Blessed Are the Poor in Spirit

“And seeing the multitudes, He went up on a mountain, and when He was seated His disciples came to Him.  Then He opened His mouth and taught them saying:  ‘Blessed are the poor in spirit, For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” – Matthew 5:1-3 (NKJV).

Going apart from the crowds that were pressing around Jesus, He drew apart to a quiet place on the mountain.  His disciples came to Him.  He opened His mouth and taught them.  This teaching we have come to call “The Sermon on the Mount.”  Some call the discourse Christ’s sermon of ordination for his twelve disciples, for, in point of time, it occurs just after He had selected the twelve.  He took them aside and began to teach them what living the kingdom life entailed.  The sermon is a revelation of Christ’s own character and life.  It is given for His followers as a pattern for the separated life, a life lived in the light of God’s truth and with humility, purpose and prayerfulness.  Luke tells us that the night before Jesus delivered this sermon, He spent the night in prayer.  The sermon begins with what we call the beatitudes.  From the Latin word beatus, blessed means “divine joy and perfect happiness.”  Blessedness implies inner peace and does not depend on outward circumstances.  The Beatitudes that begin the sermon have become so important in Christian theology and practice that in the Holy Land the place in Galilee where Jesus delivered the sermon is called the Mount of Beatitudes.  On our trip to the Holy Land in 1978 to visit my husband’s sister who served as a missionary in Gaza, one of the stops in our itinerary to see holy places was this mount.  We were not on a tour bus, but drove in Estelle’s car to the major sites. One of the highlights of our visit was being at the Mount of Beatitudes late in the afternoon.  It was quiet and all the tour buses had left for the day.  We stood there, looking out over the Sea of Galilee, and imagining what it must have been like with the disciples gathered around Jesus and hearing Him teach them the characteristics of a kingdom person. Grover took his New Testament and read the Sermon on the Mount.  We were struck with heavenly awe by the spiritual depth of the words  Jesus Himself had spoken to His disciples centuries before and how they continue to guide, touch and inspire.  There on that mount Jesus was not a prophet saying, “Thus saith the Lord,”  but he was God in the flesh, Emmanuel, delivering the very words of God to those who will seek and follow His divine plan for the blessed and fulfilled life.

The first beatitude declares, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”  “Poor in spirit” admits to a bereft condition that is the opposite of a prideful spirit.  Humility is at the heart of being “poor in spirit.”  It does not mean a hopeless, helpless condition, but rather a realization that one cannot find fulfillment in the riches of this world and the pursuit of personal pleasures.  It calls one to have a correct estimate of oneself.  It does not mean to be without “backbone” or purpose.  Neither does it mean a cowering,  helpless attitude of “I can’t do anything right.”  To be ‘poor in spirit” is the opposite of the worldly flaunting of self-praise and self-aggrandisement. Rather it is coming before God fully expecting Him to work out His will and purpose in our individual life.  And what is done is to God’s glory.  This beatitude hits at the heart of our attitude about ourselves.  And when we think about spiritual growth and depth, we know that it must come first within the individual heart, a heart made right with God, one humble and ready to receive the blessedness God is able to give.  When we recognize this major truth in the Christian life, we begin to grasp and experience “the kingdom of heaven”—even while we still live on earth.  To God be the glory!