With more than 2.3 million people worldwide infected with the Coronavirus, over 160,000 fatalities, and with more than 20 million new unemployment claims in the U.S., it’s enough to cause even the most positive thinkers to be alarmed. And that’s at the macro level. If we were to look on the micro level at each one of our personal, physical, relational, and financial circumstances it would cause even the most fervent believer to be worried and maybe even question God. 

Two thousand years ago when Jesus arrived, the circumstances of the Israelites were not much better than ours are today. No, they did not have a worldwide pandemic but on a nationwide and personal scale they were living under the oppression of the Roman Empire. This caused them political, social, religious and financial insecurity. Then suddenly Jesus appeared and began to teach in a way they had never heard before. He began to perform miracles that led the people to believe that perhaps Jesus could change their circumstances. 

As Jesus’ fame grew, rumors of a liberator began circulating and a multitude of people, most for the first time, came to hear him speak. When Jesus saw the crowds gathering he went a top a mountainside, sat down and began to teach. The first word and sentence that came out of his mouth must have left everyone astonished and confused. He said:

“Blessed?” I’m sure that of all the descriptive words available to mankind, past, present, and future the word “blessed” that Jesus used must have been the last word to go through their minds. The reason being, Jesus used one of God’s oracles. An oracle is a word that framed the message God was about to deliver. The oracle was used to avoid confusion and make clear how God felt. One of God’s oracles was “woe” which obviously meant bad news and the other was “blessed’ which meant exceedingly great news, or in essence, Almighty God is on your side working on your behalf.

The problem for the multitude was that they could not even begin to understand Jesus’ words because as they looked at their circumstances the last word they could think of was blessed. They were so focused on their personal circumstances that they never realized that the man speaking to them was God in a body working on their behalf. Had they realized that, they too would have said, “I’m blessed”. 

The truth is, if you could take your eyes off your circumstances and fix them on Jesus, you would realize that in the middle of some terrible circumstances you too are blessed because God is working on your behalf.