Introduction

Edgar Allen Poe’s poem, The Raven, opens with a grieving man attempting to forget his grief.

Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December;

And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor.

Eagerly I wished the morrow;—vainly I had sought to borrow

From my books surcease of sorrow—sorrow for the lost Lenore—

When he tries to forget the pain of his loss and numb it with books and with reason, a raven invades his life with the constant refrain “nevermore.” “Nevermore” is the constant reminder of grief. The way things were will never be that way again.

The same thing could be said of happiness in general. Happiness, according to our culture, involves our response to our world. That what goes on matches what we want. Happiness is woven in to the fabric of our society.

The Declaration of Independence says, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

Ever since the first major sorrow in my childhood, I gave my life to the pursuit of happiness. Everything in my adolescent life revolved around the fact that I wanted to be happy. I pursued it first by trying to achieve the impossible. But the raven rapped and tapped at my door, saying, “Nevermore.”

Then In turned to the pursuit of a life well lived. You see the ancient philosophers defined happiness in such terms: a life well lived. That is, they attempted to discern what reality was—what was really good—and conform their souls to it. This of course has its merit for it determines the difference between virtue and vice and earnestly seeks to conform the soul to virtue. This is what the soul wants, they would argue, and achieving that goal brings happiness. From the world’s perspective, happiness is making what goes on match what we want.

And I wanted to be perfect in my character, in my ability, and in my religion. But there’s always that one who is better. And there’s always that vice gnawing away at hopes and dreams. And there came the raven again sitting on my bust of Plato and Aristotle with its shriek, “Nevermore.”

And so I turned to fantasy. If I could not make my reality make me happy, at least my make-believe world could. I would grow engrossed in TV shows and video games. I had exhilaration in being able to do things beyond reality, but there it came again, that all happiness I felt was just as fake as the fantasy from which it comes. And so that raven flew out of my chest back into reality with its familiar cry, “Nevermore.”

And at this point in my life there is a pause because I let the raven pick and peck, and scratch with is claws. I grabbed a knife to end it all, but God intervened before my fall.

I turned my pursuit of happiness into uplifting a lost cause. And that cause for me was the religion of Christianity. I had been in a boring and bleak church all my life and I knew the one solution: to bring people on God’s side again I’d just have to offer a slight substitution. “Christianity’s cool!” was my message a large, I went around telling all sorts of people this charge. But soon and very quick I was met with failure and severe regret. No one in their lost mind would think Christianity is cool, and for me to convince them, I was a fool. Then I looked upon the steeple and a raven sat high above the people. It’s cry was the same, as it always had came, “Nevermore”

The pursuit of happiness is the largest golden calf America has built. I have spent the majority of my life worshipping at this false altar. In fact, so much of who I am, what I do, how I interact, what I believe, is shaped by the pursuit of happiness. Without even realizing it, I had let this idol reshape my very core.

And this idol has shaped so much of Christian preaching and teaching, especially here in the states. “If you add Jesus to your already happy life, it will make you even happier.” Consider this for a moment. If we define happiness as making what goes on match what we want; and then we use God to achieve happiness; then God ceases to be God and instead becomes a supernatural way to achieve our selfish goals. So, who then is God if we treat God this way? The pursuit of happiness.

We live in a society where more things now than ever before are designed to make us happy. And yet we have more depressed people today than ever before! You see this is how the idol of the pursuit of happiness works! He dangles one carrot in front of you and once you grab a hold of it, it ends up being no carrot at all and so you move on to the next one, and the next one.

Depression in the United States…

Affects over 18 million adults (one in ten) in any given year. ItIs the leading cause of disability for ages 15-44. It is the primary reason why someone dies of suicide about every 12 minutes. – over 41,000 people a year.

What’s crazy is that how fast our society is moving, the carrots aren’t even working anymore! You know the entertainment industry is dying a slow death, because people now would rather be “distracted” than “entertained.” Why is this? Perhaps because the raven has pecked away at every sensibility that people realize they can no longer attain the happiness they pursue and instead are resolved to distract themselves from the incessant reminder that this life is under a curse.

Media platforms are designed to give us dopamine hits to keep us involved in their platforms and keep us distracted. Think about how “YouTube shorts” is a thing now. People can sit and watch these short videos for hours, getting dopamine hit after hit and be distracted from the raven’s cry. But if you will not hear the raven, let me speak in his stead, “Nevermore!”

The evils that beset our path Who can prevent or cure? We stand upon the brink of death When most we seem secure. If we today sweet peace possess, It soon may be withdrawn; Some change may plunge us in distress, Before tomorrow’s dawn. Disease and pain invade our health And find an easy prey; And oft, when least expected, wealth Takes wings and flies away. A fever or a blow can shake Our wisdom’s boasted rule; And of the brightest genius make A madman or a fool. The gourds, from which we look for fruit, Produce us only pain; A worm unseen attacks the root, And all our hopes are vain. I pity those who seek no more Than such a world can give; Wretched they are, and blind, and poor, And dying while they live. Since sin has filled the earth with woe, And creatures fade and die; Lord wean our hearts from things below, And fix our hopes on high.- John Newton

You see Jesus teaches on happiness, and what he teaches turns happiness upside down. Happiness is not our attitude towards life, but rather, it is God’s attitude towards us. Jesus teaches us that happiness as the world defines it, is not a goal worth pursuing. You see “That what goes on matches what we want” fails to see we are under a curse.

Happiness in the Christian life Jesus calls “Blessed” And this blessing is a state of being given what Christ has done for us. This does not mean we give up on emotions and become stoic. But this does mean that our center of happiness is no longer tied to our circumstances, but it is now tied to our state of being blessed.

Our circumstances change like the tides of the seas, ever waxing and waning, but we stand on the rock who is Christ. The storm comes and we weather it because our house is on the rock. Happiness is not something we pursue, it is what Christ has pursued for us! It is what he lived his righteous life for. It was in the pursuit of our happiness—our blessed state no longer under the curse—that Christ endured the cross. Hebrews 12:2 “looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.”

You see, it is the raven that reminds of our curse. But in Christ’s resurrection, he trampled that raven. And with Christ we can tread the ravens and proclaim, “Nevermore” Nevermore will there be sorrow and death. Nevermore are we under a curse. Nevermore!

And I know this is a lengthy introduction, and we will not have time to go through all the test in detail, but I say all this to introduce and define the word we find so often in the beatitudes, and that is the word “blessed.”

Look at Matthew chapter 5 and verse 1Matthew 5:1–2 ESV

Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and when he sat down, his disciples came to him. And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying:

Matthew has already made a comparison of Moses and Jesus. We know when God gave Moses the law, he ascended to the top of Mt. Sinai. Here we see Jesus ascending to the top of a nondescript mountain superior to Sinai.

God promised to ...