The expectation of the Jewish people was that the Messiah would come to overthrow the Roman government and establish A Jewish kingdom. Jesus came to establish a different kind of kingdom, and during the Beatitudes, he walked through the values of that new kingdom.
Jesus first action in this passage is a differentiator, as he sits down to teach, in contrast with the religious teachers in the synagogue who would stand to teach.
Then he goes on to teach, walking through multiple ways in which people are “blessed” or “happy” – the Greek is makarios, implying a deeper, broader story than material blessings or surface-level happiness. These statements show the potential of what is available to us through Christ.
The first is these may well be the most important, but in some ways the most confusing. What does it mean to be “poor in spirit?” Fundamentally, it means to recognize our own inadequacy – that we are entirely helpless without Christ, and at our core have an absolute need for God.
But we will never depend on something we don’t think we need. Do we understand the depth of our need here? In Revelation, Jesus speaks to the church in Laodicea, a church that considered itself rich, but in reality was, in the words of Christ, “wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked.”
What is this poverty and blindness? What are the riches offered by Christ to the poor in spirit? First, without Jesus, we stand condemned by our sin. “The wages of sin are death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.” Through him, we have the assurance of salvation, forgiveness and eternal life.
Without Jesus, we can only cope with the tools of the world. Jeremiah wrote of false prophets who assured Jerusalem they would not be destroyed, “they offer superficial treatments for my people’s mortal wounds, they give assurances of peace when there is no peace.” But Jesus is the prince of peace, and offers more to sooth our pain and hurt than anything the world offers.
Because of Jesus, we have purpose, and a promise of life abundantly, life to the full.
– Sermon Notes, Jeff Fullmer, New Life Church, Lynnwood, WA, March 6, 2022