{"id":9049,"date":"2024-02-09T18:14:46","date_gmt":"2024-02-09T12:44:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cccfornews.com\/index.php\/2024\/02\/09\/what-question-is-jesus-trying-to-answer-in-the-beatitudes\/"},"modified":"2024-02-09T18:14:46","modified_gmt":"2024-02-09T12:44:46","slug":"what-question-is-jesus-trying-to-answer-in-the-beatitudes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cccfornews.com\/index.php\/2024\/02\/09\/what-question-is-jesus-trying-to-answer-in-the-beatitudes\/","title":{"rendered":"What Question Is Jesus Trying to Answer in the Beatitudes?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<div class=\"video\">\n<div class=\"graphic alt-ratio\">\n<div class=\"jeg_video_container jeg_video_content\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"What Question Is Jesus Trying to Answer in the Beatitudes? (Chris Castaldo)\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/iBVE4e6pqco?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<h2>The Trajectory of Sanctification<\/h2>\n<p>In the Beatitudes, Jesus is answering the question, <em>What does it look like to belong to God, to be a child of God?<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Now, the world has an answer to that: successful. I minister in a town called Naperville. It\u2019s a wealthy suburb of Chicago. I call it the \u201cachieve-a-tron.\u201d It\u2019s where you prepare your child for the SAT exam at age six. It\u2019s very driven and all about achievement.<\/p>\n<p>But the church has its version of this. Norman Vincent Peale memorably said, \u201cWhatever the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve.\u201d We can do whatever we want to do with the resources of grace. And there\u2019s a sense in which the Holy Spirit, of course, empowers us.<\/p>\n<div class=\"product-placement list-item clear\">\n<div class=\"product-placement-image\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.crossway.org\/books\/the-upside-down-kingdom-tpb\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static.crossway.org\/studio-files\/media\/46005d4184f2afd1da88c1ed0cac8fbe7a134194.jpg\" alt=\"The Upside Down Kingdom\"\/><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"post-excerpt\">\n<h3><em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.crossway.org\/authors\/chris-castaldo\/\">Chris Castaldo<\/a><\/em><\/h3>\n<p class=\"copy-excerpt\"><em>The Upside Down Kingdom<\/em> examines how living according to Jesus\u2019s Beatitudes can cultivate God\u2019s kingdom on earth as it is in heaven, bringing peace and blessing to our broken world.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>I remember as a new Christian thinking, <em>I have the Holy Spirit, I have God\u2019s word, I have the church, so I should improve every day and in every way<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>But it\u2019s not as simple as a single upward trajectory. There are these ups and downs, this undulating movement through which we pass. When theologians describe this, they sometimes use the term <em>upsilon vector<\/em>. Following Jesus\u2019s footsteps, it describes this descent and apparent defeat and humility and brokenness. We land in the valley before we ascend in consummate victory by the resurrection. And that\u2019s our experience.<\/p>\n<p>We think of Paul. He goes into a city, he preaches in a synagogue, some people believe. It\u2019s not long, however, before a multitude drags him outside of the city and they stone him and they leave him for dead, as in Lystra.<\/p>\n<p>How do we make sense of this? Well, the Beatitudes provide the logic for understanding it. \u201cBlessed are the poor in spirit. Blessed are the meek. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness\u2019 sake.\u201d It\u2019s a counterintuitive turn. It is, if you will, an upside down kingdom.<\/p>\n<p>And that\u2019s why the apostle tells us to look not at that which is seen but at that which is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.<\/p>\n<p><em>Chris Castaldo is the author of<\/em> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.crossway.org\/books\/the-upside-down-kingdom-tpb\/\">The Upside Down Kingdom: Wisdom for Life from the Beatitudes<\/a>.<\/p>\n<hr class=\"clear\"\/>\n<div class=\"blog-post-author clear\">\n<p>          <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"left\" src=\"https:\/\/static.crossway.org\/authors\/small\/2071.jpg\" alt=\"Chris Castaldo\"\/><\/p>\n<div class=\"author-bio\">\n<p><strong>Chris Castaldo<\/strong>\u00a0(PhD, London School of Theology) is the lead pastor at New Covenant Church in Naperville, Illinois. He is the author of\u00a0<em>Talking\u00a0with Catholics about the\u00a0Gospel<\/em>\u00a0and coauthor of\u00a0<em>The\u00a0Unfinished Reformation<\/em>.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div><\/div>\n<hr class=\"clear\"\/>\n<h2>Related Articles<\/h2>\n<hr class=\"clear\"\/>\n  <\/div>\n<p><script>\n        !function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s){if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod?\n        n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;\n        n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version='2.0';n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;\n        t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window,\n        document,'script','https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/fbevents.js');\n        fbq('init', '506435969522616');\n        fbq('track', 'PageView');\n      <\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.crossway.org\/articles\/what-question-is-jesus-trying-to-answer-in-the-beatitudes\/\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Trajectory of Sanctification In the Beatitudes, Jesus is answering the question, What does it look like to belong to God, to be a child of God? Now, the world has an answer to that: successful. I minister in a town called Naperville. It\u2019s a wealthy suburb of Chicago. I call it the \u201cachieve-a-tron.\u201d It\u2019s [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9050,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[]},"categories":[44],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cccfornews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9049"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cccfornews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cccfornews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cccfornews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cccfornews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9049"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cccfornews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9049\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cccfornews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9050"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cccfornews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9049"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cccfornews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9049"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cccfornews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9049"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}