In Matthew 5:3 Jesus said, “ 3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” The word “blessed” in the original Greek simply means happy. Jesus is not referring here to the physically poor. Jesus is talking about a spiritual condition that is absolutely essential if we are going to experience him and his kingdom.
There were obviously many in Jesus’ day that did not believe that he was the Messiah. The Jewish people knew the scriptures and knew the prophecies that a Messiah would come. What is crazy is that Jesus came onto the scene and began fulfilling these prophecies to the letter and yet many did not recognize him. The Jewish people knew the scriptures inside and out so how in the world did they not know who was with them? In fact, the religious leaders who knew the scriptures better than anyone were the ones who were the most hostile toward Jesus.
You see, many had become convinced of their own self-righteousness and were blinded to the true meaning of the scriptures that they had memorized. Jesus’ message declared that people did not have it together and that they needed a Savior. This message did not jive with those who were convinced that they had achieved righteousness by their own merits. They were so certain that they had it together that they put the long-awaited Messiah to death.
3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Invariably it was those who recognized their spiritual poverty that found in Jesus the salvation that they were looking for. The same thing happens today. I believe that Jesus kicked off the Sermon on the Mount with this passage for a reason. If we do not realize that we are poor in spirit, we cannot experience the kingdom of heaven.
This passage applies to both Christians and non-Christians alike. To take the next step closer to God (whatever that next step may be for you), you have to recognize your spiritual poverty. It is only in recognizing your need for Jesus that you will experience him. We try to do and look to a large number of things to convince ourselves that we are righteous on our own. Deep down inside however, I think we all know the truth. We can go around all day long and act like we have it together but who are we fooling?
It is only as we humble ourselves and recognize our spiritual poverty that we can experience the happiness that Jesus mentions in this passage. John 15:5 makes it clear that apart from Jesus, we can do nothing. Have you taken this to heart? If not then you are living in a place of self-righteousness that will make you miserable. You think it all depends on you and that your righteousness is about what you can do on your own. My hope for all of us is that we will realize that it is the poor in spirit who are truly blessed.
(The general idea for this blog post came from a sermon that I heard from Pastor Robert Morris of Gateway Church)
