Running from Blessings: Poor in Spirit

"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven."- Matthew 5:3

Last year I took a class about social problems. One of the many things we discussed was poverty. I learned about a term called absolute poverty. This term references the poorest of the poor. People who are living in absolute poverty live on less than a dollar a day. They are incapable of providing for themselves. In other words they lack self sufficiency. They can not afford food, housing, education, etc. They cannot afford their basic needs.

When I went to South Africa this summer I witnessed this kind of poverty. I don't know if it was officially "absolute poverty" but many of the people in Klipheuwel cannot help themselves, especially on the informal side. They can't afford food. They can't afford adequate housing. They can't afford their medicine for AIDS or TB. They can't afford to take the taxi to town to go see the doctor. That's why what Helen and Estelle do in Klipheuwel is so needed. Many of these people are so poor they cannot help themselves.

Many people have read this verse, including me, and said Jesus has a heart for the poor and we should take care of the poor. I believe this is bad interpretation. Jesus does care about the poor and we should take care of the poor. I am not denying that. But two mistakes are made when reading this verse that way. First, we don't look at ourselves but rather look at other people. Secondly, we misunderstand who the poor in spirit really are.

Notice that Jesus says poor in spirit not poor in possessions. Jesus is not just talking about the people who don't have enough money to live or all the people who are struggling to make ends meet. He is talking about a completely different type of poverty, spiritual poverty. People who cannot help themselves in a spiritual sense. People who are are over their heads in debt because of sin. People who cannot do anything to help the situation.

The hard to swallow truth about this verse is that Jesus isn't talking about a certain part of the population. He is talking about everyone. You and me. The truth is, while you are probably reading this while sitting in a nicely heated or air conditioned room and using a computer that cost hundreds of dollars and the same can be said for me as I write this, we are born into absolute spiritual poverty. We are all in this predicament. We are helpless. All of a sudden Jesus' words aren't so warm and fuzzy.

This concept was extremely hard for me to grasp. I used to think that I was a pretty good guy. I thought I could work my way to heaven. I used to tell myself that because I go to church, don't cuss that much, don't have sex, make good grades, and so on that I was worthy of heaven. I remember sitting in church one night and while we were praying I was looking around comparing myself to everyone. I completely rejected this idea that I was spiritually poor and that my good deeds could not pay my way in to God's Kingdom. I think a lot of people struggle with this. We don't want to look at ourselves and realize that we are helpless. That our sin has completely destroyed our spirit. We are by nature self righteous. I don't know of anyone who claims to be perfect but we deny that we are really that bad. We like to think that we are good. But throughout Scripture we see that this isn't the case. We see that all have sinned. (Romans 3:23) That no one is good except God alone. (Mark 10:18)

But after studying the Sermon on the Mount, I have to ask: why do we run from embracing our depravity, our spiritual poorness? Why do we think so highly of ourselves? The people that embrace and acknowledge this fact about themselves are labeled as blessed by Jesus. By embracing our spiritual poverty, I don't mean celebrate the fact that we are sinners. We shouldn't delight in the fact that we offend a holy God. But we should understand this truth about ourselves rather than deny it and lie to ourselves about how good we think we are. Jesus says that the Kingdom of Heaven belong to the poor in spirit. No we will not earn the Kingdom of Heaven but God gives it to us. Its a gift not a wage.

Ephesians talks several times about the riches of God's grace. Revelation is full of imagery of golden items in heaven, even golden streets. People who acknowledge their spiritual poverty are blessed with the riches of God. No I am not adopting Joel Osteen's theology and saying that if you acknowledge your brokenness that you will magically become rich. However, having a relationship with Christ is the most valuable and precious treasure anyone can have. With that relationship comes so many blessings, including eternal life spent in heaven, where we will see the Throne of God. The life of a follower of Jesus is truly a rags to riches story.

Acknowledging that we are poor in spirit is the first step to entering into the Kingdom of God. Seeing and accepting our brokenness shows us our need for a Savior and there is no amount of money, no house big enough, no car nice enough to surpass the riches and blessing of knowing Jesus.

So why run from the label of poor in spirit? Accept it and allow Christ to change you and give you His righteousness because we certainly can't create our own. Only He has the power to lift us out of the absolute spiritual poverty that we are born into and push ourselves further into.

Blessed are the poor in spirit. Lets stop running from God's blessing and put aside our false sense of righteousness and embrace the Righteous One, Jesus Christ.