Crazy Happy, Part 1 - A Deeper Dive
Message Recap
This week we began a new sermon series called Crazy Happy. In part one, we introduced the series by talking about how we constantly pursue happiness through things and activities. We are certain happiness can be found in that one new thing - a new car, the latest iPhone, or a bigger house. But, while that one thing gives us an initial sense of happiness, our satisfaction wanes over time, and we begin looking for the next thing. Perhaps the thing we think will provide us with true happiness is an activity or experience - a job, our hobbies, an exotic vacation. Yet those, too, never quite deliver long-term, sustained happiness.
Our search for happiness is like the spinning hamster wheel: we need that one thing to be happy. The wheel spins. Then we get it, and we’re happy for a bit. The wheel keeps turning. Then there is the next thing that grabs our attention. The wheel spins some more. And so on. We spin on the wheel, moving from one thing to the next in an endless cycle. This pursuit is by no means unique to the time in which we live. Looking for happiness in worldly things has existed since the beginning of time.
Throughout the Bible, scripture reinforces the idea that worldly things don’t deliver true happiness. For example, consider the words of the prophet Jeremiah we heard on Sunday:
“My people have committed two sins:
They have forsaken me,
the spring of living water,
and have dug their own cisterns,
broken cisterns that cannot hold water.”
God provides all we need - a continuous “spring of living water” - yet we continually turn to things of the world in our search for happiness. The broken cisterns we’ve created cannot deliver the joy we ultimately find in God.
We also looked at the Greek word Makarios which translates to the word “blessed” that we find throughout scripture. Biblically speaking, to be blessed is to be happy. The word makarios and its use over time is the subject of our Deeper Dive.
Makarios Means Blessed
In ancient Greek, makarios referred to people whose wealth and power put them above the everyday cares of lesser people. To be blessed, a person first had to be rich and powerful.
With the translation of the Old Testament to Greek, makarios took on another meaning. It referred to the result of right living or righteousness. If one lived right, they were rewarded with earthly, material things such as many children, abundant crops, wealth, wisdom, and good health. A blessed person had more and better things than an ordinary person. If a person had big and beautiful things, they were undoubtedly blessed.
In both of these uses of the word makarios, the blessed one lived on a higher plane than everyone else. They were almost god-like. They were society’s wealthiest, and they had many possessions. They lived above the everyday cares, problems, and worries of those who were not blessed.
Are the happiest people in the world today the ones who have the most, the newest, and the best? Certainly, our perception would lead us to believe this is the case. We daydream about not having to worry about the stresses of daily life. Do we have enough money to pay the bills? Is the car going to get me where I need to go without breaking down? Is my employer going to hit hard times and have to let me go?
We’ve all heard the adage, “Money can’t buy happiness.” But, if we’re honest, most of us have responded, “I’m willing to try!” Jesus spent much of his public ministry pointing out the hypocrisy of the religious elite. The ones who read the scriptures about caring for the poor but weren’t willing to give up their place in the cultural hierarchy.
Jesus was known for turning things upside-down. He taught that the last would be first. He accepted the role of a servant even though he would have been correct in claiming the title of king. His friends - the people he loved most - were the outcasts of society.
When Matthew recorded the words Jesus spoke during the Sermon on the Mount, he used the word makarioi - blessed are - at the beginning of each beatitude. But the blessed were not the wealthy and powerful. Instead, they were the meek, the poor, and the hungry. These were the people who would find true happiness, not in worldly possessions, but in the love and grace of God.
What a crazy idea! True happiness is found in what God provides. We’ll dig into the beatitudes and the fruit of the spirit as we continue our series Crazy Happy. We hope you’ll join us.