Matthew 5:3, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.”
I just finished up a series on John 1:1-18 at Community Christian Church, and anticipate starting the Sermon on the Mount this coming Sunday. As I’ve been preparing for this next series I’ve been musing over, among other things, the initial “beatitude,“ namely,
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
Of the many things I hope to consider this weekend, I’ll just share one this morning and its this: How wonderful is it that Jesus begins His delivery of the “new law” from the “new Sinai” with a blessing on those who recognize their own spiritual poverty?
Often times the Sermon on the Mount can be intimidating because of the seemingly impossible standard called for therein (ie, “be perfect as your Heavenly Father is perfect”), but the entire message begins with a call to know ourselves as spiritually destitute and unable to help ourselves. The first beatitude, then, is a blessing on—and an implicit command to be—those who despair of their own abilities and lean wholly on the grace of God for whatever good they may hope to produce or to have. Only from this lowly, grace-inundated vantage point will we receive the Sermon as good news.
