This is the life of blessing, Jesus says: A life of struggle. A life of grieving and being misunderstood. A life where the good you want to see in the world is always beyond your reach, so that you are constantly striving – always hungry and never satisfied until you arrive, famished, at the great banquet of God’s kingdom.

Jesus is saying, “blessed are those who appear to be cursed”. Blessed are those left begging on the side of the road while the rest of us drive past in our comfortable cars and don’t even notice them.

If people who mourn are blessed,

If people who are hungry and thirsty are blessed,

If people who are rejected and persecuted are blessed,

Then why would I want to be blessed?