First Things First (1) Series

“But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well” (Matthew 6:33).

We live in a pretty materialistic culture; we tend to confuse purpose or meaning in life with success. And we tend to confuse success with the accumulation of material possessions. The more stuff we have, the more successful we must be. The more successful we are the more purpose or meaning our lives must have. We draw meaning from the stuff we collect.

It’s not all our fault. Our need to collect stuff has its roots in the most basic of our survival instincts. Upon ejection from the garden, Adam and Eve figured out real quick that without food and protection from the elements they would die. Food and protection from the elements are the most basic of human needs; necessary for survival.

Once our ancestors garnered enough food, clothing and shelter to satisfy their immediate needs they began to squirrel away a little extra, for a rainy day. And the habit of collecting stuff was established.

After we had collected enough food, clothing and shelter to take the edge off, other needs began to pop up. According to psychology guru Abraham Maslow, when we satisfy our most basic human needs we move toward fulfilling other needs, such as the need for safety and security, love, esteem, and self-actualization. He illustrated the progression of human needs as a pyramid. Food and protection from the elements were on the bottom of the pyramid, safety and security came next, then the need for love and acceptance, then esteem and recognition. At the top of the pyramid was our need for self-actualization. Thanks to Maslow, we have the humanist version of meaning, purpose and success in a nutshell … or at least, in a pyramid.

Maslow believed that once a person’s basic needs for air, water, food and shelter were met, he or she could move on to the next level of human need, which was safety. Safety, in human culture was provided by the group - the tribe. As civilization progressed this became the state or the government. The tribe protected us from wild animals and other marauding tribes; the government protects us from criminals and other marauding governments.

Once our safety needs have been met, according to Maslow, we seek to satisfy our love or belonging needs; the need for friendship, family and sexual intimacy. Once those have been met we move on to satisfy our need for esteem; the need to be recognized by ourselves and others as important. We want self-respect and the respect of the community.

When our esteem needs have been met we’re able to climb to the uppermost level of the human needs pyramid – the need for self-actualization. Self-actualization, the peak of human needs fulfillment, is manifest by our developing a sense of morality, creativity and spontaneity; forgetting our prejudices and accepting the truth about how things are.

According to Maslow, we have to work our way up to self-actualization. We can’t address issues like morality, beauty, justice and truth until we’ve met our more basic needs, like being fed, clothed, loved and esteemed by others.

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About two-thousand years ago, Jesus spoke to a huge crowd that had assembled on a hillside overlooking the Sea of Galilee. They came to witness His miracles. He came to teach them His hierarchy of human needs; without the benefit of Maslow’s pyramid.

Jesus began his teaching with the most anti-success speech every given. “Blessed are the poor in spirit … blessed are those who mourn … blessed are the meek … blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness … blessed are the merciful … blessed are the pure in heart … blessed are the peacemakers … blessed are those who are persecuted.” And, for the big finish, “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me.”

What kind of motivational talk was that? These people didn’t hike all out to the backside of nowhere to hear Jesus tell them that the worse off they were the better off they were. That didn’t even make sense. They had heard that Jesus was a miracle worker. He turned water into wine, he healed the sick and he cast out demons. They came here to see a show. They came here to have their needs met. And now, instead of miracles, Jesus is telling them that they’ll be abused and ridiculed because of their association with Him, and they should be glad about it?

Jesus knew something about their needs they didn’t know. He knew something about their needs Maslow didn’t know. Jesus was present on the day of creation. He was present when the first man took his first breath. He knew a little about what man’s needs really were. He wanted to turn their thinking around about what was really needful.