Sermon on the Beatitudes by Rev Harry Newton at SumRed Church, 1 February 2026
A Sunday sermon exploring Matthew 5:1–12 and what the Beatitudes reveal about happiness, substitutes for God, and the example of Jesus.
Summary
Rev Harry Newton delivers a sermon on the Beatitudes from Matthew 5:1–12, the opening passage of the Sermon on the Mount. Drawing on Thomas Aquinas and Blaise Pascal, he argues that every human being has a deep longing for happiness that only God can satisfy, and that people habitually substitute four things — wealth, power, pleasure, and honor — for God in their search for it. Newton contends that each Beatitude directly addresses and liberates us from one of these four substitutes, and that the crucified Jesus is the ultimate embodiment of freedom from all four. He concludes that true happiness is found not in those substitutes but in discovering and following God's purpose for one's life.
Key Takeaways
FULL TRANSCRIPT
Introduction to the Sermon on the Mount and the Beatitudes
Rev Harry Newton: Our reading this morning, that Eleanor just read for us, comes from the fifth chapter of what's called the Gospel of Matthew — one of the four accounts of Jesus' life, ministry, death, and resurrection. It's written, funnily enough, by a guy called Matthew, otherwise known as Levi. And chapters five to seven are what are known as the Sermon on the Mount — probably the most influential religious sermon or message given in the history of humanity. It's incredibly epic. It's a confrontation of all that is shallow and hypocritical about religion. It's a call to wholehearted allegiance to God, and it's a blueprint of a way of life which is contrary to the way of the world and in step with the way of Jesus. It really is epic. If you've never read it before, I encourage you to look it up on your phone and have a look at it.
And it kicks off with a series of sayings from Jesus known as the Beatitudes. You've probably heard of them before. They were just read out. The word "beatitude" itself actually comes from the Latin word beatitudo, and it means supreme happiness. How's that for a random fact for the day?
These sayings, on the face of it, seem pretty strange — paradoxical, perhaps even offensive. Because if you think about it, things like "blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth," "blessed are those who mourn," "blessed are those who are persecuted" — they're weird things to say. But the Beatitudes are actually a beautiful window into the alternative values and the way of God. They seem strange at first, but they reveal God's upside-down values for the world.
The Meaning of "Blessed" — Makarios
Part of the key to understanding the Beatitudes and how they apply to your life and mine lies, I think, in the word "blessed." The original word there is makarios. Now, my pronunciation's off — I went to Greek school for five years and don't speak a word of Greek, so I'm really sorry if I pronounced that wrong. But makarios is usually translated in our English Bibles as "blessed," "happy," or "lucky." It's a word that signifies a state of being that is supremely blessed. It describes someone who's in an enviable, privileged position. We might say in everyday speech, "lucky you."
Years ago, when Amy and I first got together post-earthquake, I had this car I loved. Amy laughs at me because she said it was a hunk of junk. It broke down when I was going to the Southern Alps in the middle of nowhere — I got stuck in the middle of a blizzard, it was a whole thing, and I got tow-trucked all the way back to Christchurch. I came to my flat really depressed. And my flatmate, who wasn't a believer, said to me, "Oh, shut up, Harry. Get over yourself. You've got Harry luck." I said, "What do you mean?" She said, "Every time something bad happens to you, something better happens to you five minutes later. It's really annoying." I went to my dad — my dad's a pastor, for the record — and he looked at me and said, "You're an idiot. It's called being blessed."
And that's the whole idea. Being blessed is being in an enviable position. It's not luck in terms of random luck, but because from God's perspective, we're actually well off despite what the wisdom of the world might say.
Which is all well and good to say. But if we interpret the Beatitudes using, say, "lucky," it still sounds strange, doesn't it? "Lucky are those who mourn." If you've ever lost someone you love, it doesn't feel lucky. "Lucky are the meek." "Lucky are those who are poor in spirit." "Lucky are those who are persecuted." I don't know if you've ever met anyone who's actually been persecuted for their faith. We had a guy here, Peter, two years ago, and Peter shared about his time being in a jail cell with ISIS — for almost a year, or maybe a little over a year. How can anyone, even Jesus, say that someone is lucky if they find themselves in one of those categories? It's a weird thing.
What If the Beatitudes Hold the Key to True Happiness?
But here's the thing. What if the Beatitudes give us the key to being truly happy? What if these strange sayings of Jesus, uttered 2,000 years ago in rural Galilee, hold the answer to attaining the good life — to being happy?
Thomas Aquinas, an Italian theologian from the 1200s — a bit of a hero of mine, I know I reference him a lot, so if you've got sick of him, I apologize — believed that we all want to be happy, but that it's only God who can fully satisfy and sate that deep-down yearning within our soul for happiness.
Aquinas isn't the only philosopher who's thought this. Blaise Pascal — a French philosopher and mathematician, a really interesting guy — just like Aquinas, believed that God alone is the source of true happiness. In fact, he once stated:
"There is a God-shaped vacuum in the heart which cannot be satisfied by any created thing but only by God, the creator."
What's really interesting is that these influential philosophers — Aquinas, Blaise Pascal, others like Augustine — all independently came to the same conclusion: that everybody wants to be happy, but that every person has a God-shaped hole that leaves them feeling fundamentally lacking and unhappy, and until it's filled, we can never be truly okay.
Now, as a caveat — if you're not a person of faith, or you're just not sure where you sit on the whole God thing, or maybe you have a different spirituality — two things. One, you're really welcome here. You genuinely are. And two, if you don't agree with us, this is absolutely fine. But these guys, I think, are onto something. Their point was that in our search for happiness, we humans end up substituting finite worldly things for the source of happiness. And because of this, we often miss out on attaining true, lasting joy, peace, satedness, and happiness.
The Four Substitutes for God: Wealth, Power, Pleasure, and Honor
Obviously, what appeals to one person in their search for happiness is different to another. I hate marshmallows — I absolutely despise them. I used to work at Strawberry Ferris as a chef, and after working there I can't touch them anymore. My kids, on the other hand — you pull out a bag of marshmallows and they're like feral cats. For me, it's a high-performance engine. I could go listen to high-performance engines all day, particularly airplanes. But the thing is, we're all wired differently.
And Aquinas understood that, and yet he nonetheless posited that there are four things we humans often substitute for God in our search for happiness: wealth, power, pleasure, and honor. If you've been coming to this church for a while, you would have heard me say this a couple of times, because I think Aquinas was onto something.
Interestingly enough, the Beatitudes free us from each one of these four substitutes. Because Jesus isn't just giving random sayings — he's actually diagnosing false happiness, and each Beatitude untangles one of these addictive substitutes. The Beatitudes are not commands on how to earn God's love, nor are they just esoteric sayings that some random religious guy said a couple of thousand years ago. They are invitations into experiencing freedom — where real happiness is found.
Blessed Are the Poor in Spirit — Freedom from Wealth
The first thing we often substitute for God in our search for happiness is wealth. Because if you've got wealth, you can buy material things, and material things are fun. If you don't agree with me, then you're lying — we all know it's nice to buy stuff. My daughter — I don't like shopping, but I took her shopping recently. She didn't actually need anything; she just likes the idea of buying something. It makes her so happy in the moment.
But as we all know, new things only go so far. Once the buzz wears off, we find ourselves looking for more to sate that yearning within our soul for contentment. To be clear, wealth in and of itself is not the issue. But it is an issue if the pursuit of wealth becomes an idol. And it being an idol is an issue because not only do idols turn us away from God, they can also never fully satisfy. We end up focusing our lives increasingly around those things we seek fulfillment through, even when it hurts us to do so. We essentially become addicted — because what's addiction if not a never-ending drive to sate a deep-down hunger or thirst, even when it hurts?
My family comes from a long line of Irish alcoholics, and it's sad. There's this deep-down drive to sate something within themselves, a yearning for something they can't even quite name. They're addicted, trying to find fulfillment and happiness.
Jesus, I reckon, got this — hence his Beatitude: "Blessed are the poor in spirit." Using that slightly nuanced rendering of makarios, we might interpret it as: how lucky are you if you are not addicted to material things? Why? Because the kingdom of heaven is yours. The kingdom of heaven — there are lots of ways we can articulate this, but one way is that it's God's shalom, God's peace, God's tangible presence in your life and in the world. How lucky are you if you are not addicted to material things, because not only will you get to experience the peace and the tangible presence of God in your life, but you'll be free from that never-ending addictive drive to attain happiness through wealth. Because to be poor in spirit is to know your need before God rather than trusting in what you possess.
Blessed Are the Meek — Freedom from Power
Another Beatitude that frees us from one of these substitutes is "blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth." A while ago, I came across a really interesting study that showed that as people gain power and authority over others, they self-report higher levels of happiness — which makes sense at one level, because you're your own boss. But what's really interesting is that when participants were given unchecked power and authority over other people, they said this made them feel better and better, because they weren't answerable to anyone. They could do what they wanted when they wanted, and it made them feel happy even when they knew that others were hurting or worse off because of their selfish decisions.
When there was no social taboo to hold in check their desire for power and authority to be exerted over others, they did it, and they felt amazing about it. And that's why Aquinas argued, about 800 years ago, that power is one of the most tempting substitutes for God — because those who hold absolute power easily begin to act selfishly, like they're God. You might even go as far as some people, like the Caesars of old or Kim Jong — whichever one it is currently in North Korea — who all think, "I am God." Because there's a God complex that comes with having absolute power.
And it's into that reality we hear Jesus say, "Blessed are the meek." Using that rendering of makarios, we might interpret it as: how lucky are you if you are not addicted to the allure of authority? Why? Because you will inherit the earth. Now, just to be clear — this is not a blueprint for world domination. I was playing Risk the other night with my son, and it does not work that way. Jesus is speaking in a Jewish prophetic tradition. "Inherit the earth" is an ancient Jewish rabbinic saying that essentially means a reversal of one's fortunes.
So lucky are you when the allure of authority doesn't hold a grip on your life, because then your fortunes will be reversed. When you're meek — unaddicted to power and control — you can experience true happiness and contentment through detachment from that never-ending drive to attain, retain, and exert control over others. Being meek is actually the spiritual key to detachment from the allure of authority.
Blessed Are Those Who Mourn — Freedom from Pleasure
Another thing we so often substitute for God in our search for happiness is pleasure. Pleasure is the easiest thing to organize our lives around for happiness, because it feels good. If you're on the beach with the wind and the sea spray in your face, you've got the perfect wave, your kids are happy, there's good food, intimacy with someone you love — even that small morsel of mild goat's cheese — pleasure is not the enemy. It's a good thing. It's part of God's design for the world, woven into our world and meant to be enjoyed.
The problem comes when we start treating pleasurable experiences as the source of our meaning and our happiness. That's why pleasure is such a powerful substitute for God — we turn to the gifts to do what only the giver can do. But when pleasure becomes our functional savior, we don't become fulfilled; we become dependent. We start chasing that next hit even when it costs us. And once again, we become addicted.
None of this is new. Jesus knew it. Hence his liberating words: "Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted." This isn't him glorifying sadness. He's talking about freedom from the power and the allure of good feelings. Because mourning is what happens when we face what's broken within us and the world instead of anesthetizing ourselves through constant pleasure. How lucky are you when you're not addicted to good feelings, because you will experience true fulfillment in God through your detachment from worldly pleasure — and you'll be free of that never-ending addictive drive to attain happiness through pleasure.
Blessed Are Those Who Are Persecuted — Freedom from Honor
If the call to poverty in the Beatitudes holds off the addiction to material wealth, and the summons to mourn counters the addiction to good feelings, and the uplifting of meekness blocks the addiction to power, then the last Beatitude — "blessed are those who are persecuted" — gets in the way of the addicting attachment to honor.
By honor, I mean accolades. Again, just like the other things, honor isn't bad in itself. It's always nice to be told that you're good at something and to have people show you respect. The problem comes when honor becomes the thing around which we center our lives, and then it becomes a terrible source of unhappiness and suffering. Because finding your sense of worth, fulfillment, and happiness in what other people think of you leaves you insecure and strung out, looking for validation.
I wish I'd known this when I was 18. It can lead you into terrible life choices — like joining the army. I did it mostly to annoy my dad, but also, to be honest, I was looking for a bit of purpose in my life. I was looking to belong somewhere. I was looking for people to say, "Yeah, he's awesome. He's tough." And I strove, and I did quite well. But it wasn't necessarily what God wanted me to do with my life. It can lead us into bad relationships, unsafe situations. It can rob you of joy while also leaving you open to being defined and formed by what other people think you should be like. And that is a horrible way to live your life.
So when we hear Jesus say, "Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account," we can hear the good news of how lucky we are if we are not addicted to the approval of others. And the reason is twofold. At a basic level, you'll find your life and your worth are not defined by what others think of you. But at a deeper level, once you're free of the need to find your validation in others, you'll discover you're able to follow God's plan for your life, even when that plan involves being ignored, dishonored, or — in extreme examples — persecuted for your faith.
Because if you can learn to shake yourself free of the need to be validated by others and to find your worth in the honors others bestow upon you, you can take the first step to achieving true happiness.
Jesus on the Cross as the Supreme Example of Beatitudo
We may not know each other, but I do know one thing about you — that you want to be happy. But what does it actually look like to be truly happy? Because I suspect at times we have a distorted perspective of what happiness actually looks like.
If you want to see the perfect personification of beatitudo — of supreme happiness — I think you should look to Jesus on the cross. If you want to see true divine happiness, we need to look to Jesus and learn to despise what he despised on the cross and love what he loved.
What did he despise? Picture him in your mind on a cross. Wealth — he's stripped naked. He had no jewelry, no finery, nothing. He is about as poverty-stricken as one can be. He has shunned that in order to be faithful to what God the Father has called him to be. What about pleasure? There is no pleasure in what he's going through. He has been stripped naked, beaten, tortured, had a crown of thorns pushed into his head, forced to carry his own instrument of torture and death across the city, and then nailed through the hands and feet. As he slumps, he can't breathe, and he starts to drown in his own bodily fluids. When he stands to try to breathe, he is in excruciating pain — a method designed to keep him alive for as long as possible while he slowly bleeds out. He has given up all forms of pleasure in order to be faithful to his calling.
What about power? He's about as powerless as can be. At one point he's even blindfolded, and they slap him and spit at him and lead him to his own death. There is no agency in what he's doing. What about honor? He is stripped naked, nailed to a tree in front of his mother and his close friends, while passers-by who days earlier had welcomed him with open arms — "You're the man, we want to be with you" — are now jeering at him, throwing things at him, giving him so much grief. There is no honor in the death of a thief, of a criminal. Traditionally, their bodies would be taken down and thrown into a pit outside the city gates, left to be picked at by vultures and wild animals. There is no honor.
So in the most dramatic way possible, the crucified Jesus demonstrates a despising of the four things that we so often substitute for God. And it demonstrates a liberation from those four things we're so tempted to substitute. Because what did Jesus love in their place? He loved the will of his heavenly Father. His Father sent him to bring love and light into the world's darkest places, and Jesus loved that mission until the very end, despite the cost. And it was precisely his detachment from wealth, power, pleasure, and honor that enabled him to be faithful to what he was being called to be. And in that, he found who he was truly called to be, and found supreme happiness.
It seems paradoxical to say, I know, but the crucified Jesus truly is the beatitudo — the supremely happy man. Jesus nailed to the cross is the very epitome of liberty and freedom, because he's free from the substitutes that get in the way of every person fulfilling God's plan for their life — for your life and for mine.
Closing: The Path to True Happiness
Because God sent Jesus to show you and me how to live, and then he was murdered. His lifeless body was thrown into a hole. And three days later, he came to life. And in doing so, he opened the way for you and me — for each and every person — to be reconnected and reconciled to our Heavenly Father. He opened the way for your redemption, your reconciliation with God, your creator and sustainer. He defeated death and he offered forgiveness. And in doing so, he has brought countless people peace from their past, purpose in their present, and hope for their future.
Jesus was able to achieve this — frankly, a miraculous achievement — only because he wasn't focused on those things that we humans attempt to substitute for God in our search for happiness: wealth, power, pleasure, and honor.
So, if you want to be happy, if you want to discover what God has called you to do and to be in your life, if you want to be free of the angst that an addiction to any one of those things can cause — learn to despise what Jesus despised on the cross and to love what Jesus loved on the cross. And in doing so, you will not only grab hold of the thing you're looking for in those substitutes, you'll also discover your divine purpose.