Blessed but poor in the same sentence?
There are quite a few passages of Scripture that people find confronting, inviting, convicted, scary, hopeful… You name it, and there would probably be a passage in Scripture that will arouse that specific emotion.
That is also true for feeling confused!
Have you ever read through Scripture, just to stop and say: “Hey…this doesn’t really make sense!!”… and not because we are gobsmacked by, for instance… The idea of Grace and God sacrificing His son….
But just because it is confusing, just language wise, just the way the sentence is structured, or the ideas that are compared or contrasted.  It is not some kind of construct that you’ll find in daily use of language and in any other literature.
I mean look at today’s sermon title…how does that even work: Because you are POOR…you are blessed! Yeah right…I know!
So does that mean if you meet a very poor person, that is living in their car, or completely homeless…does that mean you should walk over to them and say: “Oh, you are so blessed…I just wish I was in your shoes!!” NO!! Of course not…
So what does that even mean? Because this is exactly what Jesus said on His sermon on the mount, lets read from Matthew 5:1-11
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.  How does this even make sense??
So Jesus is teaching His disciples and a whole crowd of followers.  This is right at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry on earth.  In the chronology of Matthew’s Gospel: Jesus just called his disciples, healed a few people, and now His actual ministry began.  And this session of teaching runs all the way through Matthew 7.  Matthew 8 starts with: “When Jesus came down from the mountainside, large crowds followed him.”
…And then the miracles started…
And in New Testament theology, the Sermon on the Mount is considered Jesus’ manifesto.  This is Jesus introducing Himself to the His newly established following.  They liked what He initially said and done, He saw them, He saw their worth, He invited them to follow along…but they still weren’t too sure what He was all about….
Now He is telling them.  And guess how He starts His teaching?
Guess how He starts His introduction, this is almost like Jesus preaching for the call…If He is going to drop the ball now, they might not be back.  So He starts His manifesto with these words:
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
So in my world…as an Afrikaans speaking person, who grew up reading an Afrikaans Bible, who memorised Afrikaans Scripture, whose spiritual formation was in Afrikaans, when I really took cognisance of this particular verse in the English Bibles the first time…I just went: “Huh??”
Because it was different than what I was use too.  For those that have read an English Bible their whole life, this may not be that weird, because this is the way it has always been for you…for me it was different.
But what does that mean?  Who of you are pretty confident that you know what this starting phrase means…or who finds it confusing?  Blessed are those who are poor of spirit??  What does poor of spirit mean?
What was so confusing for me, when reading the English version initially – just on face value – was that this seemed to be something like: those who don’t have a healthy spirit, not having enough faith…etc etc
So these folks should consider themselves blessed: “those who don’t have enough faith…those who are struggling to keep their faith in Jesus.”
And it sounds like a nice pep talk by Jesus, if understood this way…
“Hey you, you will still be blessed, even if you don’t have enough faith, even if you are struggling to keep your faith in Me, I will still bless you” It’s not a bad idea….and certainly not totally unbiblical…God does keep on blessing us, leading us and loving us…even when our faith grows a bit thin.
But in this case, it is His manifesto, His “Get on board” speech/teaching. It should be encouraging people to take action; to do something.  It would never be a “Don’t worry, you’re alright…just hang in there” type of speech.
So what DOES it mean then?? Poor in Spirit
The Greek word used in the original text is: ptóchoi  From the Greek base of: ptóchos
And this means: (from concordance)
Dependent on (the) other, completely lacking resources, bent over (posture), it relates to “the pauper rather than the mere peasant” – you have to get from someone else instead of just not having a too little.
“Blessed are those who are completely lacking, who are bent over (posture of the pauper) and totally dependent on God” – for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven
Those who realise that they are completely lacking, who change their attitude and posture in front of God to show this….and know that they are TOTALLY dependent on God….they are the ones that will be blessed.
And it makes sense, right?
The Kingdom of heaven cannot be ours if we are not dependent on the sacrifice of Jesus.  There is NO other way for us to see it, to experience it….to get there.  And it ALSO makes sense that Jesus would start of His great manifesto speech with this: “Blessed are those who know how dependent they are on God…”.  EVERY-thing else flows from that, ALL the rest of the beatitudes.
So this was the first statement of the Jesus manifesto.  This is the one thing setting the tone for everything else!!  Blessed are those who REALLY KNOWS how dependent they are on God.
How are we doing with this??
I am not one of those pastors that will advocate doing this or that thing to receive more blessing. It feels way too transactional for me.  I try to do things because I know God loves it when I do this thing, and He loves me, so I want to do nice things for Him too, I want to reciprocate His love.
But Jesus did say: “Watch this….in my Kingdom, as part of my family, those who KNOW how dependent they are on Me, those are the ones who count themselves blessed, who feels more blessed.  And they also experience that… and then the rest of the beatitudes follow.
So this was the first statement of the Jesus manifesto…This is the one thing setting the tone for everything else! If you start with anything…start with THIS, says Jesus!
Make this your mantra EVERYDAY.  “Blessed are those who REALLY KNOW how dependent they are on  God…..”
How are you doing with this??  Is it time for adjustment? Especially in the time we live in? Or are you doing well with this? Praise be to God then!!