Blessed Are...

Blessed are the poor in Spirit for theirs is the kingdom of God. Matthew 5:3
 
The Tui beer billboard advertising of a few ago would have been appropriate for the reaction of the hearers in Jesus day, ‘Yeah right!’ they would have thought.
God’s favour didn’t rest on the poor, so they thought, only the wealthy were blessed or so it seemed.

Here was Jesus in what was a radical statement about the Kingdom of God telling those who came to hear, those who were poor in Spirit would be blessed.
Jesus’ opening statement would have sounded more like this; There is great news for those who are poor in Spirit, you will be heirs in God’s coming kingdom’.

​How do we hear Jesus words today? 

When we think of the poor in Spirit, does that just mean the broken hearted? Those financially struggling in our community’s.  Let’s be fair if Jesus just meant those financially poor that would exclude anyone in our country who could lay their hands on $10 today.
 
When Jesus spoke these words in Aramaic around two thousand years ago there was a deeper sense going on here. The poor in spirit referred to people who were destitute and had nothing but were looking to God for their provision. Is that true of us? Or are we living and resting on our comforts that abound in our south pacific Island?
 
Perhaps the greatest problem you and I have in the West is, is that we rely on our own efforts and God given abilities and resources without acknowledging the one who gave them and the ongoing Spirit in which He wants to utilise them for His glory.
 
It is easy to rely on a well-stocked bank account, shares, property, or retirement savings, but our security in these things is misplaced when any of these can be disrupted by a financial collapse or unforeseen health issues.
 
When Jesus talks about the poor in Spirit it looks deeper into our hearts to ask us the question; Do I realise my own helplessness outside of God’s care? Or am I making my own provisions? The reality is no matter how much we have in the bank if we are looking to God as our provider of everything, even down to the air we breathe, we must put everything we hold in His trustworthy hands.

Poverty of Spirit as Jesus talks about requires repentance, and a laying down of our desire to fight for our ‘rights’ and putting other’s rights above our own. This is the whole upside-down kingdom of God that Jesus came to proclaim[1]. Upside down because nothing was going to look in God’s coming Kingdom as we know it here and now. It didn’t look like that in Jesus day and His words must have had an air of mystery and wonder around what God’s Kingdom were going to look like.
 
As Jesus followers we need to dedicate ourselves to humility and surrender. Two words we just do not talk about all that much but are fundamental if we desire to follow closely in the footsteps of Jesus.
 
 
Dave Maharey

[1] Kraybill Donald B (2018) The Upside Down Kingdom.