Attempts at Honesty

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The blessing of being poor (in spirit) – Matthew 5:3

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Matthew 5:3 reads:

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” (NASB)

One must assume that Jesus knew what he was doing when he put this Beatitude first in the list. Blessed are the poor in Spirit. Luke’s record shortens this saying to simply, “blessed are you who are poor” dropping the qualifier “in spirit.”

Most of us spend a majority of our time and energy in an effort to avoid being poor, so this blessing seems to be at odds with our understanding of what life is about. Is Jesus talking about material poverty? Or does the qualifier in Matthew force us to limit our application of this blessing to the spiritual realm only?

The third possibility is that material poverty and spiritual poverty are connected in some way.

Poor

The word that is translated “poor” conveys the root meaning of “crouch” or “cringe” and carries the sense of absolute destitution. This is the word used to describe Lazarus in Luke 16:20. To be poor in this sense is to be without resources.

In Matthew 19:23 and Luke 18:24 Jesus indicated that it is particularly difficult for those who are rich to enter the Kingdom of God. Why is this? Certainly it is not because the rich are necessarily more evil than the poor. It is not because God’s grace is insufficient to save a rich man. And it is certainly not because God loves the rich any less than he loves the poor.

It is easier for those with material prosperity to maintain the illusion of control in their lives. They can think that they have achieved their wealth by their own effort and skill, and as a result they may be more likely to think that no-one else’s help is required. They are susceptible to thinking that they are self sufficient.

The good news of the Gospel is that we can inherit the Kingdom of Heaven, the precise blessing associated with being poor in spirit. Why do those without resources have an advantage in gaining the kingdom?

To appropriate the good news first requires that bad news is understood and accepted. The bad news is that without the work of Jesus on the cross, I am not able to attain entrance into Heaven. I must first admit my inability to make myself worthy of Heaven before I can accept the offer of salvation from Jesus. To achieve spiritual health, I must first acknowledge my disease and accept the cure.

This is precisely where the poor have an advantage. They do not have any pretense about whether they are in control. They are dependent upon others for their day to day existence. It is much easier for them to acknowledge their need of a a physical and a spiritual savior. Their eyes are not clouded by their material possessions.

I suppose the take-away for those of us in Western Society, who are rich enough to afford computers or access the internet, is that we cannot let our resources inhibit our relationship with God. It is so easy to be distracted in obtaining and maintaining stuff, that we can forget the God who made the stuff possible.

It is my belief that one can have wealth and still be poor in spirit, but it is difficult. Being poor in spirit is to come to terms with our helplessness in the spiritual realm and seeking the one who promised to never leave us (Matthew 28:20).

Throughout the rest of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus shows us how helpless we really are. If we are honest when reading this sermon, our eyes will be opened to what true righteousness is and we will be forced to admit how far short of the standard we fall.

As we move forward in the study of the amazing sermon, may it cause us to realize our poverty and turn to the one who promises spiritual riches (Ephesians 1:18).

Introduction to the Beatitudes – Sermon on the Mount #3

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BlessedBefore examining the Beatitudes in Matthew 5:3-11, it would be helpful to offer a few words on the meaning of the word translated “blessed” in our English Bibles.

The word in the original is makarios, which in Homer denoted the “transcendent happiness of a life beyond care, labor and death.” (Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, TDNT) Later authors used this word to describe the happy state of the gods above earthly sufferings and labors. Similarly, the word came to denote the wealthy who are above normal cares and worries of lesser folk.

In the New Testament makarios “refers overwhelmingly to the distinctive religious joy which accrues to man from his salvation and the Kingdom of God. Always there is a “connection between right conduct and heavenly recompense.” (TDNT)

Specifically in Matthew 5 we see “the power of these statements lies in the reversal of human values.” (TDNT) These statements are somewhat shocking on the surface because the initial understanding of them goes against our natural sensibilities. Who automatically thinks it a blessing to be poor? Who strives for opportunities to mourn? Who thinks that the path to advancement is paved with gentleness?

Yet, these are some of the things that Jesus tells us in the Beatitudes. On the surface, they seem to be paradoxical or contradictory in nature.

John MacArthur in his commentary on Matthew, points out that because we are encouraged in Scripture to pursue spiritual blessings, we cannot make sense of these statements in a purely physical sense. Within the bounds of physical life, we cannot make sense out of someone saying it is blessing to mourn. From the standpoint of our human, fleshly existence, it does not seem good to be poor. Mourning and poverty seem to work against our physical well being.

All through the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus is driving us past our physical existence and pushing us to look beyond our physical existence to something better. Unlike Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz, when we pull back the curtain, we find something more spectacular than we expected.

It should be noted that to get “behind the curtain” requires an insight into the supernatural. We must get beyond the merely physical. In Ephesians 5:1, the Apostle Paul reminds us that apart from Christ we are dead in our “trespasses and sins.” Dead people cannot perceive stimuli, they cannot respond. To understand the full import of what Jesus is telling us in this sermon and in these Beatitudes, we must be made alive by faith in Jesus Christ (see Ephesians 2:4-9)

In these 9 pronouncements of blessing in Matthew 5, we will be challenged by Jesus to look beyond ourselves, to peek through the keyhole into eternity, to broaden our horizon to take Heaven into view.

I find these statements to simultaneously stimulate me, encourage me, and scare me. Without the aid of the Holy Spirit, I cannot even begin to appropriate these blessings. But when I surrender, when I set aside my limited perspective, I get glimpses of how it could be. Like a 5 year old learning to ride a bike, I begin to see how my wobbly endeavor could lead to the Tour de France.

Tozer on the Presence of God

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TozerThis is a quote from How to be Filled with the Holy Spirit, by A. W. Tozer.

“[T]here is an unseen Deity present, a knowing, feeling Personality, and He is indivisible from the Father and the Son, so that if you were to be suddenly transferred to heaven itself you wouldn’t be any closer to God than you are now, for God is already here. Changing your geographical location would not bring you any nearer to God nor God any nearer to you, because the indivisible Trinity is present, and all that the Son is the Holy Ghost is, and all that the Father is the Holy Ghost is, and the Holy Ghost is in His Church.”

As I read this, the question came to me, what would the church look like if we lived this out? What would my life look like if I always remembered that God is beside me every step of the way?

If Jesus was riding shotgun, would I loose my cool when I’m cut off in traffic? If I took into consideration the presence of the Holy Spirit, would I think the thoughts that I do or react to people and events the way that I do? In many instances, I would not.

The point of Tozer’s paragraph is that the Holy Spirit is within us and sees what we think and do.

In Psalm 139:7 David writes, “Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence?” (NASB) The answer to this rhetorical question is “nowhere.” There is no where I can go to get away from God in the person of the Holy Spirit. None, zip, nada.

The point of this post is to remind myself and by extension, you the reader, that God is always present and that I should act accordingly.

The good news is that when I fail (not if I fail), God has provided a means of dealing with the failure (see 1 John 1:9).

On having a perfect brother

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If you believe that Mary was a perpetual virgin, please stop reading now because you will end up being offended. Following the birth of Jesus, Scripture indicates that Mary went on to have other children. I quote Mark 6:3 below:

“Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon? Are not His sisters here with us?” And they took offense at Him.” (NASB)

Jesus with the Rabbis in the TempleMy question is, what would it have been like to grow up with a perfect older brother? Some of you may have had to endure being compared to older siblings. Being the first born in my family, I have not had this experience.

I can imagine what it was like to always be compared to Jesus. Jesus was the kid who hung out in the Temple when he was a pre-teen to discuss Scripture with the best of the Rabbis. He would never give an offense and Jesus would be the one that all the old ladies in the congregation would pat on the head and pinch his cheeks and proclaim him a “good boy.”

How difficult would it have been to endure punishment (deserved or otherwise) knowing that your brother never had to be punished? Even if your parents didn’t ask the question, it certainly would be going through your mind, “why can’t you be more like Jesus?” Even on your best behavior, to be compared to perfection would be humiliating.

Think about it. It would have been no use for the brothers to try to blame anything on Jesus. They might have gotten away with blaming the broken lamp on the dog, but never on Jesus.

Another problem would be that Jesus would never lie. If Mary asked him, “did you see who took the cookies from the pantry?” He would have to answer truthfully. No-one could get away with anything when Jesus was around.

As a result, it is not hard to imagine that resentment would naturally begin to form in the siblings toward Jesus. In the gospels, the few glimpses we have of Jesus’ brothers indicate that they did not understand who he was or believe in him (see John 7:5).

Yet in the end, we see two of Jesus’ brothers writing letters which are included in our New Testament. They came to belief at some point and became leaders in First Century church.

This begs the question. If this whole Jesus is the Messiah thing was a scam, why would the brothers buy in to it when they obviously did not while he was alive. Why after his death would they risk martyrdom if they knew him to be a quack or a con-man?

In my mind the fact that his brothers did acknowledge him to be God in the flesh is strong proof that Jesus’ claim to be divine is true. Every person will at some point will be forced to make a decision regarding Jesus. If he is who he claimed to be (as his brothers came to believe) then you reject him to your peril.

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