Spiritual Poverty
Matthew 5:3
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
In our last post we looked at how the beatitudes show us what true human flourishing looks like. They paint a portrait of what Jesus sees as “the good life”. This is why every beatitude opens with that wonderful word, “blessed.” Jesus is saying, “All who have the character of the people I am describing here I declare ‘blessed! Flourishing! Happy!” That is what Jesus is saying here.
So what type of character qualities does Jesus say are needed to receive this divine commendation? The first one that we see is “poor in spirit”. What does this mean?
Some, throughout the history of Christian interpretation, have read this as a call to literal poverty. This is how the Catholic church has interpreted this beatitude. In order to justify the many monastic orders that take vows of poverty, and to further justify their rigid distinction between the clergy and laity, they have taught that Christ commends here literal financial poverty.
However, I think this interpretation is very wide of the mark. First, while the Bible does speak against the rich in many circumstances, it usually has more to do with their heart attitude before God, and their treatment of others, than wealth itself. Their problem is not that they have money, it’s that they exploit others and ignore God’s law. Second, the Bible almost always sees poverty as a problem to be solved, not a condition to be embraced. God cares for the poor and destitute throughout Scripture because they are in a condition that he sees as problematic.
Look again at what Jesus says here, “poor in spirit.” Clearly Jesus is talking about a spiritual condition and not a physical reality. So again, what does it mean to be “poor in spirit”?
Imagine for a moment that you have ended up in a place of financial ruin. You are in a significant amount of debt, and you are completely incapable of ever paying it off. You now have a choice to make. You can admit that you are completely unable to get out of debt and seek help, or you can continue stubbornly trying to dig yourself out. What is the wise choice in this scenario? It is to admit that you are bankrupt. The right thing to do is to recognize how bad the situation really is and to get help.
The poor in spirit are those who recognize that they are bankrupt spiritually, that they have nothing of their own to offer to God, and that they are completely wretched before a holy God.
We see a great example of this in the book of Isaiah. In chapter 6 Isaiah finds himself in the throne room of God. As he beholds the wonderful majesty of everything going on around him, he has one response. He doesn’t say, “wow this is awesome.” He doesn’t say, “thank you Lord for showing me this.” He says, “Woe is me! For I am lost!” (Isaiah 6:5) As he stands before the infinitely holy God, he immediately recognizes his own sinfulness. As he stands before the being of all riches, he immediately sees his utter poverty. What could he possibly give to this God? What could he possibly do for this God? Anything he offered up is mere nothingness in comparison with God’s transcendent greatness. This is what it means to be spiritually poor. As Darrell Johnson puts it, “The poor in spirit are those who know that they have nothing with which to get the kingdom of God.”[1]
This is an extremely counter cultural position that Jesus is advocating. What Jesus is saying, is that the first thing one must recognize to experience the flourishing life is their utter lostness, their bankruptcy, their spiritual poverty. Think about how backwards that sounds in our culture. Our culture constantly tells us that “we have what it takes,” that “we just need to look within ourselves,” that “we are brave, strong, and can overcome.” Yet, Jesus tells us right here that the first thing we need to recognize is our inability and weakness. Jesus is telling us in this first beatitude that the first thing we need to do to experience the flourishing life is to get on our knees and say, “I am not worthy, I cannot do it, I am lost, I need help.”
I really like the way that Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jone, the Welsh preacher, puts this. He writes,
The Sermon on the Mount, in other words, comes to us and says, “There is the mountain that you have to scale, the heights you have to climb; and the first thing you must realize, as you look at that mountain which you are told you must ascend, is that you cannot do it, that you are utterly incapable in and of yourself, and that any attempt to do it in your own strength is proof positive that you have not understood it.”[2]
The way up is actually down, the ascent starts in descent. You will never rise up to the joy promised in the beatitudes if you do not first sink down by coming face-to-face with your own sinfulness. “If the hand be full of pebbles, it cannot receive gold. The glass is first emptied before you pour in wine. God first empties a man of himself, before he pours in the precious wine of his grace.”[3]
Yet, look at the promised reward of those who recognize this, “for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Two things I would like us to notice here. First, notice that those who are poor in spirit receive the kingdom presently. The verb used here, “is,” is in the present not future tense. In some sense then a recognition of spiritual poverty before God brings us into the kingdom immediately.
Secondly, notice how the gift far exceeds the act done by us. Imagine that you went to a far-off land and while travelling in this strange place you were brought into the palace of the king. As you enter into his palace courts it becomes apparent that he is extremely wealthy. You are brought to the throne, you bow down, and you say, “O king, who am I to come before you like this? You are so great, and I am a nobody.” And you bow down before him. The king looks at you and responds, “You see this kingdom? It is yours, take it.” Certainly we would be shocked by such a lavish response. What have we done, but merely bowed the knee? What have we done, but merely recognize our proper place? And yet, this is what God does for us. It is a response that is totally out of proportion with what we have done which means it can only be out of God’s loving grace that he gives it to us.
Let’s pull all of this together. What exactly is Jesus communicating in this beatitude? Jesus is telling us that the truly flourishing life comes to those who humbly acknowledge their inability to accomplish it on their own and submit themselves to God’s Lordship, “theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Yet, there remains one problem. Even if I acknowledge my spiritual bankruptcy, my inability, my weakness am I not still indebted? Think back to our example about ending up in financial ruin. It’s all well and good to recognize one’s debt and need for help, but the recognition itself does not pay off a debt. So what does?
Colossians 2:13–14a, “And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands.” God cancelled our debt, he wiped the ledger clean, it’s gone. But how? Keep reading, “This he set aside, nailing it to the cross” (Col. 2:14b). Our debt, the record of all of our sins, God nailed it to the cross. Think about this for a second, what Paul is saying is that when Jesus Christ went to the cross and was quite literally nailed to it, that at the same time God was nailing our sin—in Jesus—to that cross, so that the debt that our sin incurred was completely taken care of. It was quite literally “cancelled” as our text says. Think about that.
Our beatitude today only makes sense through the lens of this Gospel. It only means anything through the lens of the Gospel, and it’s the same for all the other beatitudes because it’s when we look to the cross that we see our sin for what it really is. It’s when we look to the cross, that we recognize our inability to do what Christ did. It’s when we look to the cross, that we see how awful and incapable we really are. It's when we look to the cross that we become “poor in spirit.” But it’s also when we look to the cross that we see God’s love for us. So let us look to the cross, ponder it, meditate upon it, and see in it our complete salvation.