The Beatitudes are the seven (Luke) or eight (Matthew and Nephi) blessings that Christ recounted at the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount. Although by parsing the syllables we get “be-attitudes”, which seems appropriate, the word has its origin in the Latin “beati” which means “happy, rich, blessed“. The original Greek word used by the authors of Matthew and Luke means the same thing. Truly you are happy and rich if you attain the stations
In Matthew and Luke, Jesus teaches the beatitudes to His close disciples and not to the multitudes that had followed Him into the hills. To me that evidences the fact that the beatitudes were meant for a group of people that were better prepared to hear and somewhat understood the mystery of the sayings. In the Book of Mormon version, the beatitudes were taught to a special group of people who had survived the destructions in America because they were more righteous. I think this indicates the specialness of these teachings; that they have a hidden meaning. You will discover, as we explore these unique sayings further, that the beatitudes outline the process of becoming sanctified. In the Sermon on the Mount, Christ outlines the progression of becoming sanctified. Mathew records:
“And seeing the multitudes, he went up into a mountain: and when he was set, his disciples came unto him: And he opened his mouth, and taught them, saying,” (Mathew 5:1-2)Nephi begins his narrative of the Sermon on the Mount with more of a preamble (3 Nephi 12) than we get in Matthew. He writes that the Lord gave the Twelve power and authority to baptize by water and then speaks directly about those who are there with him in Bountiful: “…blessed are ye if ye shall believe in me and be baptized, after that ye have seen me and know that I am.” But, Christ declares, “more blessed are they who shall believe in your words…Yea, blessed are they who shall believe in your words, and come down into the depths of humility and be baptized, for they shall be visited with fire and with the Holy Ghost, and shall receive a remission of their sins. Yea…” (He then delivers the beatitudes)
What is it about hearing the words of Christ from some other person, rather than from the Lord Himself, that is “more blessed”? How can you be more blessed then the people in Bountiful? It suited the Lord’s purpose to appear and teach thousands of people at the temple site in Bountiful, even though they were not entirely prepared. The fact that they were not fully ready for that meeting is perhaps demonstrated by his words recorded in 3 Nephi 17:2: “I perceive that ye are weak, that ye cannot understand all my words which I am commanded of the Father to speak unto you at this time.” After all, they were only spared the destruction, and given audience to Christ, because they were more righteous than those who were destroyed, which on the whole may not be saying much (3 Nephi 9:13). Perhaps the people as a whole, the ones spared from the destruction, were more righteous, more prepared than what exists today in our society. If the Lord were to appear openly to some great city in America, there would be all kinds of people, both wicked and more righteous in the crowd. If Christ had a hard time getting the righteous in Bountiful to understand His teachings, how hard would it be for him to teach the people in any big city in America, or anywhere for that matter?
There is an alternative explanation that all those who were present in Bountiful to see and touch the Savior and be taught by Him were prepared beforehand. They had been baptised both by water and by the spirit; receiving the baptism of fire in the year between the destructions in America and His appearance at the temple in Bountiful. Perhaps that is why the Lord waited one year after His resurrection to appear to them. This allowed them time to repent and be taught by Nephi and other righteous priests, thus preparing them to witness the resurrected Lord coming down from heaven.
The difference between hearing the Word and seeing the Word is that one method requires more faith. To suddenly have the Lord appear to you leaves little or no doubt. We tend not to doubt what we see with our own eyes, but to hear truth, either by testimony from another person or reading it, is something altogether different. When you experience being taught truth or knowledge, the spirit in you recognizes it and testifies to you that what you are experiencing is light and truth. It is easy, however, to disregard that testimony because it is not tangible and can easily be rationalized away. Most of us will not get to experience Christ appearing to us suddenly without attaining a certain spiritual intelligence allowing such an encounter. I think being spiritually prepared to meet the Savior is what the Beatitudes are all about.
After telling the saints in Bountiful that it is more blessed to hear the word as testimony from another (3 Nephi 3:2) , the Lord elaborates on the process required of a person- from the hearing of the word to entering the kingdom of heaven. The beatitudes is the process that one must undertake to meet the Savior and enter the kingdom.
Painting by Sadao Watanabe
Christ lists eight steps outlining the syllabus for attaining salvation. They are the “what” to obtain salvation. The rest of the Sermon on the Mount recounted by Matthew and Luke and the teachings given to the Nephites in 3rd Nephi chapters 12 through 18 are the “how” and “why”. I will be exploring in the next several blog entries just what those eight steps could really mean, and what may be required to enter the presence of Christ and obtain salvation.
God Bless.