Before
we begin our look at the Beatitudes, a series that will take us through the end
of February and right up until our Easter season, it’s important for us to know
what the Beatitudes even are. Now, we’re
going to discuss and discern what all eight of them individually call us to do as
we go along, but what are they as a whole?
What are they designed to do as a group?
Well, part of the answer lies in their context. You see, these are the opening words of the
Sermon on the Mount, the greatest sermon ever preached. This was Jesus’ sermon (although it is
thought to have been more like a conference that took several days) to the
crowds that gathered around him shortly after the beginning of his earthly
ministry and after calling the first of his disciples (Read 4:23-5:1). Now, I want to be sure and say before
beginning this series that my goal is to not reinterpret the words of Jesus,
but to seek the fullest meaning of his words before the crowd gathered
there. I know that there is nothing that
I can add to these words of Jesus that will increase their meaning. It’s worth noting that of all the books of
Scripture that the great reformer John Calvin wrote about, he never wrote any
commentary material about Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount since he didn’t feel that
was in any position to seemingly alter the exact words that Christ used. He preached on it, but never wrote a
commentary about it.
There
are many out there who will say that the Beatitudes are the New Testament
version of the Ten Commandments. They
will tell you that they are they New Testament equivalent to that famous list
of ten words from the Old Testament.
Well, the answer is both yes and no.
While not an exact replica of the Ten Commandments, the answer is yes in
that they are both given by mediators of God to tell God’s people how they are
to live holy lives. They are very
similar in that regard, but they are not an exact match. It’s one of those comparing apples and orange
types of things. Sure, both of them
might be ripe with truthful wisdom and their delivery may have certain
similarities, but that does not make them newer/older versions of the same
thing.
One
of the more fascinating aspects of the Beatitudes is the ironical or
contradictory nature that each of them contains. Now, we’re going to work through each of them
in the coming weeks, beginning with the poor in spirit today. We will see that a statement that on the
surface makes no sense (at least to us) actually makes complete and total sense
once we are able to see past the words themselves as we find them today and
look to the meaning that they had coming from Jesus himself. We have to remember any time that we look at
the words of Jesus that his view is much greater than ours and typically the
meaning of his words pertains to something on a much grander scale.
“Blessed
are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Now, like I said, on the surface this really
doesn’t make any type of sense. However,
when we begin to unpack these few words, we begin to see it in an even more
contradictory light. The word translated
“blessed” is the Greek word makarioi
(makarios), which means to become larger and more filled by God, to be in a
time of prosperity and provision due to faithfulness to God. This is more than a simple happiness that
comes over us when something goes our way.
To be blessed with or by something is much greater than to be happy with
something. Think about it for a second,
if I told you that I was blessed by my family then that would sound much greater
than being happy with my family. If I
were to say that I’m happy with my situation in life, then it wouldn’t give the
impression that I am as excited about things as it would if I said that I was
blessed. Being happy (while not a bad
thing) carries with it a sense of merely contentment and still having something
missing, whereas blessed gives the impression that there is nothing that could
be added in order to improve things.
(Now, just so you know, you might as well file that word away because we’re
going to come back to it each week during this series)
The
second word that I want to look at is the word that is translated as “poor” (ptochos). This word literally means to be destitute and
spiritually lacking. It means to be
completely lacking resources in a particular area. They are poor, needy, and the only means that
they have of survival is to beg. This
isn’t just some other word for describing a lack of what we want, but it speaks
to a lack of something that is needed. The
college football bowl season has started to get into full effect. I had someone ask me over the holidays if I
was going to Miami to watch my bulldogs play.
I laughed and told them that I was too broke to afford a trip to Miami
right now (plus I don’t think Amy would allow me to go and leave her behind
with all 3 kids while she is on her break).
Now, the irony of that is that I’m not broke at all. Instead of spending money and going to the game,
I’m going to sit in my nice comfortable chair in my nice comfortable house and
watch the game on my television without any interruptions (hopefully). That’s not the type of poor that this word ptochos has in mind. This is a completely and utterly bankrupt
type of poor.
So,
with the words that we’ve looked at thus far, let’s sort of rewrite this verse,
this statement: “Greatly fulfilled are
the ones who are completely empty in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of
heaven.” Well, that’s sort of taking the
irony game up another notch isn’t. And
the question naturally arises as to how in the world we can be greatly filled
when we are completely empty. To answer
this we really have to figure out what it means to be poor in spirit; what does
it mean to be completely empty in spirit.
Well, it means that we must be humble in our understanding of our
spiritual wealth. We have to understand
how spiritually bankrupt we are. We have
to understand just how unworthy we are of salvation because of our own efforts. In other words, when we come to God, we must
realize our own sin and our spiritual emptiness and poverty. We must not be self-satisfied or proud in our
hearts, thinking we don’t really need God. In essence, it is a warning against spiritual
pride. It’s a warning against having the
mind of the Pharisee when he prayed, “God, thank you that I am not like other
men” in Luke 18. After being asked about
pride years ago, Billy Graham responded, “Pride can take all kinds of forms,
but the worst is spiritual pride. Often
the richer we are in things, the poorer we are in our hearts. Have you faced your own need of Christ? Do you realize that you are a sinner and need
God’s forgiveness? Don’t let pride or
anything else get in the way, but turn to Christ in humility and
faith—and He will bless you and save you.”
You see, this blessing and saving are one in the same really. God’s gift, God’s blessing, is the gift of
eternal life that we have in the person and work of Jesus Christ. We must recognize our need for it and the
fact that without it we are completely broken and empty.
Now,
I would be doing a disservice if I didn’t at least mention one thing before
leaving this passage. As I’ve said
already, we have to realize the destitution of our spiritual status in order to
see how much we are in need of a savior and turn to him in order to be given
residence in heaven. However, the
question often gets asked, “Wouldn’t it be better to be spiritually rich than
spiritually poor?” After all, Jesus does
say later on in this very same sermon (6:19-21) “Do not lay up for yourselves
treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break
in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth
nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart
will be also.” The question that arises
from this verse is how we are to go about being poor in spirit while still
laying up for ourselves in heaven? Well,
I think the answer to that lies in understanding that there is a difference
here between being poor in the spirit and laying up treasures in heaven. In other words, laying up treasures in heaven
is not the same thing as being rich in spirit.
Think
back to what it means to be poor in spirit; that it means that we are
completely destitute of anything (spiritually speaking) that makes us worthy of
salvation. That may be true, but Jesus is not.
Jesus is completely and totally righteous and worthy of salvation. You see, by faith, through the work of the
Holy Spirit, the righteousness of Jesus is imparted to us. Well, Jesus is that treasure that we are to
lay up in heaven. “For where your
treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
In other words, Jesus is to be the thing that we seek the most in this
world. Jesus is to be the way in which
we judge ourselves as rich or poor in this world. We don’t judge by earthly things. Jesus said just prior to our need for laying
up treasures that men who use all of their efforts in gaining praise among men
have already received their reward. We
are to seek Jesus and grow in our relationship with him. The more we come to know Christ and the more
we grow in our relationship with him the richer we become. Also, while becoming richer and richer in
this sense, we grow to see how poor we really are from a spiritual standpoint.
Keeping with the college
football theme, one of my father’s favorite stories to tell is about the Sun
Bowl in El Paso, TX in 1980 between Mississippi State University and the
University of Nebraska. Mississippi
State was riding high after a successful 9-2 season under second year coach and
offensive innovator Emory Bellard. Many
of the Bulldog faithful felt that Mississippi State was on its way to arriving
on the stage as a nation power and they were going to make a statement against
traditional power Nebraska. The
Cornhuskers, coached by future hall of famer Tom Osborne, had the same record
as MSU, but had much higher expectations leading into the season. My father and several of his friends left
late Christmas night and drove to El Paso for the game. The whole way there they talked about how
they had always heard how big Nebraska was and how they couldn’t wait to beat
this national power. Upon arriving at
the stadium, my father and his friends went into the gates and watched the
teams warm up. After some time, they
really couldn’t tell a difference between the size of the Nebraska team and
their Bulldogs. However, about 30
minutes before kickoff, the Nebraska linemen came out of the tunnel. My father and his friends immediately had a
different outlook on the game. The game,
which wasn’t as close as the 31-17 score indicated, proved to the Bulldog
fanbase that they still had a ways to go in terms of reaching the level of a
Nebraska or any other traditional power.
Now, you may be wondering how a
lopsided football game relates to our being poor in spirit. Well, like I said, the more we come to see
how great something is, it helps us to see more clearly what we aren’t. Seeing that Jesus was the standard by which
we are to live in order to gain our salvation shows us just how far we are from
deserving it or being able to gain it on our own. That’s one thing that the Ten Commandments and
the Beatitudes have in common, they both show us the vast chasm that exists
between where we are and where we ought to be.
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” In other words, blessed are those who realize
that their own righteousness is unable to earn them eternal life, for in their
recognition and faith in the one and only Savior Jesus Christ, they have found
the only means by which they may enter into the kingdom of heaven.
Y’all, I know we live in a world
where none of us want to be poor when it comes to anything. It’s so contradictory to our nature to think
that we want to be poor. However, to be
poor in spirit is to recognize that it is impossible for us to be saved through
our own efforts. I laugh every time I
hear someone say that they think they or anyone else is going to heaven because
they are a good person. Well, they may
be a good person, but that’s not how we get to heaven. We get to heaven through the sacrifice,
grace, and mercy of Jesus Christ. We are
saved by the righteousness of Christ being imparted to us by the Holy
Spirit. We find salvation through the
sacrifice of Christ covering the multitude of our sins. We inherit the kingdom of heaven by realizing
that despite how good we are, how much Scripture we know, or how faithfully we
pray, study, tithe, or anything else, we are completely and totally empty of
anything worthy of heaven, and we are in need of a Savior. Glory be to God; in the name of the Father,
the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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