Jesus opens the Sermon on the Mount with a series of blessings for people who may not have been accustomed to receiving such blessings from their Rabbi.
Their world, much like ours tended to honor the strong and mighty, those who seemed wise and who had wealth.
Jesus starts His most famous sermon saying, "I'm going to pay attention to everyone else: the little guy. Everyone that the world looks down on, everyone who is in some kind of pain or confusion and especially those who might suffer because of believing and following me, that's who I will cater to." (These are not His exact words)
The thing is, that was not a whimsical moment in Jesus' ministry, that was the hallmark!
Jesus would go on to spend ample amounts of time with "sinners and tax collectors," because its not the healthy who need the doctor... He would teach things like, "the first will be last and the last will be first." and, "if you want to become great in God's kingdom you have to become a servant... or like a child." Oh, and by the way, if you get your reward or recognition in this world, you won't be getting it in God's kingdom... You still need to be righteous and holy, but rather than trying to impress men, you should be aiming to impress God. You can please God by helping out the "least of these": poor, hungry, naked, imprisoned, sick, etc.
Jesus says, "My kingdom is not of this world." That means that how we live and find success are going to be very different as well. People that follow Jesus would be very different, almost like light shining in darkness (or exactly like that). And even if a small group of people would commit to living the kingdom lifestyle in this world, they would even "turn the world upside down."
***The famous "sermon on the mount" is recorded in Matthew 5-7. Last week we started our study of this sermon with the help of the resource "Living Jesus" by Randy Harris, with Greg Taylor. All of the blog posts that have "Living Jesus" in the title follow the Utica church of Christ's Sunday AM Bible study in the 1st quarter of 2014***
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