October 5, 2008
Blessed are the Poor
Matthew 5:1-3
One Sunday after worship was over a little boy told the pastor, “When I grow up, I’m going to give you some money. The pastor replied, “Well, thank you, but why?”
“Because my daddy says you’re one of the poorest preachers we’ve ever had.”
Being poor, ooh, nobody wants to go there, do they? Nobody really wants the word POOR to be associated with their name and way of living. We may romanticize what it would be like to be poor, but let me tell you I have not met anybody who endured poverty, and would like to go back to the good ‘ol days and enjoy poverty once again.
Poverty isn’t pretty. We seek to escape it, not to embrace it. Poverty may look good on some saint, like Saint Francis, but it is not one of our life goals. As we think about poverty, or being poor, consider for a few minutes the current plight in our country.
On Monday the Dow Jones went down 777 points, almost 10% of its value. In the past year, the Dow has decreased by just under 30%. That means if you’re pretty normal – your savings, investments and retirement plans have decreased by about that much. Maybe more, maybe less. Either way, I’m not sure who is making money? But I can tell you one man who is, or who did.
If your familiar with the bank Washington Mutual, they hired a new CEO, Alan Fishman on September 8th, he received a signing bonus of $7.5 million.
Then on September 25th, JP Morgan was the lucky winner in purchasing Washington Mutual; and Alan Fishman was out of job. He was CEO for 17 days, and gets to keep $7.5 million for his efforts. Not bad. Oh, but it didn’t end there, because you see, Fishman also received a severance package and received an additional $11.6 million. All together, Fishman earned $19.1 million. I would have been happy to close the bank for only 10% of that. Think of all the money they would have saved. I don’t begrudge Fishman, hey if they want to pay you, who’s going to turn down that kind of money.
And that is the first question for us this morning. . . If you were offered big bucks like that – if you were offered $11 million, because you are an expert in a field, what would you do? Would you turn the money down, and say, I’m not worth that much. Would you look these people who want to pay you and say, “thanks, but no thanks.” I don’t think most of us would do that. Of course, what we do with that money is what would make a difference. But we are not here to talk about money, well, kinda, but what does Jesus mean when he said, “BLESSED ARE THE POOR (IN SPIRIT), FOR THEIRS IS THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN.”
I mean who wants to be poor, we all strive to be and do something better. It’s part of how we’re wired and when someone is not trying to be the best they can be, we think something is wrong with them. Who doesn’t want to better themselves?
So, what does it mean to be poor in spirit? You see, in this passage, Jesus isn’t talking about economics, He is talking about every aspect of our being - - - He’s talking about our HEART, our SPIRIT, our MIND, and our BODY. We can’t just give Him a small morsel of ourselves, it’s a striving to give all that we have to Jesus. And this is what makes this passage from Jesus so difficult. In fact, it’s what makes the Beatitudes seem counter-intuitive and backwards.
When Jesus referred to the poor, let me explain what He meant. There are 2 Greek words for POOR. The first word for poor describes a person who has to work for a living, has nothing to spare, but also is not destitute. Jesus is NOT referring to this type of poor.
The POOR Jesus is talking about literally describes a person who is reduced to begging, who is destitute of wealth, influence, position, and honor; and they’re helpless and powerless. So, when Jesus talks about the poor in spirit, we could say this, “Blessed are those who are destitute of wealth, honor, influence, position and honor, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
But who wants to admit they are poor, whether it be poor in spirit, poor in money, or even poor in sports; who wants to make that admission? We tend to look at others and give them extra credit for their stylish clothes, language, looks, and knowledge; but we lose sight that these are the externals, and what Jesus is concerned with is the internal . . . THE HEART.
Let’s look at a Biblical story to see what Jesus means. In Luke 18, Jesus tells a story about two men. Let me read it for you ~
✞ 9 To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked
down on everybody else, Jesus told this parable:
✞ 10 "Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other
a tax collector.
✞ 11 The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: ’God, I thank you that I am not like other men — robbers, evildoers, adulterers — or even like this tax collector.
✞ 12 I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’
✞ 13 "But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to
heaven, but beat his breast and said, ’God, have mercy on me, a
sinner.’
✞ 14 "I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified
before God. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he
who humbles himself will be exalted."
This parable seems like a perfect case study for this Beatitude. Two men go to the Temple to pray . . . the Pharisee exalts and praises himself, and thanks God he is not like that lowlife good for nothing shnook standing across the room from him. The great Pharisee reminds God about all of the good things he’s doing . . . he gives 10% and fasts twice a week. You see, he’s the model of the perfect Christian for us, isn’t he. Someone who is in church, they’re here every time the doors are open, they give and give, they practice the least practiced Spiritual Discipline. We hold them up as the model Christian. But where is their heart? Who’s got their heart? What is it their heart treasures? Certainly not God.
Then we meet the tax collector, he’s the low life, now remember why the tax collector was so despised. He was Jewish and taking money for the Roman government from his own Jewish people. Any time the Romans wanted to raise taxes they could, the Jews had no rights, in fact, when you think about it, they were the POOR in SPIRIT. They thought they had much, but they really had nothing, since they were under Roman rule. They really were not free.
Lest, I digress, the tax collector . . . Consider what he is doing. He can’t even look up toward the heavens where God resides. All he can do is beat his chest, call himself a sinner and ask for mercy from the Most High God. He just wants to experience the mercy and grace of God, because he knows he’s a sinner. He comes by it honestly and admits it.
Now look at who this parable of Jesus is addressed to ~ Luke told us it was addressed to those who trusted, in fact, who were confident in themselves. They didn’t think they needed anything, they had it all. They felt so rich in righteousness that they had contempt for anyone who wasn’t as good as they were. There was absolutely no way that they considered themselves poor in spirit, after all, when we think of the kingdom of heaven, we view it as a place for the spiritually rich.
So, how easy is it for the rich to enter the kingdom of heaven? In Matthew 19, Jesus told us, “24It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”
Why is it so hard for the rich person to enter the kingdom? Because they don’t believe they have any needs. What material needs does a rich person have? When I sat for my Oral Defense for my doctorate, my first reader and mentor told me about his son in law who is Jewish - - about the fact that he refuses to listen about Christ. After all, my mentor said, he makes 10 digits per year. In other words, his son-in-law is loaded. He makes over $10 million per year. In his eyes, who needs God when you’ve got the world where you want it?
So, Jesus tells us, when you think you have no needs, when you look at yourself and you’re confident you have it all, when you wallow in your arrogance and narcissistic pride, who do you think is in control? You are! And by the way, you have needs.
Yet, when we look at that poor tax collector who beat his chest and only wanted the mercy of God to come upon him, that is the one who will enter the kingdom. You see he recognizes his place, not his place in life, but his place in the kingdom.
When John the Baptist and Jesus spoke about the kingdom, they had a similar call to the people, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.” The call is to repent. The call for each one of us is to confess our sins in repentance. We are to ask God to forgive us for the sins we have committed . . . and do you see what happens when we do that?
When we repent it is a declaration of our poverty, our spiritual poverty. It is our proclamation that we are spiritually bankrupt and on our own, we can’t do it, so we turn to God and we offer ourselves to Him.
It’s not the way we would think about entering into the kingdom of heaven. It’s not elegant or classy. It’s not the logical way to approach the kingdom of God, whose streets are paved with gold and door handles are made of pearls. We think we need to put our best qualifications forward, to pad our resume, have letters of reference, provide our ACT and SAT scores. We want to show God how much money we’ve given, how many church activities we’ve participated in, how many pot lucks we’ve attended.
Instead, Jesus tells us the key to entering the kingdom is to confess that we are spiritually bankrupt.
On our own, we are nothing, with Him, we have everything.
When we look at others as better than ourselves, when we are willing to help others, because we believe we are supposed to help others, when we practice humility (which we’ll talk about in 2 weeks) . . . we are entering the kingdom. But we do it, with joyful, passionate, excited hearts; because we recognize what Jesus did for us.
We look at the table which is before you this morning, and you say, “Ah, yes, Jesus, you died for me. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! I will serve you, gladly, not out of obligation, but out of gratitude. When you do that, you are entering the kingdom of heaven.
Being poor in spirit is the key which opens up the kingdom of heaven. It opens our heart, spirit, mind and body to allow God in a little deeper, one day at a time. I’m not really sure you can be in the kingdom of heaven if you don’t realize you’re poor in spirit. After all, if you have no needs, then how can you be poor in spirit.
You see, the kingdom of heaven is where God reigns in our lives. It is the place, the deep, deep dwelling place where God lives within you and within me. In our hearts. It starts from the heart, it flows from the heart and it ends with the heart.
The theologian, Fredrick Buechner wrote,
If we only had eyes to see and ears to hear and wits to understand, we would know that the Kingdom of God in the sense of holiness, goodness, beauty is as close as breathing; and it is crying out to be born both within ourselves and within the world; we hunger for above all other things even when we don’t know its name or realize that it’s what we’re starving to death for. * The Kingdom of God is where we belong. It is home, and whether we realize it or not, I think all of us are homesick for it.1
HAVE YOU GIVEN YOUR HEART TO GOD?
ENTER THE KINGDOM . . . ENTER THE PLACE WE LONG FOR.
* The Kingdom of God is where our best dreams come from and our truest prayers. We glimpse at it, at those moments when we find ourselves being better than we are and wiser than we know. We catch sight of it when at some moment of crisis a strength seems to come to us that is greater than our own strength.
1 Buechner, Frederick. The Clown in the Belfry: Writings on Faith and Fiction. San Francisco: Harper Collins, 1992), 152.
