Release Date: March 4th, 2026Blessed
- by Kendall Jongejan Harder
Blessing is a wonderful word. Yet blessing is also a problematic word. On one hand it is a deeply Biblical word. God wants to bless with goodness. In Genesis 12, when God calls Abram to leave his home, the word blessing occurs five times in three verses. God desires good for Abram, good for his family, and good for the world through him.
I think blessing is a difficult word.
But blessing is also a hard word. The difficulty for me is that blessing can be understood in such a way that success and wealth becomes equated with God’s favour. If I am doing well financially or I have been blessed with many children, or I have been blessed with power that means that God is on my side. If I am so blessed it means that in some way I am better or more loved or a more successful Christian than someone who is not so blessed. It can even go beyond the personal level to a national level. Our country must be blessed by God because we are more powerful or wealthy than other countries. God is on our side and is blessing us. We are better than those who are not so blessed. This kind of prosperity gospel is insidious and dangerous. I don’t think it is true. I don’t think the world functions that way and I don’t think God functions that way. So I think blessing is a difficult word.
In Genesis 12, God’s blessing is a calling. God says “I will bless you…so that you will be a blessing.” And then “in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” There’s something here. Blessing isn’t just about goodness for Abraham or Abraham’s immediate family. That wasn’t God’s goal. There is purpose to blessing. That all may be blessed.
Jesus takes blessing in a whole new direction. His main use of the word blessing is in the beatitudes. One might wish that he would have said blessed are the rich. Blessed are the powerful. Even blessed are the middle class or Blessed are those with good jobs. In the words of Jesus it is not the well off or powerful who are blessed. It is those who are grieving, who are humble, who are poor in spirit, who are peacemakers, who long for righteousness, who are pure in heart, who are persecuted. The calling of blessing begins to look different. Blessing begins to look hard for new reasons.
Can we bless each other when we disagree or argue or fight? Can we wish them well even when we part ways or sit in disagreement. Can we be a blessing to all even those we are in conflict with?
And yet, God is a God who blesses. God desires good for all the people of the earth. As God’s people we are called also to bless others. To wish them well. To desire good things for them. Paul ends each of his letters with a blessing. Even when he is in conflict with the church. Even when the rest of the letter included moments of argument and anger. Paul offers a blessing. Can we bless each other when we disagree or argue or fight? Can we wish them well even when we part ways or sit in disagreement. Can we be a blessing to all even those we are in conflict with? I think there might be something here in our polarized world.
Abram experiences God’s blessing and receives a calling to be a blessing to all the families of the earth. Jesus’s call to be salt and light continues that call. God says “I will bless you…so that you will be a blessing.” May that blessing spill out into our world.
- Kendall Jongejan Harder is pastor at Shantz Mennonite Church.