Jesus and present simple sentences

After introductions and basic questions about themselves we usually move on to teaching students present simple sentences [starting with affirmative, positive statements and then moving on to negatives and interrogative (or question) forms] Jesus seams to follow this pattern.

The Beatitudes

2 And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying:

3 "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

4 "Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.

5 "Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.

6 "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.

7 "Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.

8 "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

9 "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sonst of God.

10 "Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

11 "Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.12 Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you
 

The beatitudes in Matthew five are full of present simple sentences. Blessed are....

For those of you who don't know present simple is used for stating repeated actions [with varied frequency] and facts. Here Jesus is stating facts and repeated actions. When you are persecuted (this isn't a single offense) you are blessed [you may not my choice of a zero conditional there, to exaggerate the nature of this being a fact.]

Let's look at the grammar a bit deeper, these are actually all passive voice sentences. They don't state who does the blessing. We use passive voice when we don't need to state who is doing an action as the result is more important OR we know who is doing the action.

So which is it in this case? Well it is certainly possible that Jesus wants to focus on the positive outcomes of these blessings and the nature of the blessings. However if we look at the end of the section we can see that actually there is the assumed knowledge there ("for your reward is great in heaven")

So Jesus's first sermon started with a load of facts in the present simple passive voice. They were all about how God blesses the unlikely and people who appear to be losers (in the fullest sense of the word)