Matt 5.3

Matthew 5:3 God blesses those who are poor and realize their need for him, for the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs.

Last week:

1. We should—be humble (meaning we should find our value in our relationship with our Heavenly Father alone)

2. God blesses—those who are humble (with true value)

3. Those who—are humble will inherit the earth (i.e. allow yourself to be ruled and you will rule)

This week:

1. We should—______________________

2. God blesses—those who ____________

3. Those who—are poor will ____________

Did I just lose anybody? Is it clear at all why I would not want to start this series with this teaching? It makes plenty of sense to me why Jesus would find it fitting to begin his teaching here—everyone he’s talking to is actually already very poor. So he starts his talk here with some points that would have been both controversial and counterintuitive to his listeners but ultimately Jesus would have found favor in their eyes by making these statements. The difficult thing we now have to process is that Jesus did not make this statement simply to find favor in the eyes of his audience. He said this because it’s true. And since it’s true we’re faced with a difficult set of questions because we are not poor. I’m going to try to tackle two of the primary questions this raises in this message: (1) What does Jesus mean by poor? (2) If I’m not poor, am I doing something wrong (should I change how I’m living to try to become poor)? In order to get the strongest possible answer for these questions I want us to turn to the life of Jesus as well as another one of his other teachings on the matter. We find when we look at Jesus’ life that every single thing he teaches, he lives.

I’ll give just a few references to Jesus take on possessions and the things that keep us from being “poor” then I want to spend a short while talking about why, perhaps we find Jesus living (and suggesting that we live) this way. Hopefully we will understand more fully what any of this has to do with our spiritual lives.

Matthew 8:19 Then one of the teachers of the religious law said to him, “Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.” But Jesus replied, “Foxes have dens to live in, and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.” Here Jesus is reacting to a statement that I would imagine was becoming a mantra of many in the crowd that followed him. That statement happens to be one that we’re still declaring today. We’ve written countless songs featuring this line and many of us were taught to pray it as soon as we were old enough to talk. The statement of course being, “I’ll follow You wherever you go.” Before we get any further into how Jesus reacted to hearing this coming from the crowds I want to say that this is a great attitude. I’m not going to suggest that we stop singing those songs or praying those prayers but Jesus turns around to the people and reminds them just what this means. “[He] replied, ‘Foxes have dens to live in, and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place even to lay his head.’” Jesus is actually offering to these people who say they’ll follow him anywhere a picture of what following him means.

BEGIN TANGENT: this is very nice of him considering the fact that many of those called to follow Jesus were called and had no idea what they’re signing on for. He does not tell Peter when he calls him away from his leisurely fishing trip that he will be crucified upside down with his wife if he get’s out of that boat. He doesn’t tell Saul that he will be beaten and imprisoned routinely for the rest of his life (i.e. until he is brutally martyred) if he jumps back on his donkey and rides out to plant and consult for churches. TANGENT ENDED.

So what does this mean? What is Jesus saying here with this talk of foxes and birds? He’s saying, you want to follow me, I’m homeless. This whole encounter is a little bit difficult to understand because we cannot see Jesus’ nonverbal cues or hear the inflexions of his voice but I imagine there was an audible slant to this sentence. He’s saying are you sure this is what you want? Most of the animal kingdom even claims little real estate. But, Jesus says, I don’t. The people (and we) are left to consider what this might mean.

In Matthew 6:31-32a, in what is perhaps an extension of the beatitudes, Jesus begs, “don’t worry about these things, saying, ‘what will we eat? What will we drink? What will we wear?’ These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers…”

Jesus reminds us in this passage that the things we build our entire lives around are really of little circumstance. We worry about our bodies—how we’ll decorate them or how we’ll stuff or not stuff them. We worry about our bills which come primarily as a result of our endless pursuit of the things we want and think we need. And what he essentially pleads is you’d be better off poor. And not necessarily in the sense of complete poverty but as it pertains the qualifying element of this beatitude. “God blesses those who are poor and realize their need for him…”

So, what does Jesus mean by poor? He means that your longing (as demonstrated in the actions and pursuits of your life) is for communion with your Heavenly Father to the extent that the other things you used to want and need start to fade away. Jesus tells his followers, I don’t need a home because it is not necessary for me to accomplish what God has given me to accomplish.

If I’m not poor, am I doing something wrong (should I change how I’m living to try to become poor)? Only you can answer that question for yourself. How many things in your life are you pursuing that have nothing to do with what God has called you to accomplish. Is it easy for you to stop realizing your need for God because you don’t exactly need him? How many of your worries have something to do with your possessions (or things you intend to possess)?

In the Kingdom of God the poor are rich because they’re not fooled into thinking that possessions can make them rich.