“You’re a good man, Charlie Brown.” I remember watching that show as a child. I especially remember when Charlie Brown finds the chewed-up red pencil, dropped by the little red-head girl, the object of his affection. He is so excited and runs to tell his friends. Then the entire crew breaks into the song, “Happiness is….”  For Charlie Brown: Happiness is a red pencil. For Snoopy: Happiness is pizza with sausage. Linus, Schroeder, and Sally each join in as they sing about the things that make them happy.

In elementary school, I remember our teacher giving us “Happiness is…” exercises. We would take our Big Chief tablet and pencil and write down the things that made us happy. We would write, “Happiness is mommy and daddy,” or “Happiness is a puppy,” or “Happiness is chocolate ice cream,” or “Happiness is the Phillies beating the Yankees.”

Happiness is desired by everyone. From ancient philosophers like Aristotle and Plato to modern psychotherapists like Freud there is agreement: all human beings seek happiness. Augustine wrote, “We all want to live happily; in the whole human race there is no one who does not assent to this proposition, even before it is fully articulated.” This raises the obvious question: What is true happiness?

In the ancient world, happiness meant true, real blessedness. Today, happiness has come to mean personal satisfaction, or contentment. Blessedness and contentment are different. Blessedness is established in moral goodness; it encompasses the spiritual realm; it lasts and endures forever; it is objective. Happiness as contentment has more to do with fortune, luck and chance. It is momentary. It comes and it goes. It is also entirely subjective. It is up to you, as an individual, to decide what makes you happy. In the words of Sheryl Crow, “If it makes you happy, then it cannot be that bad.” Popular, certainly. True, hardly.

Now if one were to take an opinion poll, that modern arbiter of all truth, and ask the participants to list the most important ingredients to happiness, then we would certainly hear the following: wealth; freedom from pain; science and technology; self-esteem; justice; sex; personal success; a long, healthy life; honor and respect. Doesn’t this all seem so obvious and reasonable? These elements of happiness are almost beyond argument. Who would ever deny it? Only a fool would deny them. Anyone who would argue that happiness consisted of their opposites might be considered insane. Yet this is exactly what our Lord Jesus does in the Beatitudes. Our Lord’s teachings in these Beatitudes turns our modern conception of happiness on its head.

The world says, “Happiness is possessing worldly wealth and riches.”  Jesus Christ replies, “Blessed are the poor in spirit.” The Kingdom belongs to those who do not trust in their own strength, their own riches, or their own hard work. The Kingdom belongs to those who know their poverty and look in faith to the Most Holy Trinity for true, spiritual wealth. Blessed are those who are not attached to the fleeting, perishing things of this world, but look to the riches of Christ’s Kingdom, the forgiveness of sins and salvation.

The world says, “Happy are the comfortable.” Anesthesia may be one of the greatest inventions in human history. It keeps us free from pain. Our culture, however, takes this to an extreme and attempts to avoid all suffering or pain at all costs. Yet Jesus says, “Blessed are those who mourn.” Comfort belongs to those who mourn and grieve over the brokenness of humanity and creation. True blessedness, real happiness is found when we are pained by the sin, evil, death and wickedness around us. Humanity is fallen and this is tragic. It is worth our mourning.  Those who mourn are blessed because they will embrace the life of suffering under the cross, which is the comfort of Christ in the midst of sin and death, and the source of eternal redemption.

The world says, “Happiness is being powerful, strong, and famous.”  Jesus says, “Blessed are the meek.” Those who do not clamor after honor, fame, and glory are blessed. The gentle and humble, who seek after the needs of others, are truly blessed. The blessed are those who love their neighbor, not thinking more highly of themselves than they ought. They are blessed because by grace they are like Christ, the perfect Man and fully God. Christ is utterly meek. Christ took on flesh. Christ went to the cross. Christ is now risen and ascended so the earth belongs to Him and the meek belong to Christ.

The world says, “Happiness is contentment with yourself.” Our culture assumes that we are all good people. Our modern prophets, the pop-psychologists and the TV preachers, point us inward and tell us to love ourselves. They preach exaltation of the self and a personal deity ready to serve you. There is no need for repentance because there is no such thing as sin, only personal preferences. Jesus doesn’t believe this for a second. He says, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.” Jesus says true contentment is realized in discontentment with our sin. Our God is most pleased with us when we are displeased with our lack of righteousness. A hunger and thirst for righteousness reveals a heart that knows its need to be filled with the righteousness that comes for God. This righteousness comes to us from Christ. For God made Him who knew no sin, to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God. In Christ, we are made righteous. In repentance, we go to Christ and His righteousness is ours through faith and so we are blessed.

The world says, “Happy are those who receive justice and their personal rights.” We live in a culture of entitlement, where everyone wants to get what they deserve. Jesus says, “Blessed are the merciful.” Mercy is the opposite of justice. Justice gives us what we deserve. Mercy does not give us what we deserve. If we received justice from God, then we would all be condemned. But God has been merciful to us in Christ. He does not condemn us, but gives us Christ instead. God’s mercy is our forgiveness, our life, and our salvation. God has blessed us with His mercy and so we are blessed.

The world says, “Happy are the sexually liberated.” Our society worships sex. Lust has blinded our reason and skewed all perspective of human relations. Sexual purity before marriage is a joke to most. Jesus says, “Blessed are the pure in heart.” Now purity of heart does not relate only to sexual morality, but to all matters of holiness in obedience to the law. Those who are holy, whose hearts are innocent before God, will be blessed forever. This demands that the holiness of Christ to fill our hearts. Faith in Christ gives us this holiness and Christ purifies our hearts. So we will see God, because He has forgiven and redeemed us.

The world says, “Happiness is winning and success.” Whether in war, sports, business, relationships or games of chance, we are told to win at all costs. Such a drive for victory always leaves victims. Jesus says, “Blessed are the peacemakers.” Christ, the Son of God, made peace with the Father for sinful humanity by His death and resurrection. By His cross, Jesus has now given to us, His children, a peace which the world cannot give. Thus, we are to be sons and daughters of peace, waging war against the world and our flesh, reconciling ourselves to our neighbors.

The world says, “Happiness is to live a long, healthy life and to be loved by others.” We want to grow old. We want to be honored and respected. We crave love from the world. Jesus says, “Blessed are the persecuted.” The Kingdom belongs to those who are rejected, slandered, and reviled for the sake of Jesus and His righteousness. Such people are blessed. Jesus even repeats this to emphasize his point and overcome our suspicions. Faithfulness to Christ will bring persecution from the world. It is the way of the cross. It means death to the self. Yet this is a cause for rejoicing because our reward is great in heaven. The reward is infinite, unending, unimaginable ecstasy for eternity with the Most Holy Trinity in heaven.

Jesus Christ destroys all shallow, empty worldly understandings of happiness by the true blessedness of His Kingdom. Such blessedness, true happiness, does not originate with our own personal, subjective opinions, but is realized only in Jesus Christ. It is impossible for us, however, to be perfectly obedient to our Lord’s commands or to become such people by our own efforts. Luther stated about these sayings of Jesus, “We are not able properly to fulfill one tittle out of our own strength… but must always crawl to Christ.” Crawl to Him because He is our forgiveness. He went to death and the grave for our sin. Crawl to Him because He is our life and redemption. He is risen and ascended.

Happiness is Jesus Christ. Our blessedness now and forever is in Jesus Christ.  St. John writes, “Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.” In Baptism, we were made the children of God. At the font, the blood of the lamb washed our robes white. And yet the fulfillment of what we will be has not yet taken place. On the last day, Christ will make us like Himself. By His grace, we will see the eternal beatific vision and join the blessed the heavenly host. Our deathless voices will join the angelic choirs in singing, “Alleluia! Alleluia!” This is our hope. So we purify ourselves now by the purity of His righteous gifts: the purifying waters of Baptism; the purifying words of the Holy Gospel; the pure food of Communion. Receiving Christ in these gifts of word, water, bread and wine purifies us now and forever. Even as we gather today in faith, Dorothy, Phyllis, Carl, Orren, Wesley, and all the faithful who have fallen asleep in Christ have been purified. They have joined the heavenly host and now enjoy these eternal blessings of Christ. Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord! Blessed indeed! And as this All Saint’s Day reminds us that another year has passed and our own death is closer, let us purify ourselves by gathering with them at this altar and in faith feed on the righteousness that is ours through the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ +INJ+