Blessed are the poor

Matthew 5:1-12

Let’s start out this morning with a little Bible Quiz. Ten questions. I’ll ask the questions and then give the answers. You can score yourself. No one need know how you did.

Old Testament
1. Who in the Bible said, “Here I am! Send me.”?

2. Who said, “If you had not played with my heifer, you would not have found out my riddle.”?

3. List the five books of the Pentateuch.

4. What books of the Bible come before and after the book of Daniel?

5. Who told the story about the poor man who had nothing but one little ewe lamb and to whom did he tell it?

New Testament
6. What is the name of the man who was elected to take the place of Judas among the twelve apostles?

7. The parables of the lost sheep, the lost coin and the lost son are found in which of the four Gospels?

8. Who said, “What is truth?”

9. In what book do we find this verse: “Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”?

10. To whom did Paul write, “I appeal to you for my child, Onesimus.”?

Answers:
1. Isaiah
2. Samson
3. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy
4. Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea
5. Nathan to King David6. Matthias
7. Luke
8. Pilate
9. Hebrews
10. Philemon

How did you do? Don’t feel bad if you did not get many of these right. They are hard questions. The point of this quiz will be apparent later, but for now, let me say that the higher your score, the more answers you got correct, the more important it is for you to listen to today’s sermon.

Isn’t that a bit unusual? When is the last time you took a test and were not rewarded for getting a high score? I didn’t reward those who got a high score, I gave them a warning. Well welcome to the Beatitudes because they tend to take what the world values and what the world rewards and turn it upside down.

One of the most important sporting contests in the US takes place today, the Super Bowl. This is the championship game for American football of which I have a greater interest this year than I have had for awhile – because the New England Patriots are playing and New England is the part of the US with which I most identify.

But it is not important that it is American football. It could be the World Cup or a tennis match or cricket or any sporting event. When is the last time you saw someone rewarded in a sporting event who was not the fastest or strongest or quickest or most skilled? In the
Super Bowl today, it will be very easy to determine who the winner is, it will be the team that scores the most points. In a race, it is the first person across the finish line. In a weight lifting contest, it is the person who lifts the heaviest weight.

This is the way it is in school as well. The smartest people, the ones who work the hardest get the best grades. Who speaks at graduation? The valedictorian, the person with the highest marks.

When Queen Elizabeth of England bestows knighthood on someone, who does she pick? Queen Elizabeth does not search England for a good person who works hard at his or her job who may not earn a great salary but is nice to people. She picks someone rich or famous who has made a great contribution to the United Kingdom.

The world rewards people who are richer, more famous, smarter, stronger and faster than others.

It is because this is not the way of the Beatitudes that they have created so much difficulty for people over the two thousand years they have been read.

We come to the first of the beatitudes today:
“Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

There is a decided bias in Scripture toward the poor. Over and over again we read of God’s desire to protect the poor and bless the poor and reward the poor. It really is quite astonishing to see how much emphasis there is on this in Scripture.  In contrast, there is warning after warning to those who are rich. In fact, in Luke’s version of this beatitude, “Blessed are the poor,” is contrasted with, “woe to you who are rich, for you have already received your comfort.” This can be disconcerting to a western audience who are, at least on a relative basis, rich, but that is another sermon.

In reading the verses in the Bible that talk about the poor, there is an expansion of what “poor” means from material poverty to spiritual poverty. So David writes in Psalm 34
6 This poor man called, and the LORD heard him;
he saved him out of all his troubles.

David wrote this psalm when he was fleeing from King Saul and it is clear that in this case, he was feeling very much oppressed, alone, and helpless. In this condition he called out to God who delivered him to safety.

Isaiah in chapter 57 wrote a description of the one who is poor in spirit:
15 For this is what the high and lofty One says—
he who lives forever, whose name is holy:
“I live in a high and holy place,
but also with him who is contrite and lowly in spirit,
to revive the spirit of the lowly
and to revive the heart of the contrite.

It is this understanding of being poor in spirit that Jesus used when he said that such people would be blessed.

In the New Testament there are many examples of people who were poor in spirit. In John 9 we read of a man who was born blind who was given his sight by Jesus. This created an uproar because Jesus healed this man on the Sabbath and the Pharisees began an investigation. In this investigation, the man born blind appeared to be no match for the Pharisees. He didn’t know the Scriptures. He hadn’t had the education the Pharisees had received. He would have mostly stammered and stuttered if he had been asked to pray in the Synagogue. He had nothing to offer spiritually and yet Jesus sought him out to encourage him. He was blessed by Jesus.

When Jesus was teaching the crowds and they were pressing in on him to ask for advice and for healing, his disciples were working crowd control. They were trying to create some order in the midst of this chaos, keeping some people away and allowing others in to the circle around Jesus. Children were among those the disciples were keeping from coming to Jesus. At one point Jesus:
called a little child and had him stand among them.  3 And he said: “I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.  4 Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

Why did the disciples consider little children unworthy of coming to Jesus? Because in Jewish culture at the time of Jesus, children had no standing. There was a very clear hierarchy: men then women and at the end, children. Children did not have much to offer. They could work, but not like an adult. They were not skilled in crafts and certainly not in matters of religion. They were dependent on adults for what they needed. Children had nothing to offer Jesus, why would he want to see them?

The teaching of Jesus turned the understanding of Jews at that time on its head.
Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

To be poor in spirit is to be like the man who was born blind and healed by Jesus and to be like the children Jesus brought to him and used as examples. To be poor in spirit is to know that we do not have the knowledge or the power or the strength required to receive God’s blessing. We are helplessly, totally dependent on him.

The world teaches us that when we run faster than another person, we receive and deserve to receive a prize. Jesus teaches here in this Beatitude that when we acknowledge that we have nothing to offer, when we have the humility of little children who know they have nothing to offer, then we are blessed because we will inherit the kingdom of God.

We will be singing Rock of Ages during communion (with a new Graham Kendrick tune) and I want you to pay special attention to the third verse.
Nothing in my hand I bring,
Simply to your cross I cling.
Naked, come to you for dress,
Helpless, look to you for grace.
Foul, I to the fountain fly.
Wash me Savior or I die.

The first word of each line speaks of the attitude of one who is poor in spirit. Nothing, Simply, Naked, Helpless, Foul. This was the attitude of the publican whose prayer Jesus praised. Remember the parable? Jesus sets his parable at the temple and a Pharisee strides in and taking a prominent place by the altar where everyone will see him, begins to pray:
‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector.  12 I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’
The Pharisee was looking at the tax collector who stood off at a distance. Whereas the Pharisee took a prominent place where everyone would be sure to see him and see his piety, the tax collector stood off in a corner where he would be ignored. He would not even look into heaven, Jesus said, and he beat his breast and said:
‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’
This is the attitude of one who is poor in spirit.

In reality, the Pharisee was just as much in need of God’s mercy and grace as the tax collector but his pride would not allow himself to see that and as a consequence, he missed God’s blessing.

In the Revelation of John a word is spoken to the seven churches and in the word spoken to the church in Laodocia we see this same inability to correctly perceive their poverty in spirit:
These are the words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the ruler of God’s creation.  15 I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other!  16 So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth.  17 You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked.  18 I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see.

The Pharisee thought he was rich in piety, but he was wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. The Pharisee missed God’s blessing because he could not see his spiritual poverty just as did the church in Laodocia.

Faith like a little child’s is required to be blessed and enter into the kingdom of God. Recognition of spiritual poverty is a necessary prerequisite for entry into the kingdom of God. When we begin to think that we deserve to be in God’s kingdom because of our respectability or honesty or because we are so much more religious than others around us or because we are so knowledgeable or because we give so generously to others, we are in deep trouble. We need to acknowledge that we come empty handed to God. He offers us everything and we have nothing with which we can repay him.

As John Stott describes the situation:
The kingdom of God is given to the poor, not the rich; the feeble, not the mighty; to little children humble enough to accept it, not to soldiers powerful enough to claim it

In Jesus’ day, the kingdom of God was not given to the Pharisees who thought they were rich, so rich in merit that they thanked God for their attainments; nor the Zealots who dreamed of establishing the kingdom by blood and sword; but tax collectors and prostitutes, the rejects of society who knew they could offer nothing and achieve nothing. All they could do was to cry to God for mercy; and he heard their cry.

When we understand that, then we are blessed because then the kingdom of God will be ours.

This does not mean we cannot become competent in our Christian life. It is a good thing to become more knowledgeable about the Bible. A high grade on a Bible quiz is a good thing. It is a good thing to gain experience in knowing how to deal with spiritual oppression. It is a good thing to be able to step into a situation and pray in a way that brings comfort to those in need. It is good to be generous with what we have been given.

But the danger is that in gaining knowledge and experience, some are tempted to take those skills that they have accumulated and use them without depending on God for what they do. We can become so competent over time that it is difficult to be humble. Some practice ministry like Red Adair stepping out of a helicopter to put out a fire in an oil well. “Step back, I’m an expert. I’ll take care of this, just be careful to do what I tell you to do.”

How can you be humble when you know the Bible backwards and forwards, when you can offer an appropriate prayer for any and every occasion, when you have experienced dealing with the supernatural and have cast out demons and seen prayers for healing answered?

What I have observed is that those who have long experience in their relationship with God come to an increasing realization of their dependence on God. Paul, over time, in his letters, went from calling himself “an apostle of Jesus Christ” to “the least of the apostles” to “the greatest of all sinners.”

It is those who become entranced with the power and influence they can wield who take their knowledge and use it unaware of their dependence on God. That is the story of the Pharisees isn’t it? They had trained for years and they certainly knew their Scriptures. But they had missed the understanding and experience of being dependent on God for what they did.

So blessed are the poor in spirit now. In each situation of our lives, the poor in spirit are blessed because they know what is true, that only what is done in dependence on God has lasting value. The poor in spirit are blessed now because they are not satisfied or content or even pleased with the short-term gain that can be made with our own strength and knowledge. The poor in spirit are blessed because they live and act in dependence on God.

And blessed are the poor in spirit when Jesus returns and the kingdom of God comes in full. For then what we know now by faith will be reality for all to see.

At the end of this message, let me add a little postscript. The 387 richest people in the world have the same share of the world’s wealth as the bottom 45% of the world’s population. If you have not been able to grab as large a share of the world’s wealth as you wish, your are blessed because the world’s wealth is going to disappear and you will inherit the kingdom of God. If you are not able to take the vacations you want. If you are not able to live in as nice a house as you want. If you don’t receive as much respect from the world as you wish, you are blessed because you will receive the kingdom of God that will put to shame all these worldly things. If you are struggling financially now and even if you struggle financially for the rest of your life, you are blessed because the kingdom of God will be yours.

The Beatitudes turn the world’s values on end and help us to see what lasts and what will be destroyed. The Beatitudes spell out for us the implications of a verse in John’s first letter:
17 The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever.

I was talking with one member of the church this week who said she did not understand why people struggled so much with the Beatitudes. The difference, I told her, is that she had two arms stretched out reaching to be with Jesus and those of us who struggle with the truths of the Beatitudes have one or more arms firmly wrapped around this world and what we think we possess in it.

May we all stretch out both our hands to Jesus and embrace his teaching in the Beatitudes.
Blessed are the poor in spirit
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.