"Blessed
Are the Poor in Spirit"
Part
of the Sermon on The Mount Series
I can think of nothing less blessed than
spiritual poverty. To be spiritually bankrupt is to have lost everything. Yet
Jesus says "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of
heaven." He is obviously not meaning moral bankruptcy here. He is not
saying," blessed are those without values... ", what then does He
mean? The original language gives us a clue in that "poor" here is
properly rendered "beggarly, destitute, without resources". It is
the person who has come to the end of their spiritual tether, who has
realised how hopeless our paltry attempts to please God are and feels
absolutely destitute and in need of grace. It is a commonplace observation of
the Christian life that we receive as much grace as we think we need. Jesus
illustrates this very well in another place - in Luke's gospel with the
parable of the Pharisee and the tax-collector.
Luke 18:9-14 (NRSV) He also told this
parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and
regarded others with contempt: 10 "Two men went up to the temple to
pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11 The Pharisee, standing
by himself, was praying thus, 'God, I thank you that I am not like other
people: thieves, rogues, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. 12 I
fast twice a week; I give a tenth of all my income.' 13 But the tax
collector, standing far off, would not even look up to heaven, but was
beating his breast and saying, 'God, be merciful to me, a sinner! ' 14 I tell
you, this man went down to his home justified rather than the other; for all
who exalt themselves will be humbled, but all who humble themselves will be
exalted."
The cry "God be merciful to me, a
sinner!" that came from deep within the penitent tax-collector was more
pleasing to God than all the spiritual achievements of the Pharisee. I find
it far easier to be a Pharisee than a penitent, and so I suspect do you. Yet
God is only pleased with us when we are poor in spirit - aware deeply within
ourselves that we are the creatures and he is our Creator, aware that we have
sinned and we need mercy. "Nothing in my hand I bring; Simply to thy cross
I cling; Naked, come to Thee for dress; Helpless, look to Thee for grace;
Foul, I to thy Fountain fly; Wash me, Saviour, or I die" wrote Augustus
M. Toplady. His hymn may seem quaint and overstated these days but it
captures the very essence of this holy destitution. All our pride is hammered
to pieces by this verse in the Sermon on The Mount. The most righteous of us
are reduced to naked supplicants. We cannot come before God with our boastful
pride, our spiritual knowledge, and the few sins we have left undone. We
would be in tatters at the first glimpse of His holiness. We would be utterly
undone and flee in terror from the courts of the Lord. The Lord our God is a
consuming fire and He will burn up all that His mercy has not touched and His
grace restored. There is no-one righteous, no not one. Even those God chooses
to bless and appoint to high spiritual offices must acknowledge their poverty
before God. This is made very clear in the following little biblical gem
about Joshua the high priest from the book of Zechariah (not the Joshua of
Jericho , a much later Joshua....) :
Zechariah 3:1-7 (NRSV) Then he showed me
the high priest Joshua standing before the angel of the LORD, and Satan
standing at his right hand to accuse him. 2 And the LORD said to Satan,
"The LORD rebuke you, O Satan! The LORD who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke
you! Is not this man a brand plucked from the fire?" 3 Now Joshua was
dressed with filthy clothes as he stood before the angel. 4 The angel said to
those who were standing before him, "Take off his filthy clothes."
And to him he said, "See, I have taken your guilt away from you, and I
will clothe you with festal apparel." 5 And I said, "Let them put a
clean turban on his head." So they put a clean turban on his head and
clothed him with the apparel; and the angel of the LORD was standing by. 6
Then the angel of the LORD assured Joshua, saying 7 "Thus says the LORD
of hosts: If you will walk in my ways and keep my requirements, then you
shall rule my house and have charge of my courts, and I will give you the
right of access among those who are standing here.
The high priest was the chief spiritual
authority in God's chosen nation. And unlike many previous high priests
Joshua truly honoured God and was chosen by Him. With such qualifications one
would assume that he needed little or nothing of God's mercy yet it is
abundantly clear that he was desperately in need of it, it is also very clear
that God wanted to grant it. God delights in granting mercy to those that
know they need it. If Joshua needs God's mercy, how much more you or I? We
cannot storm into God on our own merits. Like Joshua we need garments of
righteousness to be given to us by God.
Blessed are the poor in spirit....for
theirs is the kingdom of heaven. To enter into God's realm, to be part of the
kingdom that will oust all other kingdoms is a matter of lowliness not of
bombastic pride. There are some nations that are very proud of themselves,
their culture and their wealth. Their people say to themselves "Blessed
are the Such and Such for we belong to the kingdom of Suchness.” This sort of self-preening pride is the
precise opposite of being poor in spirit. We cannot fill our hearts with the
belief that our race or country or creed makes us special or better than
others - and still be poor in spirit. It is a contradiction; we cannot feel
rich, magnificent and superior and call ourselves humble. What then should
the inhabitants of such nations do if they are to enter the kingdom of heaven?
They must take on the perspective that their wealth will cry out against them
on the day of judgement. They must see that the kingdoms of this world will
pass away and eventually only the kingdom of heaven will remain. That their
nation will one day be subjugated by the returning Lord Jesus Christ. That
all pomp and culture and wealth and learning are just temporary blessings
from God -for us to bless others with. This salutary perspective will make us
realise that our materialism and selfishness have put us in very great danger
indeed. We have withheld the blessings of God. When that breaks through then
surely they will cry out for mercy and become poor in spirit - thus
inheriting the kingdom of God.
I want to shift our focus a bit to the
second half of this veres, because we will never bother being lowly and poor
in spirit if its just a platitude. If the kingdom of heaven is just a state
of mind, then let's all join the positive-thinkers with their boundless
self-confidence and positive mental attitudes. The kingdom of heaven has got
to be something much more than earthly happiness and boundless optimism. We
cannot have true faith or holiness or "saintliness" without the
resurrection. And it is very much a fact that it requires a death to get a
resurrection. The entrance to the kingdom of heaven is a dark grave, carved
out of a large rock, in a stony hill. It is the place of utter hopelessness.
The sealed tomb, the final burial, the desolation that comes as we walk away
and say "All is lost, I have nothing now, but I still trust God".
At that very moment you have become poor in spirit and truly yours will be
the kingdom of heaven. Out of that grave will spring a resurrection that you
hardly knew of and never believed in. It won't require your faith - God does
resurrections, not disciples. In the end you will marvel at what God has
done. I hope the following verse from a poem by Dorothy Stevens touches you
as it has touched me:
Thank you Lord!
When
powerful forces wrench a soul;
When
sore heart's praise comes haltingly,
That
shattered lives can be made whole
If
handed to you willingly.
Then
every stumbling "Thank you, Lord!"
Will
lift, expand, procalim your word.
Blessed are the poor in spirit for
"theirs is the kingdom of heaven". This seems to be rather an
intangible benefit - open to the criticism of 'pie in the sky when you
die". This is because we have misunderstood and misrepresented the
"kingdom of heaven". The kingdom of heaven and the kingdom of God
are the same. The kingdom of heaven is just the Jesus way of saying "the
kingdom that is not of the kingdoms of this world and which operates by
entirely different principles to the kingdoms of this world, it is the
kingdom from above, the kingdom of heaven, not the kingdom from below."
In the kingdom of heaven mustard seed sized beginnings produce great results,
in the kingdom of heaven people see what is unseen and leaders serve those
that follow them. In the kingdom of heaven angels care for the righteous and
punish the wicked, it is altogether just. In the kingdom of heaven God
rejoices in the presence of the holy angels over one sinner who repents. It
is a place of wholeness and peace and joy. It is not "pie in the sky
when you die" at all. It is here and now, what every Christian truly
wants out of life, in their deepest being, in the hearts and minds of all who
truly believe.
The kingdom of heaven is compared to leaven
mixed through a large lump of dough in one parable. (Mt 13:33) The kingdom of
heaven interpenetrates this present world - it is found in all nations, among
people speaking varied languages, and at all levels of society. The kingdom
of heaven has no earthly headquarters, no United Nations of the gospel. It is
at its most powerful when it is mixed evenly throughout this world. Like
leaven in the bread it is equally powerful everywhere - because the power is
in its life. It has a "biological power" a transforming power that
comes from the power of living things to transform and overcome the
environment around them. The kingdom of heaven is full of the life of heaven.
It is full of glory and grace. It causes the world to rise and be
transformed, it is the true beneficial change agent for the world.
This living, breathing, borderless kingdom
is the kingdom of Christ and of Christians. It is the kingdom that comes to
all who want God's grace because they need it. The kingdoms of this world,
with all their cruelty and injustice are the playgrounds of the
less-than-meek. They say in themselves "Blessed am I in my pride for
mine are the kingdoms of this world." Throughout the Old Testament there
is a condition of heart that brought devastating ruin on all who held it and
it is articulated in the phrase "I am, and there is none besides
me". Proud, self-sufficient and puffed up in spirit. It was the phrase
God threw back at them, the thought that caused Him to destroy them.
Isaiah 47:10-11 (NRSV) You felt secure in
your wickedness; you said, "No one sees me." Your wisdom and your
knowledge led you astray, and you said in your heart, "I am, and there
is no one besides me." 11 But evil shall come upon you, which you cannot
charm away; disaster shall fall upon you, which you will not be able to ward
off; and ruin shall come on you suddenly, of which you know nothing.
The summary fact is this, that unless you
are poor in spirit - you will have no kingdom at all.
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