The Happiness Project: Poor in Spirit

Something different is going on in this sermon. As curious and weird as the beatitudes are, as we're going to walk through them—these things like poor in spirit, hunger and thirst for righteousness, weep and mourn, pure in heart—these are not things that people say, "Yeah, I want some of that."

I want to tell you that these beatitudes, how you hear them tells you something about you. It tells you something about God. And it tells you something about you. That's actually a very terrible sermon outline, but that's what I'm doing today. I'm going to talk about how the Beatitudes tell you something about you, and how they tell you something about God, and then how they tell you again something about you.

How We Hear the Beatitudes

So let's jump in. How we hear these is actually really curious because it tells you something about you—about how you understand God and where you are this morning. And I don't mean like what seat you're in. I mean, you come into this place flying high or in the depths. Whether right now your life is kind of working out for you, and you're hitting your goals and you're successful, and you're moving through life, or whether you're in the pits right now. Do these beatitudes sound to you like a comfort or like a burden?

We can hear these like a checklist of things that God wants us to do in order to have a blessed life. And that's how most people think about God. There's a transaction going on. There's something that I do and God rewards me. But I want to tell you this: these beatitudes are not prescriptive, they're descriptive. They're not about what God wants you to do. It's not a call to action. It's actually kind of a call to inaction. It's not aspirational. It's not about pulling yourself up by your bootstraps.

Poor in Spirit

I mean, case in point, the first beatitude we read here: poor in spirit. This is like the key which unlocks all the rest of the beatitudes. It's foundational. And the word here for poor is a Greek word I'm going to teach you this morning. Ptochos—p-t-o-c-h-o-s. Can you say it with me? Ptochos. That's a kind of poor, and that's actually an extreme word in the Bible for poor. That's not just like down and out poor. That's not American poor. That's not working class poor. That's not even eating out of a dumpster poor. That word means in Greek "bent over." This is someone who cannot drag themselves along the ground poor.

I mean, Jesus is right from the gate in your face. What is that about? This means we've got to realize from the get-go: the beatitudes can't mean pull yourself up by your bootstraps. It's like saying you don't have any bootstraps. In fact, you don't have any boots.

The key is being poor in spirit.

What Is a Beatitude?

The word beatitude, I think, is confusing. Let's be straight: the word beatitude does not appear in the Bible. It's an English word. It's actually a Latin word, and it's the same root as "beautiful." In other words, it's a description of the beautiful life.

Every administration, when election time comes around, is going to sell you a picture of the good life. They're going to say this is the beautiful life and our administration is going to deliver it. Whether you want a bigger military, lower taxes, more social services, smaller government—they're all selling a picture of the beautiful life.

I want to take the word beatitude and re-pronounce it. There's nothing that binds us to this. So I think actually the way we should pronounce it is this: Beautitude. Because Jesus is showing us, this is what my kingdom's like. This is what my administration's about. This is what life in my kingdom is like. This is what the beautiful life is here—this being poor in spirit, ptochos.

Eugene Peterson, when he was writing his paraphrase of the Bible called the Message, he wanted to translate the word "blessed" in a word that's much more how we talk. He wanted to translate it as "lucky." I mean, think Napoleon Dynamite—lucky, right? Lucky are the poor in spirit, because that captures more of what Jesus was about. That word blessed sounds so churchy, but "fortunate." I mean, happy. This is the picture of happiness, and it's a weird picture, isn't it? It's sort of a—if you picture this like Jesus saying, this is the good life—it's the exact opposite of how we think in our culture the good life goes.

There's a pastor who's retired now named Ray Ortland and he describes these as the unbeatitudes. This is what he said, and I think this captures where we live.

Congratulations to the entitled. They grab what they want. Congratulations to the carefree. They will be comfortable. Congratulations to the pushy. They will win. Congratulations to the greedy. They're going to climb the food chain. Congratulations to the vengeful because they will be feared. Congratulations to those who don't get caught for they shall look good. Congratulations to the argumentative for they shall get in the last word. Congratulations to the popular for the world lies at their feet.

Isn't that the success story in our world? Like you can cut corners, you can step on people, you can make sure you always look good and you will succeed. That is one picture of the beautiful life. That's the picture our world prescribes. Jesus is saying, hey, have that life. That life is short lived and is its own reward. But for Jesus, He has a different picture of the beautiful life.

I'm gonna summarize it this way. The way of ascent of going up is descent, right? The way up is the way down. Some of y'all played football, or were in wrestling or other contact sports. Well, they tell you what your coach says, get low, stay low. Right? That's what Jesus is saying. Get low, stay low.

So this is a picture. See how this tells me something about you. It also tells us something about God. All the commentators say, when you read the beatitudes they are a mirror for us of what Jesus is like, particularly Jesus at the cross. Now we just spent all of Lent, especially Good Friday and Easter talking about the cross. It's a mirror reflection of Jesus.

We read this at the intro to our worship service this morning:

Jesus, though He was in the form of God, did not consider equality with God a thing to be grasped but made Himself nothing, taking on the form of a servant, emptying himself. — Philippians 2:6-7

That word emptying himself is a theological word, kenosis. We read in Second Corinthians 8:9:

Though he was rich, for your sake he became poor so that you through his poverty might become rich. — 2 Corinthians 8:9

There's an old hymn that goes back to the medieval times that the church has sung. It goes like this: "Thou who was rich beyond all measure, all for love's sake became as poor."

We like to think about rich beyond all measure. I think there are a lot of popular movies and stories about the rags to riches, the slumdog millionaire kind of stories. We also can imagine someone going from uber rich to uber poor. I mean, think what would happen this afternoon if Jeff Bezos lost everything. If Bill Gates was suddenly homeless. If Elon Musk went bankrupt today, we're gonna be like, oh, that would be beyond all measure, right? If all three of those guys go bankrupt in the same day, that is rich beyond all measure becoming poor. And yet it doesn't even touch Jesus and what he gave up and him emptying himself.

See, being born, Jesus became powerless. Think about this: the all powerful, all knowing, all able, all loving eternal God of the universe becomes a baby. That's not American poor, that's not working class poor, that's not eating out of the dumpster poor, that's I can't move myself poor. That's what we celebrate at His incarnation.

And then His ministry was one of homelessness. Jesus says, "Foxes have dens, birds have nests. The Son of Man"—he's talking about himself—"has no place to lay his head." And then it goes on, and we read in the prophet Isaiah about Jesus. He says, "He had no form or comeliness that we should be drawn to Him." You know what He's saying? Jesus was ugly. Right? He didn't even have the social capital that some people have of being attractive. Things happen for people who are attractive.

And then on the cross, we see Jesus lowering Himself even more. We don't talk about this because it ain't nice to talk about in church. But when you study the cross and what happens at the cross, the soldiers are there and they've got dice and they're gambling for something. You know what they're gambling for? His linen tunic. No, that was his underwear. They're gambling over the last piece of clothing that was taken off of Jesus. He's crucified naked. No dignity. He was left to die like a common criminal. He was left to die like an animal. This is our Jesus. This is the king we worship, powerless. This is what we follow in Christianity. This is our Jesus.

And I'm gonna say this again: for Jesus, the way up, the way of ascent, was descent. The way up was the way down. And what's more, this is how He is toward you. This is how God is toward you.

"Thou who was rich beyond all measure, all for love's sake became as poor."

Love for whom? Love for me and you. This is what we see in Jesus. He comes to us not with a clipboard or a checklist of beatitudes. He comes to us with an invitation.

His kingdom is not for the pushy and entitled and carefree and greedy and vengeful and argumentative, popular. His administration is for the poor in spirit and he invites us. So again, this is about you. And I want to tell you this is about you on two levels.

First, to become a Christian means you must become poor in spirit. That is required to come to Jesus. Remember Eugene Peterson, the guy who I said wanted to translate the word blessed as lucky? Well, he goes on in his paraphrase, The Message. He says this:

You're blessed when you're at the end of your rope. With less of you, there is more of God and His rule.

I mean, I love that. You're at the end of your rope. This is how every person has to come to God in salvation. I got nothing. This is what He wants actually in us.

You know, 'tis the season for allergies. Anybody else suffering right now? Man, I have had a week. Pollen is killing me. And so this is my week this week. Stuff starts hitting me and I have all the allergic reactions, and I go to the drugstore for the over-the-counter medication because I'm sure I can find just the thing. I read all the backs of the packages. I know exactly my symptoms. And that lasts a couple days and the syrup's not working, the pills don't help. None of it's working. And I'm like, crud, now I actually really have to call in the big guns. I finally break down. This has taken a lot for me to learn to call the doctor. I stubbornly call the doctor and I want to be seen when? Well, now, right? Like I've been able to handle this, but suddenly I need the doctor because I need a professional who can both diagnose and prescribe.

See, this is how we are as humans. We hit bumps in our lives. We start dealing with problems and we think, I can handle it. I know what medications I need. I can go to the store of life and purchase what I need to make things work out for me. And we sort of think we can handle it. And suddenly when we actually come to the end of our rope, that's when we're suddenly like, man, I need to see the doctor right now. That's when you know you're at bottom. You know, sometimes in our humanity, we can't fix our own problems.

And this is what it means to come to Jesus because Jesus, He cannot and He will not resist the poor in spirit. This is my testimony to you as a pastor. I've watched this over and over and over. Grace, like water, it always finds the lowest point. It always flows downhill.

The poor in spirit is not just relegated to the poor of the world, but there's certainly a connection there. If you read the parallel version of the beatitudes in Luke's Gospel, Luke doesn't say blessed are the poor in spirit. He says just blessed are the poor. And I think Jesus said these more than one time, and they're described in two different contexts, but there's something about that. There's something about the materially poor who in some ways are better connected to their place of need than those who have lots of remedies and solutions and can go to the drugstore of life and try to kind of make things work.

Louise Fitzpatrick compares our plight to the two thieves on the cross on either side of Jesus. Jesus was crucified between two thieves, both of whom were guilty criminals, both of whom were dying. They're in the exact same circumstances, unable to move, nailed down, helpless on the brink of death. And yet one of them curses his circumstances and curses God. The other one says, have mercy.

And I want to make this invitation very plain to you this morning. If you have not given your life to the Lord Jesus Christ, this is His invitation: All you need is need. You come to him in this place of the end of the rope. The way up is the way down. The way of ascent is the way of descent.

Are you tired? I mean, aren't you tired of trying to make life work? It's exhausting to try to make life work. And all of our remedies and things we can put together and make—it doesn't actually produce what we're looking for in life. People think, this is the way to happiness, I can manage it. No, you can't. And Jesus' invitation is, come. You know, when you're at the end of your rope, that's the best place.

For Long-Term Christians

The second you I want to talk to are long-term Christians. Because I think the Beatitudes agenda is agenda number one of what God is doing in the life of long-term Christians. I regularly have conversations with people who say, you know, I just wonder if God is doing anything in my life right now. It didn't seem like anything's happening. Is anything happening? There are roadblocks. I don't feel like I'm growing. I don't feel like I'm a great Christian. I feel like I'm an okay Christian. I'm struggling with doubts and fears and worries. Is that you?

Here's what God's up to in your life. You want to know the little secret? It's not a secret. Poor in spirit. Beatitudes.

See, I find a lot of long-term Christians whose spiritual journey starts with Patokos. As I said, that's how you come to Jesus. Everyone comes the same way, and yet that's a chapter in the past. Like, if you're writing your memoir, you would write about the time when Jesus showed Himself to you and you're like, "That was great." But we don't want to stay there. I mean, who wants to stay there? You might want to stay poor in spirit, bent over. No. I mean, it's very, very unattractive.

And so what happens for lots of people is we learn to move from end of the rope to ladder to climb. Some people are really good at it. And those are the people who can win in church circles, in churches, Christian groups. You know the types, man, we are those types. Okay? People who are in leadership, people who are always serving, people who are in charge, people who know all the theology. I mean, nothing wrong with all those things, but the church sometimes can be an alternative achievement pathway. It can be a nicer, cleaner version than the world offers, but it's still a pathway.

And so it's easy to have Patokos be part of your past—you know, that testimony you can tell. But man, it is not your current. It's not your place right now. See, we want to move out of poor in spirit to not so poor in spirit. And that works for a while for lots of people, but something happens. At some point you hit a wall. You hit a wall where there's something you can't get over, you can't manage, you can't fix, you can't solve. And as a result, there's a profound sense of disorientation. Like, what in the world? What is this Christian thing? Is this even real? Did I even sign on for this? I don't know what this is, and I sure don't know what God is up to.

One writer puts it this way: "Until and unless there is a person, situation, event, idea, conflict, relationship you can't manage, you will never have an ongoing living relationship with the true manager."

So God makes sure that several things will come your way that you cannot manage on your own. I'm going to be transparent with you in a way that may feel really uncomfortable in church, but I need to tell you the story. The last two years of my life have been a wall. And I ran 200 miles an hour straight headfirst into that wall. The pandemic for me has been brutal. I've dealt with depression—never had depression in my life before. Dealt with my dad's decline into Alzheimer's, loss of a good friend who I started off in ministry together with, and I saw him suffer and die and have his faith really shaken. I've dealt with all the losses that we've had as a church. You know, I like to plan and I like to achieve and I always know what I'm doing. And man, I hit a wall 200 miles an hour headfirst.

The pandemic for me has been a time of a lot of struggle. I've had to see a counselor. I've dealt with depression. Your pastor has been on antidepressants. I'm just telling you the truth. This isn't the humble brag like, "Isn't it great?" This is like, no, this sucks. And it's been really, really hard. I've had to learn how to be sad. I've had to learn how to deal with my own emotions.

And I know that maybe this is too transparent for a sermon. But I don't think I'm alone in this. And I think a lot of us, we hit a wall and we don't know what to do. I think the mass deconstruction movement that's going on right now in the church has been actually a sense that we don't know what to do with the disorientation that we feel from the climb-the-ladder Christian pathway.

You know, I think there are a lot of people who have followed this chart, right? You come to Jesus poor in spirit, you learn all the truths, you do all your spiritual reps. Do all your spiritual reps, keep climbing, you do the checklist, you get blessed by God. But maybe a whole generation of people aren't deconstructing from Jesus. They're deconstructing from this climb-the-ladder spirituality. Maybe they're finally arriving at Beatitude number one: poor in spirit.

One writer puts it this way: "God cannot fill our cups with living water until they have been drained of all other waters."

Remember, poor in spirit means an inner emptiness—a beginners mindset to live without need for personal righteousness and reputation. These are the bent-over beggars. These are the little nobodies of the world. People who are not preoccupied or full of themselves.

I mean, Jesus says of those people, you know what he says? Lucky. Lucky.

See, for Jesus, remember, his way—the way of ascent is descent. The way up is the way down. And I think if we think about these Beatitudes—these pictures of the beautiful life that Jesus is offering us—it's a really different vision of holiness. It's not a flight path of a jet airplane that goes up like this. You know, we're just headed up into the clouds of what it means to make spiritual progress.

It means embracing your radical sense of spiritual poverty and neediness as an integral part of your life. And I don't know about you, I hate that. And I'm not saying that in a tongue-in-cheek pastor way. I'm like, no, I really hate that. This is what God wants to do. He wants to meet me in my frustrations and disappointments and failures and all those places. Man, that is not the Christianity I wanted. Is that the king you want? That's hard. But this is the way of Jesus. The way up is the way down.

And here's my question for you. What are you holding on to this morning? What are you grasping at and still trying to make a life work on your terms? Somehow you can arrange it, you can manage it and you can make it work. Because it's only when we have open hands that they can be filled with the water of life. And I'm not talking about one time, I'm talking about all the time.

What the Poor in Spirit Receive

Let me conclude this way. What do the poor in spirit get? It says here, we get the kingdom of heaven. Now I want you to notice what I love about that is that's not future. Of course, it is future. We know Jesus is going to come back and He's make everything right. But that's present. The poor in spirit now get the kingdom of heaven. God's reign isn't just later.

See, each of the beatitudes tell us something—that there's a lot more to God than we may realize. There's a lot more to Jesus, this King, than we may realize. Do you know this? Notice this. I want to point us to the sufficiencies of Jesus. Now I'm using that as a plural word on purpose. Because a lot of us, we know Jesus is a sufficient payment for our sins on the cross. Hallelujah. I mean, that is great news. That is absolutely true. But He is not just sufficient for a transaction. He's also sufficient for the ongoing Christian life.

So He wouldn't tell us, "Blessed are the poor in spirit" if He wasn't sufficient for your abundance. He wouldn't tell us, "Blessed are those who mourn" if He wasn't sufficient for your joy. He wouldn't tell us, "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst" if He wasn't sufficient for your filling. I mean, these are the sufficiencies of Jesus that He has held out to us.

You know, a friend of mine watched a family member go through unbelievable pain in the last year. Loss of a father, loss of a son, lots and lots of personal suffering. And I walked with this friend and he's in touch with this family member and talks to him regularly. And one of the things he's found is like, this should be the worst of the worst in his life. And his brother, this guy and his family, describes this place—what he describes as rarefied air. This place where he's met Jesus in ways he's never experienced him before. And you know what I say to that? I want me some of that. I want me some of that.

I wonder if you think about this. Why do we have to be in a low place in order to meet Jesus in these places, to find his sufficiency? Why do you think that is? Well, if the character of our king is poor in spirit, if that's where Jesus went, that's where he's really comfortable—in the low place. So that means that's the best place to meet him. That's where he wants to show up with you.

You know the difference between hide and seek and sardines? Those games we played as kids? Okay, hide and seek is when one person looks for everybody. Sardines is where everybody looks for one person. And when you find the one person in sardines, you go hide with them. Hide and seek, you just get them out, right?

I want to tell you this: God is up to both of those in your life. God is playing both those games. Salvation is hide and seek, where you were hiding from God and you were hiding behind all your masks and all your performance and all the ways you're trying to make life work. You finally hit rock bottom and God says, I found you. And that's salvation.

But God in your life as a Christian, as you mature, is playing sardines. This is what He's up to. He finds us in our emptiness because He was also emptied on the cross. He finds us in our loneliness because He was also abandoned. He finds us in our sadness because He is a man of sorrows. He stays and he hides with you.

So here's my question for you, brothers and sisters. Wherever you are this morning, I don't know your personal circumstances, but I know there's heartache enough to fill an ocean in this room and under our tent. That's just life in this world. Can you see Him? Can you find Him? Can you look for Him this morning in the low place? He's with you.

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Let's pray together.

Father, I confess that everything in this sermon, my heart resists. Everything in this passage, my heart resists. And Lord, I'm pretty sure I'm filled with a room of people who are like me in that. We thank you for the grace and the mercy, the sufficiency of Jesus.

We pray for courage today to follow our poor in spirit king into the beautiful life. We pray this in Christ's name. Amen.