The Poor in Spirit
The first sentence of the Sermon on the Mount, and the progress that comes only on the broken path.
The kingdom of heaven, the kingdom that Jesus brought into this world, is the kingdom in which people’s choices reflect and advance God’s will. If I am in the kingdom of heaven and if I am of this kingdom, then God’s will leads and precedes the choices I make.
Jesus says we have this kingdom, we are in it and belong to it, when our spirits are poor. The verse in which Jesus says this is the very first sentence he spoke in what came to be called the Sermon on the Mount. Consider: This sermon is the longest and clearest dissertation Jesus gives us on the eternal kingdom, and at the start of the speech, the first point he wants his hearers to understand is this:
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” —Matthew 5:3
The logic of this simple statement is opaque only for a time. For each believer, brokenness makes its truth obvious. When my spirit is full, full of all I am doing, all the comforts I am receiving and all the safety to which I am clinging, then I am in the kingdom of this world or the kingdom of my own self, not the kingdom of God or heaven.
To make my spirit poor and small is to put me in a place where I can submit to the kingdom that is the largest.
In this place, I am blessed, whether or not I yet know it. In this place, I am too wounded over whatever has broken my spirit to kick against the uncertainty of being within God’s plan. I am too undone by whatever has crushed my spirit to continue in my impertinent demand of seeing my plans succeed ahead of his.
The danger, of course, is that God will heal me, will make me strong.
The danger is God will bear fruit through me according to his good plan. And then I will feel full again.
My little spirit will grow strong off this success. My little spirit will grow full of itself and bloated over this fruit.
Lord:
Let me not listen to fear. If I am rich in spirit, let me not pay the riches as a toll to this enemy.
Let me not listen to hurt. If I am strong in spirit, let me not spend my strength on bearing the burden of hurt any farther than it needs to go.
Let me not listen to pride, and all the comforts, entitlements and surety that my pride insists upon.
There is progress that comes only along the broken path. Few would ever choose to go this way. The great mercy is the God who chooses for us. According to his timing, according to his will, he sometimes makes the spirit poor enough for the Spirit to enrich us instead.
