“When you hit rock bottom, you’ve got two ways to go,” according to country music star Wynonna Judd: “straight up and sideways.”[1]I don’t normally draw theological inspiration from country music, but Wynonna’s lyrics struck a chord within me (so to speak). Life can be very hard, but we always have choices.
The Sermon on the Mount begins with this beatitude: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 5.3). A similar beatitude appears in Luke: “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God” (6.20). Commentators argue over the differences between the two. Are the “poor in spirit” identical to the “poor”? Is the “kingdom of heaven” the same as the “kingdom of God”? I am inclined to answer “yes” to both questions. Today, I’ll focus on what it means to be “poor in spirit”/”poor.” Tomorrow, I’ll look at the meaning of the “kingdom of heaven/God.”
So, what does it mean to be “poor in spirit”/”poor”? The Greek for “poor” is ptoxos. According to Robert Guelich, this word has “an exclusively socioeconomic meaning” in extrabiblical Greek literature. But the Jews expanded its range of meaning when they translated the Old Testament from Hebrew into Greek. “[T]he poor in Judaism referred to those in desperate need (socioeconomic element) whose helplessness drove them to a dependent relationship with God (religious element) for the supplying of their needs and vindication.”[2] In other words, the poor are people who have hit rock bottom and are looking up. The difference between Matthew and Luke is a matter of emphasis: Matthew emphasizes the religious element without losing sight of the socioeconomic element; Luke does the reverse.
God sent Jesus into the world to minister to the “poor in spirit.” According to Luke 4.16–21, when Jesus preached at his hometown synagogue in Nazareth, he quoted Isaiah 61.1–2a as a prophecy about himself: “The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” The good news for rock-bottom people is that when they look up, they’re looking at Jesus.
Can this beatitude be good news for us? By any standard of measurement, we Americans are not socioeconomically poor. Can we be blessed? That depends on whether we are poor in the religious sense of the term. In the words of the Puritan Thomas Watson, “‘Poor in spirit’ then signifies those who are brought to the sense of their sins, and seeing no goodness in themselves, despair in themselves and sue wholly to the mercy of God in Christ.”[3] We are sinners. Are we looking up to Jesus for salvation?
As for me, I’m with Wynonna. “I have seen my share of hard times and I’m letting you know: Straight up is my way.”
[1] For the complete lyrics of “Rock Bottom,” go here: http://www.wynonna.com/music/lyrics/collections10.htm.
[2] Robert A. Guelich, The Sermon on the Mount: A Foundation for Understanding (Waco, TX: Word, 1982), 68, 69.
[3] Thomas Watson, The Beatitudes (Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 1971 [reprint of 1660 edition]), 42.
GeorgePWood.com 
Leave a comment