Rarely do we do a deep dive into scripture. Sometimes its good to look at big swaths of scripture because then we can explore the context, explore what it means together, instead of misinterpreting what is being said. But other times its good to take things piece by piece. In this sermon series focusing on the Beatitudes found in the Gospel of Matthew, we are doing both. Last week we looked at the overall context of the Beatitudes as a whole, but starting this week we are going to go Beatitude by Beatitude through the Scripture so we don’t overlook or miss anything. 

One day my parents were over visiting and my dad asked to see my computer so he could show me a new website he had found, globalrichlist.com. On the site you enter in where you live and either what your annual household income is or what your assets representing your wealth are and then it tells you in a matter of seconds two things - you are in the top certain percent on the world by income and then what number richest person you are in the world. 

Friends, I was in the top .41 percent of the richest people in the world. 

It was absolutely eye opening. 

Because the truth is we often compare ourselves to those who have more than us, thus tricking ourselves into thinking how we wish we could have more. We compare ourselves to our neighbors. Or to the people we hear about on TV. As a result, we often consider ourselves not be as well off as others But when we look at in terms of the whole world, we get a clearer picture. 

And yet, as rich as we may be in terms of things or money or wealth, the truth is that we are also all poor. That there is something that is missing from our life. Or a place where we are impoverished, but most of us try to hide those areas and shove them off to the side so we can ignore them. 

Jesus calls our impoverished nature front and center in this particular Beatitude. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. 

Pages upon pages, Church, have been spent written about what Jesus exactly meant by poor in spirit. When we look to the counter part of the Sermon on the Mount, known as the Sermon on the Plain found in the Gospel of Luke, it simply says “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the Kingdom of God.”

What we do know that there are two different words in the Greek language for poor. One means one who works for a living, isn’t wealthy but has what he needs. Th other means to be destitute and powerless - this is the word Jesus uses. So we could say this verse translates as blessed as those who are destitute and powerless, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. 

That doesn’t exactly sound like how we would want to describe ourselves, does it? Which is the point! Jesus comes right out of the gate with this first Beatitude, first blessing, and says you know all those ways that you consider yourselves to be blessed in this world - those aren’t what matter most. Instead, all your ordinary expectations are reversed when we are talking about the Kingdom of Heaven because God’s ways aren’t our ways. This Kingdom? It’s about God’s righteousness first and foremost and not what you have in this world. 

The problem of course is that it is so tempting to weave together the ways of the world with the ways of God. To pretend that they are one and the same. And if we are honest, even the religious leaders of the time were doing a little bit of this. Who was considered blessed? Those who were healthy. Those who were bearing children, lots of children, and especially boys. Those who had more than enough to get by. So its not hard to see how the desires of the world collided with what the priests and scribes were saying about the blessings of God, even if they weren’t representative of all of scripture, and as a result, we forgot the ways of God are different then our worldly desires. 

This is a perfect example. Who is blessed and favored by God? The poor. Which Scripture said time and time again:

“Because the poor are plundered and the needy groan, I will now arise,” says the Lord. “I will protect them from those who malign them.” Psalm 12:5

“You have been a refuge for the poor, a refuge for the needy in their distress, a shelter from the storm and a shade from the heat.” Isaiah 25:4

There are scriptures all through the Old and New testament, of which these are just two that speak of God’s concern for the poor. 

Or consider the teachings of Jesus. In the 12th chapter of the Gospel of Mark, we find the story of a widow who came and offered her very last coins to the work of the Kingdom of God. She presumably didn’t think she would have anything left to feed herself or take care of her needs. Yet, she gave anyway. She gave more abundantly, even out of her poverty then those giving much larger sums. 

I was reading a book this week on leadership and in one brief section it was talking about financial security. It referenced this really interesting study that found that the more people made the more money they needed to feel secure. One example was if you had 1 million dollars you thought you needed 2 million dollars to feel secure, but if you made 10 million dollars you thought you needed 15 million dollars to feel secure. Yet, into this world that we feel like we don’t have enough, whether it be in Biblical times or today, Jesus says blessed are those who are the poor in spirit. 

Isn’t it interesting that this teaching about the Kingdom of God, the Good News proclaimed by the Heavens but lived out amongst us in Jesus Christ, this call to discipleship - starts by saying, you know how you think your worth and grounding comes from what you have in this world, it doesn’t. It comes from who are in God and being grounded in that and that alone. It seems so impractical doesn’t it? Yet, that’s what Jesus is doing - turning the values of the world sideways and upside and down and says this, this is a new way to live. This is the Kingdom of Heaven. 

I love the way that the Message translates this verse, You’re blessed when you’re at the end of your rope. With less of you there is more of God and his rule. Once again, its a reminder that we are all impoverished from time to time, all at the end of our rope in one way or another and at that time we have a choice to make - are we going to trust God, or are we going to keep trying to rely on ourselves alone. 

The truth is when we get caught up in what we have or who we are or the fact that we think we can go through this life on our own, we truly do miss out on the blessing. The blessing of being rooted in God. The blessing of being in relationship with a Holy God who loves us and provides for us in ways that we often take for granted. Blessed even when we have nothing of material value, but possess everything we need in the Spirit. May we empty ourselves out so only God remains, for Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.