2 And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying:
3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
4 “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
5 “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
6 “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
7 “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.
8 “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
9 “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.
10 “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
11 “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. 12 Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
I went to a Roman’s retreat and the guy said “all of the beatitudes point to salvation by grace and not works.”
Do what now?
It’s funny. I’ve been around a lot of Christian groups, and the ones that say “question what I’m saying. Look in the Bible to see if what I say is true!” Are typically more orthodox than the people that would get mad at me for questioning their teaching. Makes sense I guess.
So let’s question this one. We can see right from the start that Jesus is guiding the listeners to a merciful God. “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of Heaven.” This isn’t something you attain to. This isn’t some work of great spiritual prowess. If you’re poor in spirit, you don’t have it. You aren’t spiritual. The non-spiritual are the ones who the Kingdom of Heaven belongs to?! Yes! Ok that’s just crazy.
Yep. I think that’s the point.
This section of Jesus’ teachings is full of crazy, so He starts with a BOOM. All kinds of folks are following Him to listen to His teachings, to witness His miracles, or even to experience the miracles themselves. Following Jesus isn’t for spiritual olympians.
Christianity, with its books and candles and sacraments might be for all you spiritual folk, but the Kingdom of Heaven? It’s for the spiritually poor. Terribly poor. As in depending on others poor. As in living in your mom’s basement or on your friend’s couch “while you get on your feet” poor.
Poor in spirit means really really really unspiritual.
