Blessed

Rob Novack recommended a book to me, Jesus through Middle Eastern Eyes, by Kenneth Bailey. (It's a great book that I would recommend as well.) Bailey spent sixty years living in the Middle East, many of those years, he taught in seminaries there.  So he had a unique perspective on the thinking in that region of the world. Part 2 of his book is dedicated to the Beatitudes.  He discusses two words from the Greek that we translate as blessed.  The first word is a verb, eulogeo. We use it when we talk about giving a blessing to someone.  For example, Isaac blessed Jacob.  The other word is an adjective, makarios. According to Bailey, this word is not involved in invoking a blessing but is the recognition of "an existing state of happiness and good fortune."  In the old days, it would have been been pronounced with two syllables, "bless-ed."  Today, we say, "I am so blessed," or "Have a blessed day."  It is makarios that Jesus uses in the Beatitudes. Bailey makes a great point about this. (I am going to paraphrase a lengthy passage from his text (p. 68).  His explanation is better than mine, but it is also much longer, so I am going to try.) He say that we often take each Beatitude to mean that, 'if we do X, we will get Y." For example, "if we are meek, then we will inherit the Earth." According to Bailey, we are looking this backwards. Since makarios means "an affirmation of happy state that already exists," we should look at it this way, "Since we will inherit the Earth, we are meek and therefore happy (makarios).  To me, this changes my whole outlook.  Instead of trying to sort of grunt my way into meekness, or humility*, I can live as though I have this great inheritance and be made meek (or humble) and happy because of it.  This takes the pressure, because I am not changing me, God is.  I am just being grateful and happy.  Think about Matt 5:7.  Because I am shown mercy from God, I am made merciful toward others and I am also blessed (makarios) Or verse 9, Because I am called a child of God, I am made into a peacemaker and I am happier for it. 

*The Greek word that is translated here as meek, praeis, could also be translated as gentle, humble or considerate, according to the BDAG Lexicon.