Why The Beatitudes Still Turn The World Upside Down

I recently flew to South America on a mission trip. Leaving Wisconsin’s pumpkin-spice season for springtime in Santiago, Chile, was like stepping into an upside-down world. Swapping seasons in a matter of hours feels like a paradox—it seems to contradict common sense. However, once you understand the earth’s tilt, the paradox unravels.

Scripture often works in much the same way. For example, the Beatitudes in Matthew’s Gospel seem impossibly demanding, yet they’re foundational to Jesus’s teaching. There’s no way to be good enough to receive the promised blessings until Jesus resolves this paradox with the gospel.

In Paradox People: Learning to Live the Beatitudes, Jonathan Landry Cruse, pastor of Community Presbyterian Church in Kalamazoo, Michigan, argues that the Beatitudes “are not goals for us to achieve but blessings we receive when we belong to the One who perfectly fulfilled all righteousness for us” (18). The upside-down landscape on the book’s cover reminds readers that Christ’s work on our behalf makes the impossible possible.

Impossible Demands

The first Beatitude—being poor in spirit—is a difficult task for every generation. “We are always cheered and comforted by our accomplishment and ability,” Cruse writes. Nevertheless, “until we are poor in spirit, we are proud and arrogant.” Cruse continues, “Until I am empty of myself, I can never be filled with Christ” (35). We must descend before we can be raised.

We see this paradox in the story of Peter’s refusal to allow Jesus to wash his feet (John 13:1–20). Peter thought he was being humble, but it took Jesus’s rebuke for Peter to recognize his pride. Similarly, we must become poor in spirit daily to truly rely on Christ. Yet Christ must help us to recognize our need for him. Thus, each day, as we receive Christ’s blessings, “the greater our sense of debt should grow” (35).

The Beatitudes are more than a to-do list; they show us our inability to earn righteousness. The demands only compound as the list continues. By default, humans aspire to be neither mournful nor meek. Instead, the world praises activism and hard work. Most cultures scorn the merciful, the peacemaker, and the persecuted. In the Beatitudes, Jesus establishes countercultural norms for us to obey.

The Beatitudes are more than a to-do list; they show us our inability to earn righteousness.

His statements are paradoxical because obedience is impossible through mere human effort. We’re often too blinded by sin to see our own failings. “We need the Lord to work this sort of spiritual sensitivity into our hearts,” Cruse argues, “for it is anything but natural” (41). Beatitude living only becomes possible through the grace provided by the Beatitude-giver. Thankfully, because of who he is, Christ knows what we need.

Possibility Through Christ

The Beatitudes aren’t arbitrary. Rather, they reflect Jesus’s character, a character foreign to our fallen world. Our first task in obedience is knowing Christ better. As Cruse observes, “It is impossible to have a proper understanding of the Beatitudes without having a proper understanding of Christ” (16).

While in the world, Jesus faced temptation—in the same ways we face temptation—yet was without sin (Heb. 4:15). Despite our inability to match our behavior to Christ’s requirements, Cruse notes, “a desire to see the world operate righteously is hardwired into all of us because we were made in the image of a God who is himself righteous” (72–73). We want our neighbors to be merciful, pure in heart, and peacemaking. We try to embody these traits too, and fail. Human effort tires and sputters when we strive to be perfect.

The impossible becomes possible only through Christ in God’s upside-down kingdom. “God doesn’t only impute the righteousness of Christ,” Cruse explains, “he also implants the abiding presence of his Holy Spirit” (72). The Spirit transforms us into Jesus’s likeness. We rely on Christ’s perfection, not our own, and this changes the way we live.

Inheriting the Earth

The Beatitudes teach us how to look more like the One who lived out the impossible: Jesus, who used meekness to inherit the earth. In God’s kingdom, success looks like surrender; power looks like humility. The almighty Son of God humbled himself at the cross, displaying on our behalf the meekness we need for fellowship with God and a future inheritance where “we will reign with Christ over the new heavens and the new earth” (63). In a show of glorious grace, he obeyed the commands we never could.

The Beatitudes teach us how to look more like the One who lived out the impossible: Jesus, who used meekness to inherit the earth.

Yet here’s another paradox: The grace that saves us also enables us to obey. That’s the gospel. In a world that honors strength and self-assertion, the gospel teaches us to be kind to the weak. “Those who are meek have the Spirit-given impulse to live patiently with the weakness of others,” Cruse writes (59). We learn patience because God has been infinitely patient with us.

Apart from the gospel, the Beatitudes crush us. But through Christ, the impossible becomes possible. His upside-down kingdom turns weakness into strength—just as traveling from autumn in Wisconsin to spring in Chile turns the seasons upside down. What seems paradoxical suddenly makes sense when we see it through Christ.

Through the Spirit’s power, we can live the Beatitudes and reflect the attributes Jesus perfectly fulfilled. As Cruse reminds us, “Since God is an infinite being, there is no shortage of life and happiness that he can offer” (77).

Though it’s about a familiar passage, Cruse’s book is refreshing. Reading it enriched my understanding of the gospel and increased my sense of joy in the Lord. In Paradox People, Cruse reminds Christians that ordinary faithfulness is an extraordinary achievement only possible through Christ.