CREDIT: WIKIPEDIA
Jesus said that God will “happify” the meek by satisfying their needs.

Two things might spark someone's interest in Jesus today. The first is the release of the movie Son of God. The second is the annual season of Lent, the seven weeks or so when churches from Ukraine to Utah remember the lead up to Jesus' arrest and execution, and what happened afterwards. I hope to say a little more about that in a few weeks.

Jesus is the most influential figure in the world's history. There is no one who comes close, except perhaps Muhammad, but even with him I think the gap between the two could be considerable.

What are the reasons for his popularity? Some critics of Christianity would say that he is popular because there is no shortage of fraudsters like myself who continue to spread the false stories of his miraculous birth, his death as significant for all persons, and his being raised from death. And, since every charlatan needs an audience, there are always enough gullible people to pay attention to what I and my co-conspirators dish out. Those aren't criticisms that I want to address right now.

But I do want to point out that one of the reasons for his popularity is the record of what he taught. And here I want to focus on one small bit of what he said and why it remains a source of intrigue, comfort and hope.

I am thinking of a few lines in the biblical record, verses from the book of Matthew. In the fifth chapter we find Jesus taking his apprentices (disciples) to a quiet place for instruction. There he spoke the lines I am thinking of, and ever since they have provoked a range of responses from ridicule to trust. The teaching that has provoked these responses is the one in which Jesus flatly states that God blesses, or will bless those who: are meek, mourn, are hungry for rightness, are in low spirits, make peace, or face ostracization (or worse) for following Jesus.

Such people, Jesus claims, are or will be blessed. God will see that they become happy. They will be happified. God will make them happy by satisfying their needs. Their mourning will give way to good cheer. They will see peace one day. They will have a front row seat when God shows up (they will “see God”). They will receive mercy. Their hunger and thirst for rightness will be satisfied. They will see peace on earth.

As I write this, I've just returned from a funeral for a friend named Willie. She was not a wealthy person. Willie did not have degrees and diplomas hanging on her walls. She held no political office. She was not the head of any large organization. She had no military honours, and possessed no Olympic medals. She was not a celebrity. In other words, she did not hold any of our world's conventional tickets to blessedness, to happiness. She never won a lottery and never received her 15 minutes of fame.

But she steadily loved and supported the people in my church. She volunteered weekly at the local hospital. A bank teller in the past, she had a knack for creatively using money. She would find ways to give people who were in financial trouble small, short-term loans at very low interest rates. As far as I know, the people always paid her back. She learned how to give killer massages and would give them away. She and her husband, an artist, would provide me a small room in which to sleep when I did a lot of overnight commuting. She helped in the church's soup kitchen and drove all over the region in her tiny car, visiting and volunteering.

One day, Jesus Christ will return to our world (though even now he remains deeply involved in the unfolding of each day and of our history). When he does, the world will become new. On that day many things that now seem out of sync with our world will be at home. Humility, peace, rightness, mercy, desire to see God — things that are not now always welcome in our circles — will be celebrated. God will unroll the red carpet for peacemakers, lovers of mercy, and those who acted out of humility. Such things, and those who long for them and practice them, will be finally, and fully home.

Willie lived her life in anticipation of that day. And while she lived, she created pockets where mercy, humility, longing for God, and grief-in-search-of-comfort could be expressed. She brought samplings of Heaven to her home, neighbours, and town — mini prequels to the day that Heaven will return to Earth.
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