The beatitudes are eight short blessings recorded in Matthew 5:3-10, the opening of jesus's sermon on the mount. Each one names a person normally treated as unfortunate and calls them blessed. They are recited at almost every christian wedding and funeral. They are also, in a way, the most counter-cultural document in the western canon.
the list
blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied.
blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.
blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see god.
blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called the sons of god.
blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Read the left column. The poor. The grieving. The meek. The hungry. The merciful. The unsuccessful by the metrics of the world. Now read the right column. Each is given a state of grace. Each is named as the one to whom the kingdom belongs.
what this is doing
The world before jesus, and after him, has always honored the strong, the rich, the dominant, the successful. The beatitudes name the opposite group as the blessed one. Not "the strong will be saved." The poor. Not "the satisfied." The mourners. Not "the conquerors." The meek.
Nietzsche, two thousand years later, read this and called it slave morality — the religion of the weak inverting the value system of the strong to give themselves a moral victory. Whether you agree with him or not, he was reading the beatitudes accurately. They are an inversion. That is the point.
For christians the inversion is not slave morality. It is the announcement of a different kingdom. The kingdom of heaven, as jesus describes it, runs on different currency than the kingdom of the world. In that kingdom, the people who have been losing this whole time turn out to have been winning the only contest that mattered.
what it leaves you with
If you are mourning, christianity does not tell you to cheer up. It tells you you are blessed in the mourning. If you are meek, christianity does not tell you to get tougher. It tells you the earth is for you. If you are pure in heart in a cynical world, christianity does not tell you to wise up. It says you will see god.
The whole christian ethic is downstream of this list. The works of mercy, the cardinal virtues, the way christians talk about success and failure — all of it is trying to live as if the upside-down list is actually right side up.
Which line of the list are you living in this season? And what would change if you let yourself believe it was the line of the blessed?