Saturday, January 9, 2016

Blessed are the poor in spirit


Blessed are the poor in spirit.

This may be the most recognized of Jesus' Beatitudes. Probably because it's the first. But, maybe also because it's kind of cryptic. What exactly does the "in spirit" part mean? Luke, in his version of the Beatitudes, just refers to the poor. That's easier to understand (if we keep it simple don't try and add all kinds of layers to what "poor" might mean).

But "poor in spirit"?


Question: What comes to mind for you? Whom would you identify as "poor in spirit"? Think of someone right now. What does that reveal about what you think the phrase means?
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Point 1: Let’s be clear on what this is not. Jesus is not saying, "Blessed are those who are spiritually poor." At least not if we’re thinking about some sort of mentally where we think that we’re hopeless without God only in terms of how we stand "spiritually" in contrast with the rest of our "non-spiritual" aspects of life. No. Poor in spirit is holistic of our entire human selves.

Point 2: the word "poor." There are two words in Greek that we translate into the English word poor. One refers to those who can get by, but they clearly do not have much. The other refers to those who are completely destitute. These are the poor who in the Roman world were not even considered worthy of help. There's no hope for "movin' on up."

It's the second use of the word "poor" that Jesus speaks of here--the utterly helpless and destitute in spirit. Not the ones who have their bad days, or who have occasional "woe is me" moments. Jesus is speaking of the ones who are all but dead in spirit. The outlook is bleak. Perhaps like Abraham in Romans 4--he had no heir, no future, was nearly 100 years old and good as dead. This is exactly when God change his future and gave hope for life. 

The poor in spirit don't merely think of themselves as lowly; they are the ones who have nothing to go on.


Here’s why “poor in spirit” is so important. If the human spirit has any hint of capability of self, that capability will turn into building one's own kingdom. It's just a matter of time. It's a pretty consistent theme throughout Scripture, going back to Genesis 11. 


of the movie The Pursuit of Happyness. Chris Gardner and his son had a really rough season of life. But he was not completely poor in spirit--not like Jesus is talking about. He still had a drive to make something of himself, and that’s what the whole movie is about. The movie doesn’t emphasize being destitute and hoping in God. The movie won't go there because the movie is trying to communicate the common Western-American cultural ideal that if we have a spark, we can make something of ourselves. We can work hard enough to turn things around. We have it in us. And this is true. We can.

What’s the problem with thinking this way? How is it non-Jesus-y?


Dying to ourselves is everywhere in the New Testament. Everywhere. It's in Jesus' command to "deny yourself and take up your cross"; it’s in Paul's use of Jesus' example in Philippians 2; it’s in Paul's words about the problem of human achievement in 1 Corinthians 1 & 2; it’s in Jesus' repeated teachings about the dangers of seeking status.

Now, I know well--all too well--that this flies in the face of popular cultural advertisement. We live in a culture that insists that everyone has the ability to make something of themselves and that everyone should. We live in a culture marked by richness of spirit. 

The problem is that it’s the capable in spirit who make their own kingdoms. From the perspective of post-Genesis 3 human nature, this is to be envied, even praised. It's a feel-good thing. But this also often ends up being our own self-inflicting way of keeping Jesus' kingdom at arms' length. It's not that Jesus doesn't like us. It's that unless we've died to ourselves, our natural human spirit will try at every turn to be our own rulers, and usually lord that over others, too. 

How do you have richness in spirit in a way that keeps the reality of Jesus’ kingdom at a distance?

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Dietrich Bonhoeffer put it best in The Cost of Discipleship (a book you should go buy RIGHT NOW). In this book, Bonhoeffer famously said, "When Christ calls a [person] he bids that person to come and die."

Being poor in spirit has to do with putting to death our human spirit, our human will, and letting the life of Christ fill the space. Paul speaks of this in Galatians 2:19-20: "I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me" (Galatians 2:19-20).


How is being crucified with Christ relate to poor in spirit? What is the benefit of being “poor in spirit” in this way? 

When Paul said this in Galatians, he was writing to a group of people who were holding on tightly to their own self-identities and ways of their own making, refusing to die to their human ways. But, they also genuinely thought they were promoting God's ways. This is the really dangerous part. Not being poor in spirit, holding tightly to our own identities and agendas, can easily lead to blurring the lines and forcing Jesus into our own agendas, rather than submitting to  Jesus' kingdom. 

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Poor in spirit is not something that we can work harder to become. Not even close. And we don't want it this way. If we could, that would just make things worse. Poor in spirit only happens because God's Spirit is at work. And this only happens as a result of dailyhourly, minute-by-minute dying to ourselves and finding our existence in Jesus' presence, yielding our ways to his.

Once we really allow that poverty in spirit, immense freedom follows. I'm not talking about just thinking that in theory we're poor in spirit. That won't do. I mean really living into the role. Leaning into it. Sitting comfortably in the poor in spirit-ness. When we're poor in spirit, all we can do--let me be clear--all we can do, is throw ourselves upon Jesus. And that's probably the best thing for us.

I find Sarah McLachlan's song "Fallen" very fitting in relation to this idea.

Heaven bend to take my hand and lead me through the fire,
Be the long awaited answer to a long a painful fight,
Truth be told, I tried my best, but somewhere along the way,
I got caught up in all there was to offer, and the cost was so much more than I could bear. 
We all began with good intent...we believed that we could change ourselves, that the past could be undone,
But we carried on our backs the burden that time always reveals,
In the lonely light of morning, in the wound that would not heal,
It's the bitter taste of losing everything I've held so dear...

Question: how do you identify with this song? How does it clarify “poor in spirit”?

This is a song of the poor in spirit. The cry is for heaven to take our hand in the midst of losing everything we've held so dear...As I think of this, I imagine that everything we've held so dear is ourselves and our claim to something. The long and painful fight is the fight of trying to make ourselves. It's well intentioned, but in the process we get caught up in all there is and we find that the cost of building our own kingdom is too much to bear. Poor in spirit is when we realize the emptiness of the pursuit, when we realize we can't hold up under the burden of building our own kingdoms, competing with all the other kingdoms everyone else is building.

This might seem like giving up. It is if we're seeing through the lens of American cultural thought. From the perspective of Jesus' kingdom, living into poor in spirit means fulfillment and freedom that we never knew. Heaven has come down, and losing everything is the greatest moment in our lives.


Blessed are the poor in spirit.
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Think, Talk, Apply

Remember to take time every day to read the Beatitudes and  s l o w  d o w n  to read them and discuss how they can shape how we live our lives. It only takes 10 minutes (or more). Here are some things that come to mind:

What's your own personal kingdom that you're working hard to build? How does this find its way into your daily habits? How will things change as poor in spirit becomes your identity? What might it look like for your entire household to be built around this outlook of "poor in spirit"? How do you communicate this to your children through your example? (they're paying attention)

How has God's Spirit already changed you and how has poor in spirit already become true of you? How can you share this freedom of being of Jesus' kingdom?

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