A Kingdom for the Poor in Spirit
For Meditation (corey Widmer)
One of the most enduring questions of the human search for meaning is: What makes for the good life? Aristotle and the Greek philosophers debated and wrote extensively about what makes for a good, fulfilling life. Many religious teachers, including those who were Jesus’ contemporaries, taught about the religious foundations of a wise and fulfilling life. Even today in the post-Modern West, there is a an enormous industry that has emerged around the question of what makes for a happy, meaningful life. So many people have posited answers to this question.
But no one has answered this question in the way that Jesus did. In the famous Beatitudes, Jesus is addressing the question of what makes for a meaningful life, but he answers it in a completely upside down, inside out way. Rather than pointing to the person who is living wisely, faithfully, religiously, or productively, Jesus says that the people who are truly living the “good life” are the people that every one else despises and overlooks.
What's shocking as well is that these are the very people who were standing right in front of Jesus as he taught these words—the people listed in Matthew 4:24. Jesus looks them in the eyes and says, “you are the blessed ones.”
So what can Jesus mean by this? How are the people that Jesus described- the people with nothing, the people who suffer—how are they living the “good life?” Why does the Kingdom of God belong to those who are powerless? These are vital questions that we will explore together this week.
Matthew 4:23–5:3
23 Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people. 24 News about him spread all over Syria, and people brought to him all who were ill with various diseases, those suffering severe pain, the demon-possessed, those having seizures, and the paralyzed; and he healed them. 25 Large crowds from Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea and the region across the Jordan followed him.
1 Now when Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, 2 and he began to teach them.
He said:
3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.