If you’re still with me, we’re on the home stretch.

Jesus’ introduction to his most famous set of teachings is,

Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

In this elongated examination, we’ve been focusing on what “poor in spirit” means, especially in the context of which Jesus is speaking. It is not synonymous with “being poor” as many will think. And, while Jesus pays particular attention to poor people, he does so because his key message is about the fundamental brokenness of the human heart and so many who know the physical privations of life can find their hearts and spirits broken. But, as we’ve seen, he is speaking much more broadly.

Momentarily, we should at least ask what the first word, blessed, means. It’s probable that we have some intuitive sense of its meaning and that’s good but let’s make sure. Again, all we have to do is look it up. (We don’t have to open up some dense theological work to get the basics).

Blessed can mean “Holy. Consecrated. Endowed with divine favor.”

(I don’t remember off-hand but I think I may have written about the concept of Holy before. I’ll have to go back. If I haven’t, perhaps I’ll do so at some point.)

So, God looks with favor upon the poor in spirit from his vantage point of perfect holiness, which, in our context, basically means perfect love, truth and justice.

But then, lest we forget, there’s something that directly follows. There’s a logical consequence or result. There’s an “if/then” to what Jesus is intending for us to know.

And, it runs like this: Because I (God) look at you (us) with great favor, due to your humble and contrite spirit that is expressed lovingly towards me and many others, I give you the greatest gift of all, which is life in close relationship with me.

Yes. Life in close relationship with God has always been the point and this is the main reason Jesus showed up on the scene. It’s really because we’d lost all sense of what that truly looks like and, honestly, still do.

One source I checked says the Kingdom of God is mentioned 147 times in the New Testament and 56 times in the Gospel of Matthew alone. We might get the impression that this is important stuff.

One might also reasonably ask here if there’s a difference between the Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of Heaven.

It’s a very good question, actually, but can open up all sorts of distinctions and interpretations that will end up taking us pretty far afield. But, again to defer to Dallas Willard, the place we’re talking about actually fits with “kingdom” language. It’s where we live within “God’s reign and rule.”

This might disappoint a lot of folks who are enamored with a thing called democracy. After all, what modern western person can reliably stand up and contest a thing like democracy? From such a vantage point, things like kings, who we understand are vested with all power and authority, are anathema. Kings are viewed as tyrants and tyrants by definition oppose our freedom. So, is God a tyrant who opposes our freedom?

Well, yes and no. Let’s stay with this line of thinking.

If perfect democracy is akin to an equal distribution of power amongst all people, giving practical equality to everyone, then it’s actually a rather short hop to anarchy, which means that there are no rules. After all, both the theory and our human experience has always been that power abhors a vacuum. Utopian visionaries have regularly sought to create ideal places where human beings never pursue selfish ends but have always failed, for which there are some pretty sound reasons.

Let’s see if we can put it this way. Jesus presents us with an all-powerful, all-knowing, fully creative God who is also perfectly just and perfectly loving. So, does that mean he is a loving tyrant? One reason I don’t like the word tyrant when it comes to the Christian portrayal (or even the Old Testament portrayal which seems to include a lot more about wrath and the such), is this:

• His love for us is unconditional. In other words, his love for us has nothing to do with how we feel about him, including ignoring him and even doing really bad stuff. He loves us all without condition.
• If the Christian framework is to be believed, God, the father, sent God the Son (Jesus) to earth for a set of very specific reasons, among them to be both man and God at the same time, and to sacrificially “atone” for all of the sins of mankind, while also heralding the ultimate defeat of evil. (Theologically speaking, this was a big sacrifice and even bigger if one looks into what really happened on the cross, even far beyond the brutality of the scourging and crucifixion.)

Tyrants don’t do either of these things. Servant Kings do. Kings who are both lions and lambs.

So, to our question regarding the “If/Then” of the whole passage: Those who are poor in spirit shall belong in and to the Kingdom of Heaven, which is really just a way of describing this place where God rules.

And, the really revolutionary thing that Jesus kept telling anyone who’d listen was and is that “the Kingdom of God/Heaven is at hand.”

Which, when you get right down to it, means that it’s available here and now.

In actuality, Jesus said we can walk with God here on earth in this life and that doesn’t just mean following a bunch of institutionalized rules. It means we can participate with God as real partners  in his creative work. Does that sound tyrannical?

Yes, we are promised an eternal life, the where of which has filled countless volumes written by theologians and to which we won’t go now other than to say this:

A popular conception of heaven is that it’s an amazingly beautiful place where some or all people (depending upon your viewpoint) get to go to spend eternity. For Christians, presumably it’s where God “resides.” One of many problems with this supposition is that God is “there” and we are “here.” This is actually one reason that Jesus arrived on the scene and that is to show us who God really is and why he (to use that pronoun) is, in fact, fully present here and now. From this perspective, the “Heavens” have broken through to the earth and, therefore, the “Kingdom” (or place) of God is “at hand.” It isn’t just for some future point. Instead, it is perfectly present to us.

For us, this means that we can at least get a taste of what the purest form of heaven is like. All we have to do is open our eyes and our hearts, surrender to God’s authority, which is expressed lovingly, and we get to live in his “kingdom,” which is of the “heavens.” Make sense? 🙂

Now, to bring this whole thing to a close: To the degree that we possess a spirit as described thus far, especially through the grace of God, we are invited into close relationship with him and that’s a most wonderful thing.

And, that’s at the foundation of Jesus’ teaching and at the core of his introduction to the Sermon on the Mount.

Arrogance, unchecked pride, selfishness and a judgmental spirit (haughtiness?), are contrary to what God intends for us and seeks from us. No, instead, a servant’s heart, sacrificial love, and complete surrender to the God who loves us both unconditionally and for all of eternity, is the point of it all.

I, for one, need to try to remember this. Thanks for listening.