Looking at his disciples, he said: "Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God." Luke 6:20
Matthew's version of this text tells us that blessed are the "poor in spirit." I prayed over this small sentence this morning. In America we don't do poor. We don't like to do without anything at ANY time. We use credit cards, loans, and lines of credit to do exactly what we want WHEN we want...we don't do poor...especially poor in spirit.
In our society, we are about rights. We are about equality. We are about...ourselves. No, we don't want much to do with poor...or poor in spirit. We want to be treated like queens by our husbands, admired by our friends, treated with respect by our coworkers, and obeyed by our children. We don't want to be poor in spirit...completely destitute with nothing of our own to claim. We want to be rich in spirit and in our bank account too for that matter.
But, Jesus looks deeply at his disciples where a "great number of people" were gathered around and being healed by simply touching him. Can you just see this? Can you see desperate, sickly, demon-possessed, and the poor of this town desperately clinging to him? Can you see our Jesus there in the midst of all this...living the picture of love...in the midst of the poorest?
He lets them gaze upon him in the midst of this chaos of healing and tells them that the poor are blessed. Um...what? No, no, no, Jesus! WE are blessed...right? I mean, we are the ones who lead Bible studies, who write eloquent words about You, who clean ourselves up very nicely for church on Sunday, who smell nice and have it together. We are blessed...right?
Jesus reminds them that we are desperately poor. On our own we are NOTHING. We don't own our bodies, our finances, our families, our possessions, our spouses, our children, our jobs, our coworkers, our friends, our churches, ourselves...we are dirt poor. But, in understanding and EMBRACING that poverty of spirit...we are blessed!
In embracing the fact that our Father is the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords...we are blessed. In the understanding of sin and the cost it requires and knowing that we deserve wrath and death forever and ever...we are blessed. In clinging to grace and mercy that flows from Emmanuel's veins...we are blessed. In taking up a cross, denying ourselves, and following Him...we are blessed.
Matthew's version of this text tells us that blessed are the "poor in spirit." I prayed over this small sentence this morning. In America we don't do poor. We don't like to do without anything at ANY time. We use credit cards, loans, and lines of credit to do exactly what we want WHEN we want...we don't do poor...especially poor in spirit.
In our society, we are about rights. We are about equality. We are about...ourselves. No, we don't want much to do with poor...or poor in spirit. We want to be treated like queens by our husbands, admired by our friends, treated with respect by our coworkers, and obeyed by our children. We don't want to be poor in spirit...completely destitute with nothing of our own to claim. We want to be rich in spirit and in our bank account too for that matter.
But, Jesus looks deeply at his disciples where a "great number of people" were gathered around and being healed by simply touching him. Can you just see this? Can you see desperate, sickly, demon-possessed, and the poor of this town desperately clinging to him? Can you see our Jesus there in the midst of all this...living the picture of love...in the midst of the poorest?
He lets them gaze upon him in the midst of this chaos of healing and tells them that the poor are blessed. Um...what? No, no, no, Jesus! WE are blessed...right? I mean, we are the ones who lead Bible studies, who write eloquent words about You, who clean ourselves up very nicely for church on Sunday, who smell nice and have it together. We are blessed...right?
Jesus reminds them that we are desperately poor. On our own we are NOTHING. We don't own our bodies, our finances, our families, our possessions, our spouses, our children, our jobs, our coworkers, our friends, our churches, ourselves...we are dirt poor. But, in understanding and EMBRACING that poverty of spirit...we are blessed!
In embracing the fact that our Father is the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords...we are blessed. In the understanding of sin and the cost it requires and knowing that we deserve wrath and death forever and ever...we are blessed. In clinging to grace and mercy that flows from Emmanuel's veins...we are blessed. In taking up a cross, denying ourselves, and following Him...we are blessed.
In our poverty...amazingly we have inherited a Kingdom.
Jesus used the poor to confound the rich. He used the foolish to confuse the wise. He used a cross to give us an inheritance we could never earn or buy...
because we are poor.
When you embrace poverty of spirit in your life, the next action is to reach out to those just like you and share the grace you have been given! It is all His! Ask Him today how you can be a blessing because you have been richly blessed.
Embrace your poverty...because only in that will you inherit a kingdom.
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