When Jesus says blessed are the poor in spirit and those who mourn and are meek and merciful, he is not giving preemptive encouragement for the challenging times that surely will come in our lives. He is not saying, if you someday have sadness and grief, you will be blessed, or if you are wronged or persecuted, you can count on God using it in some way.
What he describes are not possibilities, nor probabilities, but the actual current realities.
There is no “maybe” in any of his statements, and there is no future tense. He says, “Blessed are you—right now—when…,” not “Blessed are you—maybe in the future—if….”
The magnet of God’s blessing tugs strongest at those who already know poverty of spirit and grief, who know humility and loss and what it means to hunger for the food of God. They lean toward mercy, probably because they have suffered the withholding of mercy in their own lives. They see life simply, with pure hearts, because events have stripped away the clouds of ego and pretense. They tend to be peacemakers because they already have experienced persecution and blame.
When Jesus says, “Blessed are you when…,” he is talking to folks who already have known the heavy boot of oppression and are uniquely prepared to rise up and follow. People who are low in spirit, hungering for justice and hoping for some hope, right now.
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