After his return from church one Sunday, a small boy said, "You
know what mommie? I'm going to be a preacher when I grow up."
"That's wonderful," said his mother. What made you decide you
want to be a preacher?" The boy said thoughtfully, "Well, I'll have
to go to church anyway on Sunday, and I think it would be more fun
to stand up and yell than to sit still and listen." Happiness is yelling
rather than listening from the perspective of a small boy. From the
perspective of a mother, however, happiness is a small boy who sits
still and listens. Happiness is obviously different things to different
people, and even different things to the same person under varying
circumstances.
Someone has said, to be happy with a man you must love him a
little and understand him a lot. To be happy with a woman you must
love her a lot, and not even try to understand her. Whatever you
think of that, there is no doubt that happiness means something
different to each of the sexes. It also varies according to the interest
of persons. The poet Gray said, it would be a paradise of happiness
for him if he could lie on a sofa and read new French romances
forever. Doremas Hayes, the great Mennonite scholar wrote in
response to that ideal of happiness: "To lie on a sofa and read French
novels forever would be no paradise for some of us. It would be a
purgatory by the end of one month, and it would be the blackest
depth of hell in less than a year."
We met a couple who bought a shirt for their overweight boy, and
it had these words printed on it-Happiness is suppertime. Not long
ago the sign at the Holiday Inn read, "Happiness is eating in the
Camelot Room." But we all know that the pleasure of eating does not
make life happy in any lasting sense. And there are many in poor
health who do not even enjoy the temporal blessing it can be.
Happiness, as we generally think of it, varies with the winds of
circumstance. We tie happiness so closely to emotion, and nothing
could be more variable than feelings. We can feel happy today, and
depressed tomorrow, depending on the news, the weather, or any
number of circumstances.
Jesus is not interested in this kind of subjective haphazard
happiness. He goes to the inner man, and speaks of a happiness, or
blessedness, which is a matter of character and being. It does not
depend on external circumstances. Happiness rises and falls, but
blessedness is a kind of happiness that remains steady in spite of the
variations in feelings. The Beatitudes of Jesus are attitudes of being.
Happiness in the highest sense depends on what you are and not what
happens to you. There are many others who have arrived at this
conclusion, but no one has been so paradoxical as Jesus. He tells us
that happiness is found in just the opposite direction that men are
going in search of it. It seems like nonsense to the world to find
happiness in poverty, mourning, meekness, and persecution.
Even Christians wonder what Jesus means by these apparently
contradictory statements. We must recognize that Jesus is
challenging the world's whole system of values. Many worldly people
speak highly of the Sermon On The Mount and the Beatitudes
because they are not aware of the radical nature of what Jesus is
saying. A true understanding of His concept of happiness will
transform the life of any person, and radically alter their character
and conduct. The Interpreter's Bible says, "The Beatitudes, far from
being passive or mild, are a gauntlet flung down before the world's
accepted standards. Thus they become clearer when set against their
opposites. The opposite of poor in spirit are the proud in spirit. The
opposite of those who mourn are the light headed, always bent on
pleasure. The opposite of the meek are the aggressors. The opposite
of the persecuted are those who always play it safe."
If we intend to be happy, from the perspective of Jesus, we will
come into direct conflict with the standards of the world. This can
and does lead to opposition, and persecution, and a great deal of
subjective unhappiness for the Christian. Any way you approach it
the Christian life, at its best, is a paradox. By means of what the
world calls unhappiness, we can be happy in the highest sense, but the
consequences may be subjective unhappiness in relation to the world.
This paradox becomes easier to grasp if we distinguish between
subjective and objective happiness. Almost everyone who writes
about happiness thinks only of the subjective side-that is how a person
feels and thinks. Jesus deals with objective happiness, that is how
God thinks, for He alone can see life from God's perspective, and
know the ultimate consequences of all we are and do. Objective
happiness is not based on how you feel, but how you measure up to
God's standard.
Notice how Jesus just lays it down as a fact and law of life when He
says, "Blessed are the poor in spirit." He does not say, may they be
blessed, or they should be or will be, they just are. But what if they
don't feel like it, or are not aware of it? That is beside the point.
Jesus is not talking about how people feel. He is speaking of the
objective standard of happiness, and if you measure up, you are
happy whether you feel like it or not. In fact, it is impossible to feel
happy when are mourning, or when you are being persecuted, unless
you are neurotic or psychotic. Subjective happiness at all times
would be abnormal for anyone. The poet was right who wrote,
If you can smile when things go wrong, and say it doesn't matter.
If you can laugh off cares and woe, and trouble makes you fatter.
There's something wrong with you.
For one thing I've arrived at, there are no ands and buts,
A guy that's grinning all the time must be completely nuts.
To be subjectively happy all the time would be unchristlike, for
Jesus felt sorrow and grief. He wept, and He felt frustration over the
failure of His disciples. He was angry and upset by evil and
oppression. The world longs for perpetual subjective happiness.
They want to feel good all the time, regardless of the sin and evil in
the world. The Christian cannot and dare not even try, for that is to
go in the opposite direction of true happiness according to Jesus. The
truly happy Christian will be miserable at times in a world so full of
evil and folly. The Christian naturally wants his share of subjective
happiness, but this is secondary, and is to be a byproduct.
Our goal is to be objectively happy according to the standard of
Christ. This means a Christian might feel terrible, and yet be very
happy. He might say, I feel so ignorant and helpless, and it is so
discouraging to have so little capacity to serve God. He feels
subjectively unhappy, but Jesus says that this poverty of spirit is just
what God wants in a person, and so whether he knows it or not, he is a
blessed person headed for great reward in the kingdom of God. On
the other hand, the Christian who says, I am satisfied with what I
know, and feel happy about my service for the Lord, is really far less
happy by God's standard, even though he feels better than the other
Christian who is poor in spirit, and who mourns over his inability,
and who hungers for more of God's righteousness.
It is one thing to feel happy, and another thing to be happy. The mature
Christian is one who is able to see from the perspective of
Christ, and be able to feel subjective joy even when the circumstances
of objective happiness are not joyful. When he knows he is what God
wants him to be, he is happy even if he doesn't feel it. This calls for an
eternal perspective, and a faith in God's ultimate plan. Jesus went
this way before us, and our happiness depends on our following Him.
Heb. 12:2 put it, "Looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our
faith, who for the joy that set before Him endured the cross, despising
the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God."
Jesus was not subjectively happy on the cross, but He was the most
objectively happy person that ever lived, for He was fulfilling
everything God wanted Him to be, for He was the Lamb of God
taking away the sin of the world. This is our goal as we study these
beatitudes. Being what God wants you to be is the highest level of
happiness. The first of these paradoxes is, "Blessed are the poor in
spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." Poor and poverty are
words which the world flees from like the plague, for they see them as
the enemy of happiness. Jesus says there is a form of poverty which is
the key to happiness, and all are in general agreement that this is the
basis on which all of the beatitudes are built. There are three
attitudes which, when combined, give us a good picture of the person
who is poor in spirit. First there is-
I. THE ATTITUDE OF DEFICIENCY.
No person can be truly happy who does not recognize he has a lack
in his life. We often think it would be wonderful to be totally satisfied
with no sense of deficiency, but Jesus says this would be a curse. The
Christians in Laodicea made this mistake. Their attitude was one of
proud self-sufficiency, and this is what Jesus says to them in Rev.
3:17, "You say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I have need of
nothing; not knowing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and
naked." Failure to recognize their deficiency led them into pride. They
were blind to their poverty, and the result was a subjective
feeling of satisfaction, but objective unhappiness in the eyes of Christ.
However they felt, they were miserable according to Christ.
If they had recognized their deficiency, and been poor in spirit
they would have been dependent on Christ and His sufficiency, and,
therefore, prosperous and happy. They took the world's way of
prosperity and landed in spiritual poverty. The way of Christ is the
way of poverty, which is an honest recognition that you are deficient.
This leads to growth, prosperity, and happiness. The poor in spirit
are those who simply see the facts of life as they are. They tell it like
it is, and they know they are far from what they ought to be. Pascal
said, "There are only two kinds of men, the righteous who believe
themselves sinners; the rest, sinners who believe themselves
righteous." These are represented by the story Jesus told of the
Publican and the Pharisee in the temple.
The Pharisee was proud in spirit, and he was unconscious of any
deficiency. He thanked God he was not as other men. The Publican
saw the facts. He knew he was a sinner and needed help, and he cried
out for God to be merciful to him as a sinner. He, as an example of
the poor in spirit, received the kingdom of heaven. Jesus says he went
away justified. The Pharisee felt no sorrow for sin. He shed no tear
over his callousness to human need. He felt just great, but
objectively, measured by God's standard, he was a poverty stricken
wretch in the filthy rags of his own righteousness. The poor Publican
knew more of his deficiency and poverty of righteousness, so he
turned to God in mourning, and he hungered and thirsted for God's
righteousness to fill his emptiness. He went away with great wealth,
the pockets of his soul being filled with the jewel of justification, the
gold of godliness, and the silver of salvation. He found the prosperity
in poverty of which Jesus is speaking in this beatitude.
An attitude of deficiency is essential to the highest happiness,
for such an attitude keeps us open to the blessings of God. Happy are
those who know they don't have, for they are open to receive. If you
think you have already, you will not be open to receive. The honest
Christian knows that even though he may not steal, he still covets. He
knows that his spirit is far from the ideal, and is subject to envy,
jealousy, bitterness, pettiness, and love of ease and pleasure. It is
hard to be honest and admit our deficiencies, and the natural pride of
man resists it. The world holds up self-sufficiency as the key to
happiness, and the modern man wants no part of admitting to
deficiency. An egocentric writer was giving a group a running
account of his own great activities and achievements. Finally he
stopped and said, "Enough about myself. Let's hear from you. What
do you think of my latest book?"
Jesus says those who are so delighted and happy with themselves
are objectively miserable, and their final state will be tragic, but
those who see their deficiency, and are dissatisfied with themselves
are objectively happy and are heading for great heights in the
kingdom of God. The paradox is, only those conscious of the great
gulf between them and God are able to draw near to God. Only those
with an attitude of deficiency can be truly happy, not because a lack
of anything is good in itself, but because this attitude leads to the
second characteristic of the poor in spirit.
II. THE ATTITUDE OF DEPENDENCE.
A man who is truly aware of his emptiness is looking for help. The
proud man is able to make it alone, but the poor in spirit knows he is
not self-sufficient, but very dependent. The Greek word for poor
here carries in it the idea of begging, and not merely the idea of
lacking. Many translate it, "Blessed are the beggarly in spirit." The
concept of dependence is in the very word.
God alone is totally self-sufficient, and no man can ever be truly
happy until he recognizes he is dependent upon God. The sin which
led to all human unhappiness was the sin of striving to become
independent of God. Jesus counteracted the cause of all sin with the
opposite attitude of total and absolute submission, and dependence
upon God. Jesus was the greatest example of the poor in spirit.
Listen to His own testimony in John 5:19, "Truly, truly, I say to you,
the Son can do nothing of His own accord, but only what He sees the
Father doing." In John 14:10 He said, The words that I say to you I
do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me
does His works." Jesus was totally dependent upon the Father for
everything. He prayed for guidance before choosing the 12; He
prayed for power before healing, and for strength to meet His needs.
Jesus did not go about in pride, as if He had an all powerful
manhood. He knew He was powerless and helpless in himself. His
body and physical capacity was no greater than that of other men.
Without God, without prayer, and without the constant leading of the
Holy Spirit, Jesus could not have lived the perfect life anymore than
you or I. He succeeded, not because of His own divine power, for he
emptied Himself of that and became a man with all the limitations of
manhood, but He succeeded by total dependence on God the Father.
According to God's standard, Jesus was the happiest man who ever
was, or who will ever be, because he alone was the perfect example of
the poor in spirit.
Ralph Sockman said of the poor in spirit, "Whatever success they
achieve they attribute to sources beyond themselves." This was the
attitude of Jesus, and must be ours if we would be happy in the
highest sense. Jesus said, "Without me you can do nothing." Only as
we recognize this, and yield ourselves to Him in total dependence can
we say with Paul, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens
me." The attitude of dependence on Christ is the door to the
kingdom, and the way to the heights of happiness within the kingdom.
Andrew Tait defined the poor in spirit as, "Those who are
conscious of their own frailties and imperfections, who renounce all
dependence on themselves and all pretension to merit, and, weary and
heavy laden, cast themselves at the feet of Christ for mercy." You
notice he includes both the attitude of deficiency and the attitude of
dependence. To feel your deficiency can lead to defeat if it does not
drive you to dependence upon God. The spies who went into the
Promise Land saw their deficiency, and they felt like grasshoppers
before giants, but they were not happy. Joshua was happy because he
took the second step, and had the attitude of dependence upon God,
and thus, was assured a victory. Poverty of self-sufficiency in one's
own spirit which leads to dependence upon the power of God's Spirit
is the key to prosperity and happiness."
The saint that wears heaven's brightest crown,
In deepest adoration bends;
The weight of glory bows him down,
The most when most his soul ascends;
Nearest the throne itself must be
The footstool of humility.
The third character of the poor in spirit is
III. THE ATTITUDE OF DETACHMENT.
Luther said, "Poverty before God, that is, of the heart, is when one
does not place his trust and confidence in temporal things." If one is
to be truly dependent upon God, he must be detached from the things
of the world that non-Christians grasp at for happiness.
Jesus was ever calling men to detach themselves from the values of
the world to follow Him. James and John were called to leave their
boats and nets. Matthew was called to forsake his tax collecting.
Zachaeus offered to detach himself from his wealth and share it. Paul
suffered the loss of all things to serve Christ. All the values he had
established in society he gave up. He became detached from all to be
a slave for Christ. The rich young ruler could not detach himself
from his wealth, and so could not become a disciple.
The curse of riches, fame, and power, and all the world's ways to
happiness is not due to inherent evil, but because they compete with
total dependence upon God. Men get attached to their wealth,
position, and power, and, therefore, lose their attitude of dependence
upon God. The history of Israel reveals it over and over. When she
was poor and helpless, she depended completely on God, and was
happy and blessed. When she became prosperous, and became
attached to riches, she lost dependence upon God, and ended up
under God's wrath. Prosperity was her greatest curse, and led to her
poverty. It was not because wealth is evil, for it is not, but because it
destroys dependence. The attitude of detachment is essential to
maintaining the attitude of dependence.
If we become prosperous, the only way to avoid it being a
destructive thing is to avoid becoming attached to it. Literal poverty
comes in here, but we don't have time to deal with it here. The
evidence would lead to the conclusion that the literal poor stand a
better chance of finding God's highest happiness than the rich,
because poverty leads to dependence on God, and it is easier to feel
detached from what you do not possess. Potentially, the poor in this
world's goods can be the richest in the kingdom of heaven.
This is a sidelight, however. The poor in spirit are those who, be
they rich or poor in this world's goods, are detached from them, and
dependent upon God. Dependence is the central concept of the poor
in spirit. The attitude of deficiency on one side, and detachment on
the other, are for the sake of increasing and maintaining dependence.
Whatever leads to dependence upon God is good and intensifies our
happiness. Poverty of spirit is the starting line, and only as we star
there can we ever hope to experience the prosperity of Christlike
happiness.
