A Lesson from the Sermon on the Mount: Rich or Poor?

A few days ago I lectured on the Sermon on the Mount to my Life of Christ class at seminary.  Today I was reading through some old posts here, and I came across one that dealt with one of the statements in Matthew and Luke.  I wanted to share it again (it has been a few years since I posted this material), and I want to add some stuff too.  So, here is an old (and rewritten) post entitled:  "Rich or Poor?"

In the Beatitudes, Jesus states “Blessed are the poor” or “Blessed are the paupers” (or in Matthew:  "Blessed are the poor in spirit").  Jesus (especially in the Gospels of Luke and John) is quite concerned with the poor.  He speaks of them often and works with them regularly.  He encourages his disciples to show compassion to the poor, but he also reminds them that poverty will always be an issue in this fallen world.

Jesus also mentions rich people.  They don't fare quite as well as the poor in Jesus' words, but he shows compassion for them as well and wishes salvation and blessing for them as he does for the poor.  Jesus states in the Gospels that it is difficult for a rich person to enter into the kingdom of heaven. So, the "poor" are blessed, but the "rich" have a hard time entering heaven.  Have you ever wondered at the juxtaposition of those two thoughts?

I know the traditional interpretation of both sayings, and I am aware of the devotional literature that surrounds them as well. What I want to consider for a few moments today is the abject difference between the two.

The poor are blessed, but the rich have a difficult time entering God’s kingdom.

Why?

Most of us have been “poor” at some point in our lives. Oh, we may not have been as poor as the poorest of the world, but we had to do without due to our lack of means. Maybe our stomachs even growled and our heads hurt a little bit from hunger. Perhaps we even had to bypass the purchase of a particular item we desperately wanted or even needed. Yes, we have known some form of poverty. Did we feel blessed? Really?

Did you feel “happy” during those times of poverty? In all likelihood, we looked forward with some measure of pleasure/joy to the day when we wouldn’t suffer such setbacks. We prayed and wished for a time when we would have abundance and would not have to “do without.” We didn’t feel blessed, we felt miserable.

Some of us today are rich, or at least, we aren’t as poor as we used to be. In fact, the poorest people in America are still better off than the poorest people in other parts of the world.  I know that is no real consolation, but it shows how blessed we really are in this nation.  Nonetheless, many of us today are richer than we were in the past, and we can pretty much get what we want or need when we want or need it. We don’t have to “do without” unless we choose to do so. As an example, a few years ago I took my family to Walt Disney World, something I could never have done when I lived and worked in Waco, TX. I am no longer “poor"! Do I feel far from the kingdom of God? Do I feel unhappy or a lack of blessing? If I answer honestly, I'd have to say, "Not really."

What could Jesus mean then? Was he just speaking rhetorically or do these words tell us something important?

Matthew says “Blessed are the poor in spirit” as opposed to simply “Blessed are the poor.” I like what Oswald Chambers says in My Utmost for His Highest.

“The teaching of the Sermon on the Mount produces despair in the natural man—the very thing Jesus means it to do. As long as we have a self-righteous, conceited notion that we can carry out our Lord’s teaching, God will allow us to go on until we break our arrogance over some obstacle, then we are willing to come to him as paupers and receive from him. ‘Blessed are the paupers in spirit,’ that is the first principle in the kingdom of God. The bedrock in Jesus Christ’s kingdom is poverty, not possession; not decisions for Jesus Christ, but a sense of absolute futility—I cannot begin to do it. Then Jesus says—Blessed are you. That is the entrance, and it does take us a long while to believe we are poor! The knowledge of our own poverty brings us to the moral frontier where Jesus Christ works. . . . Jesus Christ never asks us to decide for him, but to yield to him—a very different thing.. . . If I know that I have no strength of will, no nobility of disposition, then Jesus says ‘Blessed are you,' because it is through this poverty that I enter his kingdom. I cannot enter his kingdom as a good person, I can only enter it as a complete pauper.”

In other words, as long as I think of myself as offering some gift or blessing to God, I cannot receive his free gift or blessing. Unless I recognize the poverty of my own will and spirit. the poverty of my own abilities to give God anything he needs, I cannot humbly receive what God has to offer. Like a little child, I must recognize my limitations in order to enter the kingdom of heaven. "Rich" people like us think we can buy or earn what we need or want, that somehow we can give God something without which he cannot possibly accomplish his plans. "Rich" people think that God needs them on his team, that God is "lucky" to have them on his side.

God says that the kingdom of heaven is for those who realize that they cannot enter on their own abilities or initiatives. God reserves blessing for those who know they do not deserve it. Faith in Christ starts with futility in self. To the degree that I think I can save myself, to that degree the blood of Jesus is ineffective for my salvation. If I think I can save myself, why do I need God? God's grace is free to those who realize their need for his kindness (it is his kindness that brings us to repentance, right?)

Thanks be to God for the grace to enter! Thanks be to God for his inexpressible gift in Jesus Christ!

Thanks for reading!