Beatitudes

Are the Beatitudes something you do?

Is it a goal for Christians to become like what the Beatitudes say? Do I aspire to become a spiritual nobody and overcome with remorse. Should I walk around weak and sad, all the while being beaten up?

This is the traditional idea that I have heard, but perhaps Jesus means something different.

Maybe he is pronouncing blessing in a way that shocks hearers out of commonly held assumptions. Ist century Jews like 21st century Americans have ideas about who is really well off...and who is not. Jesus in his characteristic style made statements that challenged those assumptions and asserted something else was the case.

He was not replacing the list of the "God-favored" with another list. He was saying even those who are nobodies, dropouts and burnout can be blessed becasue of the Kingdom of God.

What do you think?