Image by Fergal OP via Flickr

As I mentioned before, I’ve been studying the Sermon on the Mount beginning in Matthew chapter 5. Today I thought we’d start looking at this amazing message from Jesus together.

I don’t know how familiar you may be with the beattitudes, or if you’ve even given them a second thought. In one of my college classes focused on how to teach the Bible, we were broken into groups and assigned age levels that we were to prepare Bible lessons for based on the Beattitudes. Once we were given the assignment it was amazing to me how everyone jumped right to work thinking about methods without actually studying the passage! Somehow we all assume that we know them because they are familiar to us. That assignment was a great motivator for me to study this opening section of the Sermon on the Mount, and I was amazed by how little I really had understood this section of Scripture. It has been refreshing and challenging to go back and spend time in these verses again over the past few weeks.

So, let’s start at the very beginning – a very good place to start! ;)

“Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

The meaning of the word “poor” here is fascinating. It is in contrast with another Greek word which means “poor but able to help oneself.” This word means “poor and helpless; one who, in his abjectness, needs lifting. So poor he can sustain himself only through begging – one who has nothing at all.”

Right off the bat, Jesus’ words strike at the heart of what keeps countless numbers of people from accepting His redemptive work on their behalf – pride. No one likes to consider themselves as utterly helpless, unable to pull themselves up, so completely in need that our only hope is the mercy of another. And yet, it is only when one recognizes that this truly is the state of his or her soul that we can be blessed and enter the kingdom of heaven.

I remember the terrifying feeling of being wheeled out of the hospital with newborn AG in my arms, heading home for the first time. We buckled her into the car, and I remember looking at my husband and saying, “That’s it? We’re just taking her? Do they know that we’re leaving with this baby that we don’t know what to do with??!” :) We were half joking, but it was a scary thought that this completely helpless little baby was now our sole responsibility!

In order to be truly blessed, to be redeemed from our bondage of sin and filled with the satisfying presence of Jesus Christ, we have to recognize that we are as helpless as a newborn baby. Without the direct, merciful intervention of God, all of our efforts to be good and righteous and holy are pathetic failures. We must recognize that we are poor in spirit – utterly helpless and hopeless without Him.

This goes completely against our prideful and rebellious sin natures! There is no room for a “pull yourself up by the bootstraps” mentality here. How frequently people object to others implying that they themselves are sinners – “I’m a good person! I’ve never killed anyone! I believe in God! I even volunteer in my community, and I donated money to help the victims of Katrina!”

Notice Paul’s response to this mentality in Philippians 3:4-9. [He had been the ultimate "good religious guy!"]

If anyone else thinks he has reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for legalistic righteousness, faultless.
But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith.

No matter how well we follow the rules or do good things, we cannot gain righteousness on our own. We can never be good enough on our own to stand before a completely holy God. Through the rest of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus brings our self-righteous thoughts into clear view – you haven’t murdered anyone, but if you’ve been angry with someone, if you’ve called them a fool, you are guilty enough to face the fire of Hell! (see Matthew 5:21-22)

Our only hope is the mercy of God. When we realize the true nature of our sin, when we are broken and humble before Him, asking for Him to give us a righteousness that comes not from ourselves but that “comes from God and is by faith,” when we recognize that we are completely helpless and unable to lift ourselves out of the pit – then we will gain the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are the poor in spirit.