Who is Really Rich and Who is Really Poor?

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Luke 6 Blessings and Woes

17 He went down with them and stood on a level place. A large crowd of his disciples was there and a great number of people from all over Judea, from Jerusalem, and from the coastal region around Tyre and Sidon, 18 who had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases. Those troubled by impure spirits were cured, 19 and the people all tried to touch him, because power was coming from him and healing them all. 20 Looking at his disciples, he said, “Blessed are you who are poor for yours is the kingdom of God. 21  Blessed are you who hunger now, for you will be satisfied. Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh. 22  Blessed are you when people hate you when they exclude you and insult you and reject your name as evil, because of the Son of Man.
Jesus starts this chapter off by confronting the Pharisees who are so stuck on the Sabbath rules (to which they have added their own rules) that they get mad at Jesus when he heals a man with a shriveled hand on the Sabbath.  Rather than rejoicing with the man who has been made whole, they are infuritated by Jesus. 
After he calls the 12 apostles, and after healing many who came to him, he takes some time to teach what God's kingdom looks like.  He starts with an analogy that might be hard to understand. He says "blessed are those who are poor for yours is the kingdom of God."  
There are a lot of words in the original language for this word "poor" but this one meant a severe poverty.  As in someone who has to beg to find food and be completely dependent on someone else.  Each analogy builds on the other.  Hunger is related to poverty. Hunger can be another word for passion.  It is natural, intense and can be driving force for one's life.  When one weeps it is a longing for something that they have lost and often can't get back.  Notice he says those who "weep now" and "hunger now".  It is a present condition.  It is the "as is". But Jesus is offering them hope for a different reality with the introduction of the kingdom of God he came to inaugurate on earth as it is in heaven.  If heaven there is no one who is poor, without food, or weeps.    
In Matthew's version called the "Sermon on the Mount", he says "blessed are the poor in spirit". The Pharisees thought they were "rich in spirit" and didn't need Jesus.  But those who are poor in spirit are open to the kingdom that Jesus was bringing to the world.  The evidence of this kingdom were the miracles of those who were being healed and delivered from demons. But point was not the miracles themselves, but from whom they were coming from. They were pointing to Jesus the one who would fill the deepest needs in our soul and make us truly rich.  One commentators says it this way,
"Therefore, poverty of spirit is an absolute prerequisite for receiving the kingdom, because as long as we keep illusions about our own spiritual resources, we will never receive from God what we absolutely need."
Where do you hunger in your life, and unmet need that doesn't seem to go away?  Where does your heart weep due to a loss in your life?  Unlike the Pharisees who were more interested in keeping the rules, Jesus is interested in you. Where you are hungry he can satisfy your soul. Where you weep he can dry up your tears.   And when Jesus meets your deepest need you will be blessed because it will draw you into a real relationship with the living God!

  





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