Jonathan's Favourite Biblical Verse/Text: Matthew 5:1-12

My favourite biblical text is “The Beatitudes” from Matthew 5:1-12. 

This text is my favourite because I believe it summarizes Jesus' teachings well and describes the core of who God is and God’s relationship with humanity. It also shows the counter-cultural and counterintuitive nature of the kingdom Jesus came to lead us towards.

The text comes from what is commonly known as “the Sermon on the Mount,” Jesus’ longest recorded speech. This sermon is near the start of Jesus’ ministry, at least according to the way that the book of Matthew is arranged, and these Beatitude verses are at the very beginning of the account of this speech in Matthew. For these reasons and through my reading the rest of the gospels, I believe these verses are a good representation of Jesus’ teachings overall.

The dictionary definition of “beatitude” is “supreme blessedness” and this is precisely the content of Matthew 5:1-12. 

After the setting is described in verses 1 and 2, each line starts out with “blessed are…”. I like that past tense is used because it shows that people are blessed not because of what they do, not by some cause and effect, but because of who they are. The “poor in spirit” or the “pure in heart” are ontologically blessed by God (Matt. 5:3-8 NRSV). This gives me confidence that God unconditionally loves all his children he created in his image no matter what state we are in.

Our culture and the culture in which Jesus lived from what I understand, focuses a lot on fulfilling physical pleasures and gaining power and status. Through the Beatitudes, Jesus offers principles that will help us fully experience God’s love and the kingdom of heaven which are counter to these cultural values and seem to go against what we naturally strive for. These verses provide clear standards to strive for which I appreciate even though we often still do not live them out well.

​It is hard to pick a favourite Bible passage but Matthew 5:1-12 has always resonated with my worldview and makes it clear to me who God is and what the main idea of Jesus’ teachings were.