Who Is Really Blessed? A 9-Day Devotional from Skye JethaniExemplo

IF JESUS WAS SERIOUS . . . THEN NO ONE IS BEYOND GOD’S BLESSING.

IF YOU WANT TO BE HAPPY, stay off social media. A recent study from the University of California found that “the more you use Facebook over time, the more likely you are to experience negative physical health, negative mental health and negative life satisfaction.”

Of course, what gets posted on social media isn’t reality. The “highlight reels” are snapshots of only the best, often inauthentic, moments. As a result, we end up comparing the unglamorous reality of our life with the fake-glamour of everyone else’s. That’s a recipe for despair.

While social media is a relatively recent development, the underlying human instinct to project a positive, but false, self-image is nothing new. Ancient Jewish culture was plagued by this tendency rooted in its understanding of who was #blessed. At the time of Jesus, most believed the healthy, powerful, rich, respected, and educated were clearly favored by God. The logic was simple — if your life looked good, it’s because you must be good and God has blessed you for your religious devotion. The opposite was also thought to be true — if your life looked bad, it must be because you are bad and God has cursed you for your sinfulness.

Like modern social media, this desire to be perceived as blessed by God led people in Jesus’ culture to project a positive, but false, public image. The truth about your life was less important than what people thought was the truth. Jesus didn’t play that game.

Instead, in His sermon, Jesus described who is really blessed — and it wasn’t those who looked #blessed by the culture.

Jesus’ countercultural list of who is blessed challenges us in at least two ways. First, it means that no one is beyond God’s blessing, and even those society calls “cursed” or “worthless” are to be shown dignity as recipients of God’s care. Second, Jesus obliterates our wicked tendency to judge others by their circumstances. Of course, the same goes for judging ourselves. Those who are really blessed, or not blessed, cannot be determined by their appearance, circumstances, or social media highlight reel.