“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for the dominion of heaven is theirs.” – Matthew 5:3
Sometimes after I’m really out of sorts, my friends will remind me of how truly blessed I’m, how much I actually have to be pleased about. But this all the time appears like an evasion to me, like they’re not giving my “pain and suffering” its due. They’re searching for what is going well in my life, doing the maths, after which deciding I’ve got more going for me within the blessed column than within the poor in spirit one, so blessed it’s.
I don’t understand how the word blessed hit Jesus’s disciples on the hillside that day or the way it landed on the crowds, but I can’t imagine it was the primary word the sick, lame, shunned, or hungry expected to listen to Him speak to them that day. And Jesus wasn’t using the word to persuade them that the nice things of their life outweighed the bad, that they were more blessed than not. He was declaring those in His kingdom as wholesale flourishing.
Blessed.
Think of that word hanging on the market over a Jewish people hobbling under Roman oppression. The ones who for hundreds of years had been pining for a strong Messiah within the image of King David to knock their enemies out of the land. Surely some had followed Jesus out of curiosity but most out of pure desperation. Some were eager for a recent leader who could help them determine how one can get back on the God of Israel’s good side, someone with a solid campaign slogan. Some could have showed up hoping to listen to a strategic and gutsy military plan: Who’s able to defeat Rome once and for all? Strap in your swords! Others could have been searching for something more personal and shut to home, like a much needed healing or handout.
Blessed.
The word itself just isn’t an unusual opener. It’s only shocking when you concentrate on whom He addressed it to: the poor in spirit, mourners, stomped on, hungry, innocent, persecuted. Well, now, this just appears like madness. How can the poor in spirit be the blessed ones? In what type of a world, in what type of a kingdom, in what type of a faith, has this ever been so?
Before we consider a solution, it’s price asking, Why are you here? Why have you ever come to take heed to the words of Jesus?
Are you searching for Him to overpower someone who has wounded you? Is a member of the family sick and in need of healing? Are funds tight? Is work unfulfilling? Is your marriage suffering? Are you just uninterested in the grind, like the common Jewish peasant in first-century Galilee searching for a sustaining word of encouragement, a change within the political landscape? Perhaps you’re not searching for anything from Him as much as you just wish to be with Him and take heed to what He has to say.
Note that the “them” Jesus begins to show in verse 2 seem like His disciples. But at the tip of His message, it was the crowds who were astonished at His teaching (Matt. 7:28). We should establish on the outset that each disciples and undecideds are invited to listen. Whichever you’re, I’m glad you’re here.
But back to our query. How can people just like the poor in spirit be blessed? In the unique language, the word for “blessed” is makarios, and it means “prospering, fortunate, flourishing,” and in some cases, “downright glad.” (This is different from the word used when someone pronounces a blessing on one other, translated eulogeo). Makarios is an outline of the state of a one that is prospering in the dominion of God. So Jesus isn’t saying that the poor in spirit will eventually gain a blessing. He is saying that their current state of being is a prosperous one because God’s kingdom is theirs. In fact, in every case of the nine Beatitudes, a difficult state of being is paired with a promise of blessing.
So in case you’re struggling or hurting today, may Jesus redefine your circumstances as only He can. If you end up poor in spirit, malnourished by the “blessings” of our culture, you’re in prime position to experience the blessed lifetime of the dominion.
Ask Him to show you and show you what it means to flourish in whatever your circumstances. Look for Him to reply you as you go about Your day. He is desirous to meet you in it.
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