His disciples came to him, and he began to teach them. He said, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

Matthew 5: 3

So, we pondered the meaning of “poor in spirit.”  Those are blessed.  We noticed how the virtues of Jesus are contrary to our normal ways of thinking.  We love to be “rich in spirit.”  That might please us but not God.

Then we find, once again, as we find often, Jesus’ preoccupation with “the kingdom of heaven.”  That is where the “poor in spirit” are.  If it is such an important thing to Jesus, why do we, including me, treat it so lightly?  His revelation of this kingdom of heaven is a cornerstone of his revelation to us, a view of reality that reshapes all our thinking!

There is a kingdom of this world and the kingdom of heaven.  Those who are born again of the Spirit of the Lord find themselves in a new and rather strange kingdom. It is a kingdom of surprises, where the poor in spirit are honored over those who are rich in spirit.  That seems so contrary to our native thinking where we value power and self-effort.

Welcome, fellow born-again believer, to our new kingdom that is under the reign of our new King, Jesus Christ.  Old things have passed away, the new has come!  This is what Jesus is teaching.  I need to grasp the truth of that all over again.  I get so used to being in an earthly kingdom that I too easily let slip the very central feature of Jesus revelation to us. I get more like the world around me instead of the kingdom within me.

This, the first on Jesus’ list of blessings, can only be appreciated by those who are believers in Jesus Christ.  What a blessed mystery!!