Upside down is right side up.

Throughout history, there have been several times where humanity experienced a paradigm shift.  People believed that the Earth was the center of our solar system, but a paradigm shift introduced us to the truth that we orbit around the Sun. 

The past 30 years, we have seen a paradigm shift away from analog and into digital. If you’ve been alive during this time, it would be hard for you to have imagined all that would change in our society with the introduction of the digital age. 

We are getting a series looking at the Beatitudes. We find them in Matthew chapter 5 at the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount.  

It’s important that we understand that the way of following Jesus is the ultimate paradigm shift. We observe this passage over the next three weeks. We are going to see that following Jesus flips the world on its head.  

This passage is found at the beginning of Jesus’s earthly ministry. He is about 30 years old. He was baptized by his cousin John, then went into the wilderness to be tempted for 40 days. 

Jesus has begun to heal people and teach people, and so we find him here at the beginning of the most famous sermon ever, the Sermon on the Mount. 

This is Jesus’s manifesto. He is a new type of King for a new type of kingdom. He is giving us the keys to the new way of living that he is inviting us into.

I’ve got to be honest, Jesus says some weird stuff here. He says some uncomfortable and challenging things that don’t seem like they line up with what we observe in the world.

I see a lot of people who inherit the Earth that are nothing close to humble. If you’ve ever mourned, you probably didn’t feel blessed in that moment. 

Theologian and author N. T. Wright gives us some insight into what we are reading in this passage.

“Jesus is not suggesting that these are simply timeless truths about the way the world is, about human behaviour. If he were saying that, he was wrong. Mourners often go uncomforted, the meek don’t inherit the earth, those who long for justice frequently take that longing to the grave. 

This is an upside-down world, or perhaps a right-way-up world; and Jesus is saying that with his work it’s starting to come true. This is an announcement, not a philosophical analysis of the world. It’s about something that’s starting to happen, not about a general truth of life. It is gospel: good news, not good advice.”

You see, Jesus’s mission was to turn the culture and religion right side up by flipping it upside down. 

Jesus flips our cultural norms. 

He begins to say that people who are poor, grieving, humbled, and empty are those who are truly blessed. 

This is not the message of our culture. I don’t know if you’ve ever heard someone say “we’ve been really blessed.” In my experience, people don’t say that at a funeral. They say it at the Thanksgiving table when friends and loved ones are gathered around football is on the TV and the table is covered in delicious food.  

People say “ God’s been really good” after you complement their new car, not when they are facing hardship. 

As followers of Jesus, it’s important that we rethink and reframe our understanding of success and blessings. 

Our culture tells us blessed people are important, powerful, wealthy, influential, and affluent. Jesus tells us that those who are truly blessed are people who are humble, meek, gracious, patient, and hungry for the things of God.

Our culture is not the standard. Jesus is the standard. Jesus is our standard for truth. And Jesus is what we measure our lives up against, not our culture.

Our culture says “me first”, Jesus says “others first”.  Our culture says “my glory”. Jesus says “the glory is Gods alone.”  

Jesus didn’t just flip the norms of culture, Jesus flips the system of religion. 

Christianity is different from every other religion in the world. Every other religion is a system by which human beings work to get to God. Christianity is the story of how God made a way for us.

Jesus was constantly at odds with religious leaders of his day. He would often say “you have heard it said” and then shift the paradigm that the religious leaders believed. 

Jesus lived in a time of incredible legalism. And he broke the mold of the man-made rules that elevate the pride of those who follow them. In its place, he offers us grace and a relationship with God.

Christianity flips religion. Its messages are that we don’t have to earn God’s love, acceptance, or our way to heaven. The message of Jesus is that he paid the way for us. 

The way of Jesus is upside down from the world. It always will be.