Poor in Spirit

This week we are getting into the first of Jesus’ teachings during The Sermon on the Mount.

We often have a skewed view of spiritual justice and morality. It is very common to think of your life in terms of a scale; as long as the good things in your life outweigh the bad things then you're going to be ok. However, this isn't at all what we see Jesus teach, and there are actually a lot of problems with this idea. To start with, who defines good and bad? Does each person get to choose for themselves what is good vs. what is bad? What if something I think is good, you think is bad? Does that thing count as whatever we think it is or does it have a universal designation? Even if salvation and spiritual justice worked on a sliding scale of good vs. bad, we would need some definitive measure and designation that is set in place by someone outside of the system. 

The thing about it is that we kind of do have that. We just don't like the scale and the measure. Jesus has said that, rather than the scales being balanced or slightly tipped to the side of good, we need to be perfect. Any bad upsets the scales. Even the smallest bad is of astronomical weight and can never be balanced by good. The only way to fix the scales is to remove the bad from them. 

This is what Jesus is getting to in His first teaching, His first Beatitude, here in Matthew.

Matthew 5:3 – “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

This verse is often misunderstood as some sort of call to poverty, and that may be, in part, because of the phrasing in Luke 6:20, which says, “...“Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.” However, Jesus is not saying here that a good Christian is one who exists in poverty with no money and no possessions and no food and no security. Granted, He has something to say about money and possessions and all of that, but the purpose of this teaching is not to encourage poverty as some sort of holy spiritual existence. 

Rather, what Jesus is getting at here is the concept of having a spirit of humility, of having a right understanding about our own spiritual standing and our ability, or lack thereof, to save ourselves.

A lot of people in this world tend to fall into one of several schools of thought. The first is that they really aren’t all that bad. This can take the form of thinking that they are without fault, entirely, but more often takes the form of thinking that, overall, they are good, and that goodness should be enough to get them into Heaven.

A second school of thought is that they really aren’t all that good, they have a lot of bad in their life, but they can make up for it, they can work hard enough or be disciplined enough to earn Heaven despite the bad in their life.

Finally, there are those who think that there is nothing that they can do, that they are bad, and there is nothing that they can do to make up for that bad. This can take two forms, the first being a state of depression and hopelessness because there is nothing they can do, but the second is what Jesus is speaking of, an admission that you aren’t “good enough” and you can’t do anything to earn that goodness, but rather than being hopeless, there’s hope, because God has done everything for us. 

This is the truth that we find in Titus 3:4-5 “But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit,”

It is this mindset, this acknowledgement, that is essential to salvation, because if we think that we don’t need it, can earn it on our own, or that there is no hope, it will be almost impossible to obtain it. However, it is easy to fall into the trap, in this poorness of spirit, of looking at ourselves and others as horrible, pitiful, awful things. This is not what God intended for us either. He made us in His image and died for us and saved us because we are beautiful and deemed worthy of His love, and He chose to instill value in us when we had none. Poorness of spirit is a heart condition that should lead to joy and celebration and worship, rather than hung heads and shame.

This is the foundational teaching that Jesus gives us, and in some ways, it has become so foundational that we forget about it. We take it for granted, and, in so doing, we cease to be poor in spirit. This is highlighted a little later in Matthew where we find this verse.

Matthew 18:4 – “Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.”

Jesus gives this as an answer to His disciples who are questioning who is the greatest in the kingdom of God. God…God is the greatest in the kingdom of God. We should not even be thinking about rank and power in God’s kingdom. We should be humble and poor in spirit, acknowledging that the gift of being in God’s kingdom is enough, and it is an equal gift, and there is nothing we can do to be greater in the kingdom. We need to keep a humble, poor of spirit, attitude, being thankful for what God has done, knowing that we could never do it on our own, yet we get to fully enjoy the splendor of His glory because of it.

Finally, just to nail home the fact that this idea of being poor in spirit is important and consistent, let’s look at a verse from the Old Testament, Isaiah 66:2. Here God says, “All these things my hand has made, and so all these things came to be, declares the Lord. But this is the one to whom I will look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word.”

The God of the Old Testament is the same as the God of the New Testament is the same as Jesus and, throughout history, what He is looking for is those who are poor in spirit, who are willing to truthfully admit, both, the state of their own soul and the magnificence of what God has done and who He is. This is the foundation, the first step, and it is to those that the kingdom of heaven, salvation, is given and available.