Sunday, October 18, 2009
Poor in Spirit
(Matthew 5:1-3)
The ethic of Jesus is nowhere more clearly presented than in the lofty thoughts of the Sermon on the Mount. The sermon opens with a section known as the “Beatitudes,” a word which, taken from the Latin beatitudo, literally means a declaration of blessedness. Jesus, then, began His great sermon declaring the conditions of God’s blessing upon man.
The idea of the word blessed is more than the contemporary translation “happy.” The blessed man experiences “divinely-bestowed well-being” (MacArthur). While “happy” describes mans’ natural reaction to positive events, “blessed” describes a state of contentment that finds its origin in God. Anyone can be happy; it takes God to be blessed!
It is fitting, then, that the first Beatitude blesses the “poor in spirit.” The phrase “poor in spirit” does not denote someone who’s down-in-the-mouth. Rather, it denotes the opposite of self sufficiency. The “poor in spirit” believer understands his utter bankruptcy before God—the hopelessness of his condition and neediness of God’s grace. In other words, he recognizes himself for who he is; and he realizes only God can fix the mess.
Funny thing: When we acknowledge ourselves as helpless and hopeless apart from God, we’re promised the keys to the kingdom! Heaven will not be populated by “self-made” saints. There is really no such thing. Instead, heaven will be peopled by those grateful souls who recognized their spiritual poverty and who trusted Christ for spiritual riches.
