Blessed are the Poor in Spirit
There’s a great old hymn of the church we used to sing when I was a kid, called “Count Your Blessings.” Count your blessings, name them one by one. It ended with, Count your many blessings, see what God has done. As we walk our way through the Beatitudes, we are going to be counting our blessings, and seeing what God has done.
Well, where shall we start?
Perhaps a definition would help. Last week we talked about what it means to be blessed. So, what is a blessing? In the Bible, the definition of what constitutes a blessing sort of evolved over the years as people grew to understand God better. In the earliest writings of the Bible, the way to count your blessings was to simply count your material wealth, your health and your family. If you have a large family, many children, large herds of cattle, many servants, a lot of money, and good health, these are your blessings.
And that’s the way many of us count our blessings. By taking an inventory of what we have. For a period of time in our marriage, Ed and I got used to counting our material blessings in terms of pounds, because we moved frequently. On one move we “counted” 6500 pounds of household goods and another thousand pounds of books. Several years ago, we counted our blessings in a different way, by making out our will. We discovered at the time that our greatest monetary asset was our life insurance. From a professional standpoint, our library has great value. Personally, the possessions that carry the most value are the dogs. More important still are those things that are not really our “possessions” at all—family and friends, a sunset, a sunrise.
Even as we count these blessings, we know that they are not the end of the story. And it is not the things themselves that create the state of blessedness. As I said last week, to be blessed is to be content. And there is always a God-connection with the state of blessedness. A blessing is a gift from God that results in this contentment. But if we just think of the things themselves as the blessings and forget the God-connection, then our attitude becomes bent and twisted—we begin to think that things can buy happiness. We become possessive, and afraid of losing what we have. As someone wisely said, That which you cannot give away, you do not possess. It possesses you. (parables, 19.7.7)
The other problem with counting blessings only in terms of material things, is that if we lose what we have, or don’t have much to start with, then we will tend to think that God hasn’t blessed us very much. And that misses the point entirely. Because the contentment comes as a result of our relationship with God, not the things themselves.
In the later writings of the Old Testament, there is a shift in emphasis away from material things when the writers speak about blessings. The prophets and other writings talk about wisdom as the greatest blessing from God. And wisdom is a great gift. Practical, too. Wisdom has to do with what you do with what you know. A lot of people are smart. But there’s book smart and street smart. Wisdom is more like street smart. It helps us make good decisions, knowing right from wrong, and applying that knowledge. Wisdom tells us when to speak and when to keep our mouth shut. When to make changes, and when to hold our course steady.
Wisdom is a great blessing, but that’s not the end of the story either.
Here in the New Testament—in the Beatitudes, Jesus turns the whole idea of blessings inside out when he insists that the poor in spirit are blessed. So, not only are blessings not based on what we have, Jesus seems to be saying that we find our blessedness (our contentment) in the midst of our poverty—what we do not have. (adapted from Turning Points)
Here’s where I expect you to shift uncomfortably in your chairs. In approaching the subject I feel a little uncomfortable myself--like the minister in Florida who lamented that it was difficult to get his message across to his congregation: “It’s so beautiful in the winter,” he said, “that heaven doesn’t interest them. . . .And it is so hot here in the summer . . . that hell doesn’t scare them!” (parables, 15.5.1) I don’t imagine that anyone in this room would consider himself or herself particularly wealthy. Yet we know that in the scale of the world economy, even the poorest among us is well off. And the more prosperous we become, the more we seem to need. As it’s often been said, our expenses rise to meet our income. We are the people for whom it may be said that a recession is “a time when we have to do without a lot of things our grandparents never heard of.” (parables, 15.6.5) What do we know about poverty. . .really?
Sometimes we feel poor, though, don’t we? It seems to me that there are two times of the year when Americans feel particularly poor. January, when the Christmas bills come pouring in, and around April 16, right after tax day.
American Christians have an ambivalent attitude toward poverty and wealth and how this relates to our faith. We thumb our noses at those who are filthy rich; at the same time, there is also a very popular belief that says those who follow Christ will gain wealth. The reality is that most Americans, perhaps even most American Christians, have a closer relationship with their money than they do with God.
Everything has a bottom line, and that bottom line is measured in dollars and cents. Maybe you saw this story that came across the internet this week: An investment counselor was doing so well in her business that she decided that she need to get in-house counsel. So she began interviewing young lawyers. “In our business,” she said to one of her applicants, “our personal integrity must be beyond question. Do you consider yourself an honest lawyer, Mr. Ford?”
“I certainly do,” replied the lawyer. “I’m so honest that after my father loaned me fifteen thousand dollars for my education, I paid back every penny after my very first case.”
The investment counselor was impressed. “What sort of case was it?”
The lawyer pressed his lips tightly together before he finally answered, “He sued me for the money.” How tight are you and your money?
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is
the kingdom of heaven.
There are a couple of Greek words that Jesus had at his disposal when he wanted to express what it means to be “poor.” One of those words means someone who works for a living, and who gets by, but has nothing extra. But that’s not the word he used. The word he used means absolute and abject poverty. Jesus is talking about someone who is absolutely bankrupt.
Then he adds that phrase, in spirit. It is the poor in spirit who are blessed. You could give away everything you have – or lose it in a poker game—but still not be poor in spirit. To be poor in spirit is really an attitude, a way of thinking and living.
William Barclay says that the one who is poor in spirit is detached from things, knowing that things will never bring contentment or security. The one who is poor in spirit is detached from things, but attached to God, because only God can bring help, hope, and strength. As the old song says: “Nothing in my hand I bring, simply to thy cross I cling.”
So, the one who is poor in spirit has a closer
relationship with God than with his or her money. Unlike the young man in our Bible story.
Well, let’s talk about this young man. This is just the kind of guy you’d want your daughter to marry. He’s stable, moral, a good churchgoing boy, secure (and probably handsome, too). It’s a familiar story. Let’s consider a few questions.
What did the young man want? (eternal life)
How did he hope to get it? (by doing some good deed)
Why did he go away sad? (he had a closer relationship with his money than with God)
Why were the disciples so astounded? Like many people in their time, they counted their blessings by the denarius. They believed, along with others, the popular theology that said that the rich were closer to heaven than the rest of us. They had found favor with God, and God had blessed them. Certainly this upstanding young man had won his way into God’s kingdom already. What really rocked them back on their heels, then, was Jesus’ comment about rich people not making it into the kingdom at all—or at least not until camels start walking through the eyes of needles. This comment about the camel going through the eye of a needle is intentional hyperbole on Jesus’ part. I’ve heard lots of preachers try to soften this point—to make it sound difficult, but not impossible for the rich to enter the kingdom of God. But that’s precisely the point that Jesus is making: it is impossible to get into the kingdom of heaven by your own effort. No one has enough resources to buy their way in—either with money, or with good deeds, or by being cute. It’s flat out impossible. The only way to gain entrance into the kingdom of God is to receive it as a gift from God.
The best way to illustrate this that I’ve ever come up with has to do with swimming across the Atlantic Ocean. Many of you have heard me talk about this. I can do many things. Swimming is not one of them. If you and I lined up on the beach and started to swim across the ocean to Europe, every one of you who can swim would get farther than I would. Some strong swimmers would get farther than others. None of us would get all the way to Europe. It’s impossible. The only way we could do it is if a boat or a helicopter or an airplane would take us across.
Spiritually speaking, we are paupers.
Now, that doesn’t mean we are supposed to devalue ourselves. In fact, God values us very highly, which is why Jesus came. The point Jesus is making is about resources. We simply do not have the resources to get into the kingdom on our own. Only God can get us in. And God offers that as a free gift.
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
A young boy named Bobby returned home from Sunday School eating a candy bar. His mother had given Bobby just enough money for the offering, so she asked, “Where did you get that candy bar?”
Bobby said, “I got it at the store after Sunday School.”
“But I gave you that money for Sunday school,” his mother said.
“I remember what you said, mom, but the pastor met me at the door and got me in for free.” (parables, 20.2.8)
God is sort of like that pastor. God gets us in the kingdom for free.
Are you among the poor in spirit? Do you know, in your heart of hearts that you do not have the monetary resources to buy your way into the kingdom, or the moral resources to work your way in, or the strength to push your way in? Then the Kingdom of God is yours. All you have to do is say yes to it.