spirit, in a character that is marked by meekness, in a hunger and a thirst for righteousness, in mercy, in purity, and in a desire to make peace. Jesus lived these things. Because He lived them, we too can find happiness.
Maranatha!
(mar-uh-nath-uh – “Our Lord Comes”)
Pastor Steve can be reached at PastorSteve@MaranathaBibleChurch.org