Blessed are the Poor in Spirit

...for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven
Matthew 5:1-12

I know some people who have complained that they don’t understand the Bible. I can sympathize with them; there’s a lot that is hard to understand. There are lists of names of places that are all hard to locate and even harder to pronounce. There are customs and situations that are foreign to us. There are confusing names.

But I think it was Mark Twain who quipped, "Most people are bothered by those passages of Scripture which they cannot understand, but as for me, I have always noticed that the passages in Scripture that trouble me most are those I do understand."

This is the heart of the matter. It’s easy to say that Jesus was a good teacher – that’s common parlance even for non-Christians. But Jesus said some seriously difficult things, and this is why we are starting a series asking the question, "What did Jesus really say?"

Over the next eight weeks we will be looking at Matthew 5:1-12, a section of scripture commonly known as "the Beatitudes." These scriptures describe God’s blessings – specifically, who God blesses.

We’ve all heard the phrase "God bless America" – but what does it mean for Jesus to pronounce someone "blessed?"

First of all, let me talk a little about blessing as it should be biblically understood.

• Blessings are always related to the joy that comes from the presence and activity of Jesus.
• Blessings were associated with end times – so when Jesus pronounces someone blessed, a side note is that this means that the end times are at hand.
• When compared with other statements of blessing (especially in Ancient Greek and Old Testament blessing statements), many of the beatitudes don’t make sense. Jesus says, "Happy are the unhappy for God will make them happy." This is because Jesus’ presence fills all meaningful desire for happiness, which has nothing to do with the pursuit of happiness, with fortune, or with external circumstances.
• These blessings can be self-fulfilling prophecy; they can bring about what they declare.
  (D.E. Garland Dictionary of Jesus and the Gospels Blessing and Woe)

Now, let’s get to today’s blessing. I memorized this scripture this way: Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.

That clears it all up, doesn’t it?

So, what does this phrase "poor in spirit" mean? As I looked in various Bible translations and paraphrases, I found the following variations:

• at the end of your rope
• the humble
• those who rate themselves insignificant
• those who are poor and realize their need for Him
• those people who depend only on Him
• those who realize their spiritual poverty
• those who know there is nothing good in themselves
• those who are spiritually needy
• those who know that they need Him

Jesus says you are blessed if you’re at the end of your rope. Who here has been to the end of their rope? Did you feel blessed? It doesn’t make much sense to say that in a community like New Knoxville. We are a self-sufficient people – on Thursday at the state of the villages breakfast, I was having a conversation with village administrator Jeff Eschmeyer and representative John Adams – our representative told Jeff, "Give me a call if you ever need anything – but you guys never need anything; you just do it yourselves."

We consider our self-sufficiency a blessing, don’t we?

That’s not what Jesus says. He reserves his blessing those who know that they need God – not just in times of emergency, but for everything.

So, what is the blessing God has in store for those who recognize their need for Him? Jesus says that, "Theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven." That clears things up, doesn’t it? No, really, what does that mean?

To understand this, you have to understand that Jews were the Gospel of Matthew’s original audience. They believed in a future Kingdom which would gather together the scattered Israelites, restore Jerusalem and, usher in a time of prosperity and happiness.
Jesus, however, broadened the scope of the Kingdom. It isn’t bound by geography or nationality, but is open to everyone. And it isn’t just a future hope, but it is at hand – requiring an immediate response. When we continue our study of the Beatitudes over the next few weeks, it’s important to note that Jesus started and ended with the Kingdom of Heaven. This is a literary device called inclusio. When you see "bookends" like this, know that everything within the bookends belongs together. So this passage all deals with the Kingdom of Heaven. This is Jesus’ way of introducing and explaining a Kingdom in which the future is realized in His person.
In the Beatitudes, Jesus sets up a new paradigm for understanding the Kingdom of Heaven, a paradigm in which the participants are only those who depend upon Him for everything – I mean absolutely everything – but also in which all are welcome.

Listen to this scripture from Isaiah 66:2: My hand made all these things, and so they all came into being.[This is] the LORD's declaration. I will look favorably on this kind of person: one who is humble, submissive in spirit, and who trembles at My word.

Are you humble and submissive in spirit? Do you tremble at His word? Does God have reason to look favorably on you? This is, in a nutshell, what Jesus was saying when he said, "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven."