Church of the Beatitudes

Beauty and creativity are not only expressed in art, but also in architecture. The Gospel lessons for the Epiphany season in many of our Lutheran churches are from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount recorded in Matthew 5-7.

There is no doubt that Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount is the most famous sermon ever preached. It is perhaps also the most misunderstood. It is not a summary of the whole Christian faith. Rather it is a description of how the Christian demonstrates and lives his/her faith.

This is not a sermon on justification – of how a God saves a person. Rather it is entirely a sermon on sanctification – of how a person lives after God has saved him/her. 

In order to understand this sermon, we must keep in mind the audience to whom it was preached and the purpose Jesus had in mind. The audience was, primarily, Jesus’ disciples, although the large crowds who had been following Jesus were evidently in the background listening in. The purpose of the sermon was to give the believers a better understanding of the God-pleasing life. 

Instead of showing you another famous fresco of Jesus preaching to the crowds, this time we examine the church dedicated in honor of where Jesus most likely preached this Sermon. I had the privilege of visiting this church a number of years ago while on a pastors’ familiarization trip to Israel.

The church is called The Church of the Beatitudes.

It is an octagonal church – 8 sided for the 8 beatitudes (although there are actually 9 beatitudes). The church is on top of a hill overlooking the Sea of Galilee where Jesus conducted most of His ministry. 

The windows are at eye-level so people in the chapel can worship and be inspired as they see what Jesus saw. There are 8 windows inscribed with each of the beatitudes in Latin.

The term beatitude comes from the predominant word in Matthew 5:1-12: “Blessed.” The word is intoned again and again. One author says, "It sounds like the bells of heaven, ringing down into this unblessed world from the cathedral spires of the kingdom inviting all people to enter." 

Jesus is speaking to His disciples in this sermon. He is talking to His believers, to you and me. And He is calling us blessed. Jesus is not telling us how to become blessed. He is rather describing the blessedness that already belongs to all believers in Christ. We are spiritually blessed as members of His kingdom.

Outside the church is the mount. This mount has a natural theatre that would have been like an open auditorium with natural acoustics. Pilgrims are known to have commemorated this site since at least the 4th century.

The modern church, created in the Byzantine style, is maintained and overseen by the Franciscan Order. It was built between 1936 and 1938. It is near the site of the fourth century Byzantine ruins of the first church commemorating Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount.

Whether this is the exact spot where Jesus preached, it is in the general area and provides a similar setting to where Jesus would have delivered His famous sermon. As Dr. Jerome Murphy-O’Conner, a Dominican priest, and Professor of New Testament, puts it: “From here one can see virtually all the places in which Jesus lived and worked.”

Whether the Church of the Beatitudes is built on the very location of Jesus’ Sermon is really immaterial. Once you step inside the church, the beauty of what Jesus taught is portrayed in the stained glass windows, the altar, pews, octagonal walls … really, throughout the entire architecture.