20. Why the Sermon on the Mount (continued)
As Jesus gathered his disciples and began his Sermon on the Mount, he gave his disciples a list of "Beatitudes" – things that make us blessed or happy, as we read in Matthew 5:3-11:
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. • Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. • Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. • Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. • Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Just as Moses gave Israel first the Ten Commandments and then the various minor laws that showed the application of the broader, underlying laws, so the Beatitudes present us with attitudes or states of being that underlie much of what Christ gave in his Sermon on the Mount.
The Beatitudes do not fall into easily recognizable groups, as the Ten Commandments do (in having laws relating to God and laws relating to our fellow human beings). But the Beatitudes are principles that do reflect the outcome of our proper attitudes toward or relationships with both God and others.
The Poor in Spirit Although we can find great depth of meaning in all of the Beatitudes, they are all straightforward and simple to understand – except perhaps for one. It is only the first – "Blessed are the poor in spirit" – that requires some thought as to what exactly the attitude is that is being described. Although being "poor in spirit" is often understood as a kind of meekness, this is unlikely to be its meaning as "Blessed are the meek ..." is mentioned as a separate Beatitude. So what exactly does it mean to be "poor in spirit," and why is this the first of all the Beatitudes?
Basically, being "poor in spirit" means being humble, but in a specific spiritual sense. To be poor in spirit means that we recognize our total spiritual bankruptcy before God. It means that we understand not only that we have nothing we can offer God in terms of our own salvation, but also that we are totally dependent upon his Spirit to properly fulfill his law. This reality has seldom been better expressed than by Mother Teresa, who explained spiritual poverty in one of her letters:
God cannot fill what is full. He can fill only emptiness – deep poverty – and your "yes" [to God's call] is the beginning of being or becoming empty. It is not how much we really "have" to give – but how empty we are – so that we can receive fully in our life and let him live his life in us … Take away your eyes from yourself and rejoice that you have nothing. When we understand the meaning of spiritual poverty, we see that it stands in total contrast to an attitude that is condemned in the Church of Laodicea mentioned in the book of Revelation: "You say, 'I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.' But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked" (Revelation 3:17). The spiritual poverty of the Laodiceans is not the same as being poor in spirit – it is a poverty that is empty, and not being filled by God. Proceeding from Poverty Many scholars feel that the Beatitudes are not simply randomly ordered; rather, they show a progression through the Christian life from its foundational first steps of humble repentance to the point where our lives become active forces for good, even ultimately drawing persecution from those who hate God's way of life that has become evident in us. Whether this understanding of the order of the Beatitudes is correct or not, being "poor in spirit" is listed first and can certainly be seen as necessary for all the qualities that follow it.
Just as the first Commandment – to have no other God – ultimately forms the foundation of all the Ten Commandments, so the first Beatitude, that we be poor in spirit, ultimately forms the foundation for Christian lives in which we live the law of God at the level of its spiritual intent – while realizing our own poverty in our inability to do this ourselves and our need for the help of God.
Can you imagine the revolutionary nature of that thought as Jesus delivered it in his sermon on the mountain? Nothing like that is to be found in the Old Testament. Nevertheless, Jesus made it clear that we are blessed not to the degree we do things for God, but to the degree we allow him to act in our lives.