Question 6:

In what senses do we miss God's kingdom if we do not acknowledge our spiritual poverty?

We need to acknowledge who we truly are. Without an understanding that we are helpless without God we will believe we can 'do it ourselves', which is effectively what Adam and Eve did. It isn't that we will simply eat from the forbidden fruit, it is that we are not listening to God. We are not hearing His plan for us.

Question 5:

In your own life how have you been blessed by acknowledging your spiritual poverty

Question 4:

Identify some circumstances or insights which have helped you realise that you were "poor in spirit".

Question 3:

The Old Testament supplies the necessary background against which to interpret this beatitude. At first to be "poor" meant to be in literal, material need. But gradually, because the needy had no refuge but God, "poverty" came to have spiritual overtones. What do you think it means to be "poor in spirit"?

Being "poor in spirit" is to acknowledge that you have a need for help. Those of us who have bent their knee at the cross know that they have need for spiritual help and that help comes from God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Those on earth who believe that they can 'do it themselves' also believe that they are stronger psychologically and spiritually than those who need the crutch of religion. I know this because I was there. Indeed, in many ways I feel weaker and smaller since acknowledging that Jesus is my Lord and saviour than I did when I 'did it by myself'. The reason for this however, is that now I know where I am in the world. Before I was rich in spirit, and thought that I was the master of my own destiny, that I was my own boss. Now I realise that I'm poor in spirit and in need of God.

Question 2:

How does Jesus' statement in verse 3 contradict our usual idea of blessedness?

We are constantly bombarded with the advertisement which states we will be happy if we have "x". Now, "x" can be a plasma television, or a retirement plan, or many other 'things' that society suggests we need to have to be happy. For the most part these things do not make us happy. There are many biblical references to the fact that following the Lord is the only way to happiness, and it is certainly the only way to true freedom and saviour of our soul.

Some have translated Jesus' opening words "Happy are..." though the Greek can and does mean "Happy", it is seriously misleading to render it "happy" in this case. Happiness is a subjective state, whereas Jesus is making an objective judgment about these people. He is declaring not what they may feel like ("happy"), but what God thinks of them and what on that account they are: they are "blessed".

Question 1:

What do verses 1 & 2 tell us about the context of this message and Jesus' listeners?

Jesus is teaching His disciples in this passage. The passage clearly says that there was a large crowd of people, but Jesus is teaching His disciples. The poor and the destitute made up this crowd, as Matthew 4:24&25 states:

"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. Large crowds from Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea and the region across the Jordan followed him."

So, it is of these people that Jesus speaks. The target of the lesson is his disciples, but the 'poor in spirit' in this case I believe to have been the large crowd who had nobody else to turn to.

I can picture Jesus surrounded by many sick and infirm. The thought comes to him 'these people are blessed as they recognize me for who I am' which is what he teaches His disciples.

What do these verses tell us about Jesus?

This reminds me of the passage by C.S. Lewis:

"A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic - on the level with a man who says he is a poached egg - or he would be the devil of hell. You must take your choice. Either this was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us."

Jesus is passing judgment in these passages. He is saying that the poor in spirit will enter heaven. Only God can categorically state who is going to be entering the kingdom of heaven. Prophets and philosophers can state their opinion, but Jesus is beyond that. He states this here and clarifies his authority at other times in his ministry.

Study

Right at the beginning of his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus contradicted all human judgments and all nationalistic expectations of the kingdom of God. The kingdom is given to the poor, not the rich; the feeble, not the mighty; to little children humble enough to accetit, not to soldiers who boast that they can obtain it by their own prowess.

Now when he saw the crowds, he went up on the mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, and he began to teach them, saying:

"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." (Mt 5:1-3)