what does it mean to be poor in spirit?

Today in my reading, I somehow ended up in the Sermon on the Mount. I started reading the beatitudes and grew in wondering of what exactly Jesus meant.

What does it mean to be poor in spirit? At surface level, I think of being so self-sufficient that you do not rely on God.Surely, being rich in spirit seems to be what we should strive for, right? Because although we do not want physical wealth to plague our lives we want to develop riches in our inner man, right?

So needless to say, it threw me off when Jesus says,

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

It would make sense to me if he said, "Blessed are you who are poor, because yours is the kingdom of God" as he did in the Sermon on the Plain in Luke 6.

What is the difference and what is similar about these two lines?

Commentaries are helpful because there are people out there who are well-researched, know their Greek and Hebrew, and the study of theology has been ongoing throughout history. But I did not have a commentary on me as I was looking at this at Shoes, a coffee shop in downtown Leesburg.

So before I go into what the commentaries said, take a minute and think about it for yourself. Go back to Matthew 5 and Luke 6 and meditate on it.

I meditated, and did not have an answer. I did think about how each beatitude was connected to the next one, and how the woes (in Luke 6) contrasted against the beatitudes. Two lines my eyes drew to, were

"Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God"

( I spent some time focusing on purity of heart. Purity is so much than abstaining from sexual sin. When I think of purity I sing the song/Psalm "Give us clean hands, give us pure hearts, let us not lift our soul to another." When we being created in a pure heart, we are seeking God's face, leaving our distractions and idols behind. I am also always taken back to David's penitential psalm,51,where towards the end he states "the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise."

and "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied."

(Those of who know me well or read my blog, know that I always dwell on the concept of spiritual hunger. That we do not remain self-sufficient feeding our phsyical hunger, but we continually feed on God.)

In Luke 6, the woe which was the direct antithesis of poor was "Woe to you you are rich, for you have recieved your consolation."

What would this mean in light of "poor in spirit" in Matthew 5?

"A broken spirit" would probably liken to being "poor in spirit." We can not feed our own spirits. We cannot mend ourselves back together. Jesus says "Woe to you are rich," talking about people who need nothing else, hunger for nothing else, because they are completely self-sufficient. They have no reliance on a Holy, loving God.

Back to the commentaries now:

I own a small commentary collection and I get fed up looking for thoughtful online commentaries. My bulky IVP "New Bible Commentary" very briefly overviews each chapter o the bible.

It notes quickly on "poor in spirit" on in specifics over the other beatitudes perhaps because it seems the least straight forward to the contemporary reader:

"Poor in spirit suggests the OT themes of the 'poor' or 'meek,' the oppressed people of God who, nontheless, trust in him for deliverance."

The theme presented here, is trusting in God for salvation, not yourself.

At Urbana, I bought two $2 commentaries to get my collection of commentaties of individual books of the Bible started- Luke and Acts (This is primarily due to my interest in Luke, the physician and the journalist). This commentary on Luke was written by Leon Morris (Tyndale New Testament Commentaries). Although I agree with the general jist of what he writes here, I further need to research and discern if his first assertion is indeed true). But Jesus does talk directly to someone in Luke 6, because his language is 2nd person instead of 3rd.

"Jesus looked at his disciples, to whom the following words are plainly addressed and pronounced a blessing on them as poor. He is not blessing poverty in itself...Nor is he prounouncing a blessing on one social class above all others...He is speaking of his disciples. They are poor and they know they are without resource. They rely on God, and know they must rely on him for they have nothing on their own on which to rely.It is in this spirit that in the Old Testament 'the poor' is often almost equivalent to 'the pious.' Matthew brings out this meaning with 'poor in spirit...'

In Matthew 5, Jesus is speaking to a crowd, in the 3rd person. Is this why he more specicially uses "poor in spirit" than simply "poor" when he speaks directly to his disciples? He's not saying that everyone living below the poverty line has the kingdom of heaven, but those without, who seek him instead of their things or their own self-pursuit.

I want to disagree with Leon when he says that Jesus is not talking about a social class, but in this current interpretation I have, he isn't. I do think this does have a lot of connections with Jesus' conversation with the rich, young ruler. He asks Jesus what can HE DO. After tgoing through the commandments, the young man asserts he has kept them all. But his refusual to give up all he has to follow Jesus shows that he does not adhere to the commandment to worship one God. Faced with a choice, he could not serve God above money. He could not give up what gives them comfort and happiness to rely completely on God.

There is a differentce between being poor in spirit and spiritually poor, and this man has great internal poverty that he will not even address by giving all he to God.

In this, it does show a correlation betwen the social class and being poor in spirit. Jesus goes to say that it is harder for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God, than the camel going through the eye of a needdle. The affluent are always tempted to rely on earthly possessions and their own efforts.

This is not to glorify one class over the other, but there seems to be something daunting when people who are phsyically starving everyday can have a more vibrant relationship with Christ, than people here in America who thrive on wealth but whose things consistently drive them to distraction.

Whether physically wealthy or poor, anyone can be poor in spirit. It's just harder for some than others.Yet salvation is always a miracle of divine grace, whether or poor. It is a gift from God. Who invites use to eat his food, without money and without price.