This is so important because most of us already suffer not from lacking of knowing, but lack of doing what it is we knwo we should do. Let me illustrate.
This weekend I took out our pop-up campuer and set up for the family. Pop-up camping is an interesting thing.
On one level it’s camping. You’re outside, you’re ruffing it, you have the outdoors experience. On the other hand, pop-up camping is like our normal, modern world- we pop this thing up some we can have a home base, a bed to sleep on, electricity, and the truly weird thing is that they pack us in like sardines in a can- I mean, they fit in 10 people per square foot in these camp grounds.
I’ve never known completely if I LOVE pop-up camping, or if it’s the dumbest thing in the world that I’ve ever been a part of. All I know is I was swindled into buying my in-laws piece of garbage old pop-up camper and now I feel obligated to engage in this ritual 2 weeks out of every summer!
Anyways, one of the things about pop-up camping is you have to set the rules. One of them is, don’t run in and our of the camper or you will break something. So I tell the kids- be careful. You’ll break something. I know you kids, I know you can’t contain your energy, nor can this old piece of crap camper. Don’t play in here or you’ll break something.
I tell Robin, you don't understand the nuances of how to set up a camper and use it. Please Robin, don’t mess around with the stuff in the camper or you’ll break something. You’re in charge of the home, I’m in charge of the camper, because I understand it and I won’t break anything.
So guess who’s messing around in the camper and ends up breaking the the overhead light the first night!
(If it's not totally obvious- it was me!)
It’s not a problem of knowing, it’s a problem of doing. Or rather, not doing in this case- not being careful enough not to break something. And so goes the basic human condition- it’s not a problem of not knowing, it’s a problem with doing the things we know we should do, not doing the things we know we should avoid, being the kind of people we want to be.
And that was basically the point last week, and the whole point of this series. It’s not just about us learning and knowing more stuff. It’s about us being and doing things different. Actually putting this Jesus stuff into practice, because it’s only in practice that this stuff truly matters, that it truly makes a difference.
But like we talked about- it a good kind of different. It s tough kind of different, but it’s the kind of different that we need to be, that the world needs us to be, and that, and here’s the thing, the kind of different that Jesus can let us be IF we will do the things he calls us to do.
So, with that understood, that the whole point is putting into practice so we can be a different kind of person. And there’s one word that captures the essence of the difference... Blessed.
Jesus begins his message with this one simple sentence:
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
Question for your reflection- If you could be anything, what would it be? There’s the obvious: Wealthy, famous, powerful, beautiful, popular, super smart, super strong, musical, artistic...
No matter what else you might want to be or do, you would want to be blessed! Now what do we think is blessed? Probably a lot of those same things- wealthy, successful, popular, stuff like that. But what I’m hoping for today is that we begin to expand our view of what the blessed life really is about, and really looks like. I think that the blessed life is both far deeper than we normally think, but it is also far more wonderful than any of us have fully experienced. The things we might associate with the blessed life are far too shallow, and far too short of where God actually wants to take us.
What is blessed? In the Greek it is simply pronounced "Makarios." Sometimes it is translated as happy, and in truth, and we should here in this blessing a certain sense of happiness. Some have then said that this is something like Jesus’ theory of happiness, that if one can simply embrace these qualities as their emotional attitude, they will be a happy person. And you know, I think that view is not entirely wrong. I have nothing against being happy. But a blessed life goes deeper than just being happy.
We see reading through the list that each "blessed" is even connected with a reward. The poor in Spirit get the Kingdom of heaven. Those who mourn are comforted. The meek inherit the earth...
The blessings also have both a present and future tense. We get a foretaste of what is to come. We experience in part what we will later know is full. We get a bit of the kingdom now, and we get it’s fullness later.
So let's go deeper- this idea of blessing was part of culture and world view of the bible. In Genesis, when God calls a man named Abram to be the father of a new beginning, a new people, he calls him to be the father of a new blessing. God said, “I will make you in a great nation and I will bless you. I will make your name great and you will be a blessing... and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”
Later, in the book of Numbers, written some 1500 years BEFORE Jesus, this promise of blessing becomes a part of the rhythm of life for God’s people. God instructs the Priests on how they are to bless the people, by pronouncing over them:
The LORD bless you and keep you;
The LORD make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you;
The LORD turn his face toward you and give you peace.
They would have heard this literally thousands of times. But by all accounts they people did not see themselves as have seen or obtained the blessing. In fact, nothing further could seem like their peoples experience. Driven out of the Promised Land, exiled to Babylon, exiled to Assyria, returning only to be overrun again, kept under Roman rule. Their lives seemed anything but blessed.
And so, when Jesus opened his mouth and began to speak, he was about to speak to them about blessing. Only now, the priestly blessing would be different. Now it was not to ask for God’s blessing, but to give God’s blessing to them. Not just to ask for God to turn his face toward them, but to turn his face toward them, to show them the very face of God, to show them his grace, to give them his peace.
We can’t grasp the full power of these words unless we grasp the context in which they are spoken, and they are spoken as nothing less than the fulfillment, the very embodiment of the priestly blessing with which they were all so familiar. And so when Jesus opens his mouth and the first word he speaks to them is this word blessed, it would have, in one sense been the most familiar and expected thing he could have possibly said- Well, sounds like Jesus is about to offer us the priestly blessing as a way to start his message.
But while it had the familiar ring of blessing about, it was also something they perhaps had never heard before. For immediately it becomes clear that finally someone was not just going to speak a blessing over them, but was about to explain to them what the blessed life actually looked like.
And so in one sentence, with the very first worlds that come from the lips of Jesus as he sits before this crowd gathered on a mountainside, Jesus turns the world upside down. He begins the difficult process of turning the vision and values of the world upside down, inside out, and on it’s relative rear. One sentence and the Divine Conspiracy to change the world is launched and set in motion. These words launch us into radical new way of seeing God and our participation in life with Him. It’s is our invitation to this divine conspiracy to bring the kingdom of heaven into our lives and into our world. For that is the blessing we all long for, whether we know it or not, and many do not know it, what we all long for, what we all need, is to experience, to taste, to touch, to see and be a part of the kingdom of God- that is the blessed life.
This is the key- the blessed life is intrisically tied to the kingdom of heaven.
What does Jesus even mean, the kingdom of Heaven?
This is perhaps the single most important statement of Jesus for us to understand. This is the heart and soul of the message of Jesus. Jesus taught on the kingdom of Heaven, and it’s counterpart, the Kingdom of God, more than anything else. Let’s take a step back. Jesus goes to his cousin John the baptist, who, we may have guessed by his name, was baptizing people. Jesus is baptized and at that moment we have an amazing trinity moment- the trinity being this understanding that God exists as one being in three persons- Father, Son Jesus, and Holy Spirit. Jesus goes into the water, the Holy Spirit visibly comes upon Jesus, and the Fathers voice from heaven says this is my son whom I love in him I am well pleased. What happens it that the kingdom of heaven actually manifests and comes upon Jesus.
Jesus is then lead out into the desert for forty days where is prays, fasts, and ultimately tempted by Satan to ditch this whole plan, the whole divine conspiracy to change the world. Jesus actually enters the kingdom of Hell. It's like the showdown in the desert- the kingdom of heaven vs. teh kngdom of hell.
Jesus comes through this temptation with flying colors, and he begins to preach.
And his message basically always boils down to one big idea. One major point-
“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.”That word repent means turn. Turn around, turn from whatever else it is you are doing, turn from the bad things you are doing or thinking or planning, turn from even the good things you are doing, because you have to see that the kingdom of heaven, the place where God is and where God rules and where God meets his people, it’s near. It’s so near you can see it if you want. You can reach and and touch it if you desire. It’s so near that if you turn towards me, you will be in it and a part of it.
The amazing thing is that people actually did. they turned from what they were doing, where they were going, what they were about, and they followed Jesus. Jesus call fishermen to follow him, and they did. Soon they knew why. In the verse just before chapter 5, the verse that tell us why a multitude of people followed Jesus up a mountain to learn from him, was because as he went throughout the land preaching this message, repent for the kingdom of heaven is near, that is was so near in fact, that people began to experience it as they experienced Jesus- the sick became healthy. those where were suffering found relief. The demon possessed were set free. the crippled walked. The kingdom was so near in Jesus that people naturally began to turn towards him, and in so doing they found their lives were being blessed in amazing, transforming ways.
To understand the power and importance of this message, we need to understand something about kingdoms. Now modern communicators will say that kingdom language is really outdated, out of our realm of experience, and out of touch. I’m not so convinced. Has anyone here every heard of a kingdom, or a king or a queen? Yeah, we may not live under the rule of a monarchy, but we get this! I have three kids, and I think my kids get what a kingdom is. My girls love to play princess. My son loves it when I call him prince, but I think they are all striving for crown in my home. They would love to be in charge. To make a decree, and have it happen. To snap their fingers and have servants come running. To send anyone foolish enough to disobey them to the gallows. They would love that kind of power, of control , or reach in their lives.
Our kingdoms are those areas, those places, in which our word is law, our will is done, and things are just the way we want them.
This is the message of Jesus- repent for the kingdom of heaven is near, so near, it can collide with your life right now if you have eyes to see, ears to hear, and faith in your heart. The kingdom is at hand, reach out and touch it.
Ultimately Jesus says I am the king, the Christ, and my kingdom is at hand. The language of the kingdom of heaven is written all over the manifesto and the message of Jesus. In passage after passage of the sermon on the mount we will hear Jesus speak of the Kingdom. He will say to whom it belongs, he will speak of the righteousness of those who enter in, he will tell of of the rewards of heaven, he will teach us to pray God will be done on earth as it is in heaven, he will encourage us to store up our treasures in heaven, over and over he will speak of God as our Father in heaven. And he begins his message by tells us to whom the kingdom of heaven belongs.
It is the poor in spirit. The kingdom of heaven is for those who are poor in spirit.
This is the wonderful flip, the twist, the surprise ending, or in this case beginning, to life in the kingdom. What does it mean to be poor? What is poverty? Poverty may be largely a state of mind and attitude. For there are many who claim to be poor, but who are rich by the world’s standards. There are many who consider themselves well off, but others look at them and think to themselves, dag, they are barely getting by. Poverty is in many many ways a state of mind and attitude and very relative to our place in the world.
But there is such thing as true poverty, and being truly poor. Can I just remind everyone that poverty sucks. Being poor, truly poor, not relatively or subjectively poor, means you don’t have the means to get what you need.
It means you need food, but you can’t get any.
You need clothes, but you can get any.
You need shelter, but you can’t get any.
Being poor means you don’t have options.
It means you don;t have opportunities.
It means that you don't have the means, the means to get anything, change anything.
Being truly poor means that you are truly unable to alter your life situation.
You are unable to help yourself.
Jesus says that when you get to the point where you are poor in spirit, then yours is the kingdom of heaven. When you are at the place in your spirit where you can finally say, I have no options, I have no opportunities, I have no where to go or turn.
You are poor in spirit when you realize that you can not save your soul.
You are poor in spirit when you can’t make yourself good enough.
You are poor in spirit when you can will yourself to be a better person.
You are poor in spirit when you realize you have no resources, no options, no opportunities.
And let me tell you, there is nothing glamorous about it. It’s not fun. It’s not exciting.
It’s simply that moment, or that ongoing revelation, and it can happen when we are young, or old, it can be forgotten and remembered and re-experienced throughout life, it’s that realization that I can’t save my self. I am utterly, helplessly, desperately poor in my spiritual resources, in my means to heaven.
Here is the thing about being poor in spirit- it’s broad enough to include everybody, but exclusive enough to make us wonder, does that describe me?
Everybody, anywhere, at anytime, any age, in any season, from any culture, from any race, from any income bracket or educational pedigree, either sex, anybody can be poor in spirit. But everyone of us must look to our hearts and ask if it does in fact describe us.
I am convinced after prayerful study of this passage, the whole sermon on the mount manifesto, of the amazing brilliance of Jesus- really, he is the most brilliant person to ever live, which makes sense as he’s the only person who was also fully God. But specifically here the brilliance, and of course then the imperative importance of this first blessing. For if one does not embrace their true poverty of spirit in standing before the living God, then nothing else in the sermon really matters or applies. To embrace, embody and begin to live the life Jesus will lay out, one must first put their whole life into the hands of Jesus, we must put our poor spirits into his kingdom of heaven.
Then will find ourselves in living in the push and pull of this sermon. The Puritans and Reformers had an expression- the law of God pushes us to Christ to be justified, just as Christ pulls us back to the law he fulfilled to be sanctified. The law of God, these beatitudes, and this whole sermon, must push us to Christ who lived them perfectly, because their is no way we will. WE can’t do it. We can’t achieve it. We can’t get it right. Only Christ can, and does, and so we go to him to be justified, to have our sins forgiven, to be washed clean. But then in Christ we all pulled back to these laws, these beatitudes, this sermon, to do our utmost to live them out.
Now that may sound like complex theology, but it isn’t folks. WE can get this this. WE can do this. Only Jesus fulfills this new law perfectly, so we depend entirely on him for our salvation. But in him, when we are saved, we come to this way of life seeking to live it out to the best of our knowledge, our abilities and as much as the grace of God is given to us. We can not perfectly fulfill and embody these beatitudes. We can’t do it. They are simply too demanding, to altruistic, to much for any mere mortal to bear. WE can’t do it- and so in realizing our own poverty of spirit we are driven to Christ, to cling to him, to hold to him, to call upon him and receive from him our life and salvation.
Then in Jesus we are pulled back to the beatitudes and back to this whole sermon and back to the whole life and message and teachings of Jesus and then we say by grace Jesus my savior and Lord help me to live this way, to keep these teachings, to love you and love my neighbor and love your world this much.
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. If you are poor in spirit, and ready to throw in the towel today, I invite to go to Christ.
If you forget everything said and done this morning, and even if those words don’t mean anything to you today, because you don’t feel poor in spirit, or even understand what that means. Don’t forget those words, because someday, all of us, if it hasn’t ever happened to you, all of us will feel utterly, and completely, unable to save ourselves.
And when that day comes, when you know you are not your creator, nor are you your own savior, nor are you the God of the universe- when that moment comes, I want you to be able to say, “Blessed are the poor in Spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
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