Benefits of Being Poor

 

Being poor is inconvenient. It limits our choices. It makes it harder to navigate our worlds. Having riches would add a lot of benefits to life. But Jesus said “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 5:4). Since I have enough resources to get along pretty well in life, I find comfort that Jesus emphasized being “poor in spirit”. Even though I am not a pauper I can still be blessed and have a place in God’s kingdom. But Luke’s version of this teaching says “Blessed are you who are poor” (Luke 6:20). Indicating that physical poverty precipitates the benefits of the kingdom.

If we are poor in terms of physical assets it might make us mean in spirit and drive us from God. Jesus is saying that being poor should humble us and cause us to recognize our need for God and drive us to trust God.  If we possess the riches of this world, we have to find ways to divorce ourselves of the power of riches and recognize our need for God. To be poor in spirit means that in spite of whatever riches we possess we humble ourselves ultimately trusting God for every sustenance in life.  When we cast our cares on God in this fashion, we access the power and benefits of heaven.

Wealth and talent and pride have the power to rob us of humility. They can rob us of eyes that recognize God. They can cause us to have faith in things that diminish and neglect to trust in the eternal powers of God.  

The pains of life are sufficient to make our spirits poor. But we need to embrace that impoverished spirit with enough desperation to put our trust in God. We may lose everything this world has to offer. Our hands may become empty. Our accounts may be dry. But if our fingers cling to Jesus the kingdom of heaven belongs to us.  

Serving the Crucified Christ

Filled with hate, ignorant of truth, lacking in faith, and void of righteousness the Jews had plotted to kill Jesus. Rome took ownership of their plot and made a statement of their authority in the act of crucifixion. In the course of less than twenty-four hours Jesus was arrested, accused, lied about, endured six mock trials, cursed, beaten, and in humiliation crucified naked before the viewing world. As the sun made its downward turn, he breathed his last and hung dead on the cross. As the dark of evening approached there emerged from the shadows a servant named Joseph who was from the town of Arimathea.

Some refer to Joseph as a secret disciple of Jesus. But his thoughts regarding Jesus were not that secret. The gospel writers tell us that he was a member of the council, “a good and righteous man” who was himself “searching for the kingdom of God”. If his attitude regarding Jesus was private it lost its privacy when in a council meeting, he refused to consent to the majority opinion to work toward the demise of Jesus. 

Joseph did not have the power to stop the violent death of Jesus. He lacked adequate information about the meaning of the event. But he had enough theological understanding of the significance of Jesus and enough admiration for Jesus to serve him by administering proper burial.

We think of servants being poor but Joseph of Arimathea was a rich man. One does not need to be rich to be of service to the Lord. But we are to use whatever means we have to serve the Lord and His cause. If we have great means we are called upon to use those means to advance the kingdom and minister unto people. “To whom much is given, much is expected”.

Joseph was a servant with courage. He went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Pilate was a weak ruler, so we might think that did not take much courage. Under Roman law the body of someone who had been executed was considered state property. Pilate could grant that body to anyone he so desired. Or he could refuse to relinquish the body to anyone. In such cases the bodies might be thrown into the nearby garbage dump and burned or at best buried as a pauper in the local potter’s field. Joseph took the risk of requesting the body from Pilate. But his real act of courage was that he, a member of the council, was identifying himself with Jesus. He risked being ostracized by his faith community. He risked trouble with the government. He risked losing business and position.

Joseph was a rich man but he was not afraid of difficult work. He engaged in the gruesome task of taking the tortured body of Jesus down from the cross. He purchased a new linen shroud and with the help of Nicodemus prepared the mangled body of Jesus for burial. Joseph had a heart willing to sacrifice. He took Jesus and laid him in his own tomb that had been freshly cut of the rock nearby. This was the tomb Joseph of had built for his own burial. It had never been used. But now it had been defiled with the body of one who had been executed as a criminal.

In reality Joseph’s tomb was occupied by the one who bore the richness of heaven, the richest of the rich. But Paul reminds us that for the sake of our salvation Jesus “became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich” (II Cor. 8:9). At the time of his burial Jesus had become the poorest of the poor, stripped of all his wealth by the weight of our sins. Yet by the sovereignty of God and because of Joseph’s servant heart he lay in a rich man’s tomb awaiting the day of resurrection when all the richness of heaven would be restored to him.

 

Seeing the Crowds

Jesus spoke a simple message of hope to people and provided practical help by healing their diseases and afflictions. So, the crowds gathered around him. The crowd in one town would follow him to the next town until soon the crowds were very large. The crowds that gathered were filled with sick, afflicted, and oppressed people.

The setting for the Sermon on the Mount is revealed in Matthew 5:1. “Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and when he sat down, his disciples came to him”.

Jesus always saw the crowds. He saw them not just as gathered masses of humanity but as sheep in need of care. Jesus went up on the mountain not in order to get away from the crowds but so he could observe them. From the vantage point of the mountain Jesus and his disciples could view the crowds for what they were. They were people in need of love, grace, mercy, and instruction. To the government, business, and religious structures of their society they were just tools, instruments to be used to enhance the desires of the power structures under which they lived. But to Jesus they were human souls created in the image of God. The crowds would have siphoned emotional energy from Jesus yet they strengthened him because in them he saw his purpose for being in the world. He had come to work for justice in the present world and provide the path for salvation that would ensure eternal life in the world to come. On the mountain, with his eyes on the crowds and with his disciples gathered around him, Jesus posturing himself as a teacher “sat down”. The disciples stood in the position of learners. Jesus began unfolding truths about the character they needed to possess and develop if they were going to emulate him and fulfill the purpose to which he was calling them.  

We do not know how attentive the disciples were or how well they understood. Our real concern should be how much attention we give to the teachings of Jesus and how well we follow the instructions. 

He Opened His Mouth

Matthew 5:2 tells us that Jesus “opened his mouth and taught them”. What followed were the profound teachings of the Sermon on the Mount.

Many people open their mouths yet teach us nothing of value. Profound lessons do not just erupt from our voices. They must first be processed in a sound mind. They need to be filtered by a righteous heart.

Many people open their mouths and teach us falsely. They are either ignorant of truth or deniers of truth or maybe just plain liars. The motive of their heart is to de-rail truth by manipulating facts or deceiving the audience by withholding information. Corrupt minds and vile hearts will never compose and propagate truths that lead to wholesome societies and upright behaviors.

When Jesus opened his mouth, he taught with clarity. Without apology he taught divine truths that his mind had processed and formed into language that simple humanity could understand. He spoke not just words of truth but thoughts that were ripened and seasoned with wisdom. When Jesus spoke, he did so with a heart filled with love, compassion, fairness, and concern. The words of his mouth and the meditations of his heart were found acceptable in the sight of God.

The teachings that came from the mouth of Jesus are not easy for us to adopt and assimilate into life. In fact, it is pretty tough to follow the teachings Jesus unfolded in the Sermon on the Mount. Some of them may seem unpalatable to our depraved psyches. But the words of Jesus reveal the expectations he has for those who desire to follow after him. He leaves no doubts as to how we should structure our lives.

When Jesus opens his mouth, we need to take it as truth. We may find it necessary to meditate in prayer with him about the details. It may be prudent to engage in questions and discussions with our fellow believers to get a better understanding of how we can apply his teachings in practical ways. But the principles set forth by Jesus are clear. They are not up for negotiation or amendment. When Jesus opens his mouth, the proper response is to listen and to obey what we hear.

 

Personal Resurection

 

Matthew 28 takes us to the first Sunday morning after the crucifixion. Two days prior the disciples and friends of Jesus had witnessed his brutal execution and saw his body placed in the tomb. Many of them had restructured their lives in order to follow Jesus. They had found pride in being a part of his movement, but now they were afraid of being identified as part of His group. Friday night would have been long and restless and the sabbath they awoke a dreary experience. When Sunday came, they found nothing in life worth getting up for. Jesus was dead and their souls were filled with a deep, dark, dreadful deadness.

While the disciples slept the women had enough gumption to get up and make their way in the dark to the tomb in order to anoint Jesus’ body. Sometimes when the death rattle of grief gurgles within us we need to visit the place that reminds us of our despair and engage in useful activity. An earthquake caused the ground to tremble that Sunday morning. In the aftershock they saw an angel descend from heaven and roll the stone away from the tomb. 

This caused the Roman guards to faint. But these women of faith were attentive as the angel said “Fear not, I know you come looking for Jesus who was crucified, but He is not here, for he has risen”. Then the angel tasked the women to “Go wake up the disciples. Tell them that this is a great getting up morning because Jesus is not dead but alive. He is on his way to Galilee and he wants to see you there”. As they were leaving, they encountered Jesus. They had come to the tomb with deadened souls now fresh life was palpitating within them.

Hearing the women’s story, the disciples made the trip to Galilee. It may not have been a journey of faith but they went in curiosity. When they arrived, Jesus met them. “And when they saw him, they worshiped him, but some doubted” (Matt.28:17).

Jesus was not surprised by their mixture of faith and doubt. He understood that faith is a process.  He was aware that they were filled with fear and worry and lacked vision and purpose. He knew that deadness had captured their hearts and that they were in need of personal resurrection. That day in Galilee Jesus began infusing life and hope into his disciples. For some the infusion took longer.

I am an observer of churches and the believers who comprise the church. Instead of having inescapable hope we are on a death trajectory.  We need an infusion of life through an encounter with the living Christ.

From the hillside in Galilee Jesus told his disciples how to live with a resurrection faith.

We must first grasp the authority of the resurrected Jesus. “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me” (Matt.28:18).

Jesus “emptied himself” of much of his heavenly authority when he came to earth. But when he came out of the tomb he took back everything that he had voluntarily emptied himself of. We all face death. No of us shall escape it. The grave has authority. But Jesus conquered the grave proving that all authority on earth was His.

Jesus returned to heaven having completed the act that made the salvation of man possible. And he sat down at the right of the Father. Now all authority in heaven was his. If we want to live with the power of personal resurrection in our souls, we must grasp the fact that the resurrected Jesus has authority over all things. No man or nation, can stand in his way.

Secondly, we need to adopt Jesus’ commission to make disciples of all nations. As resurrected people, we must recognize that our mission and purpose is to take the gospel not just to the folks in our corner of the world but to people in every corner of the world.

Through it all we need to rejoice in the forever presence of Jesus. Jesus said “I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matt. 28:20). “Always” means right now. “To the end of the age” means for all eternity.

Whether we live or die we have Jesus! No matter how deep our sorrow, how great our opposition, how depressed the world might be we can experience personal resurrection. Even if we don’t want to get up, we can get up, because Jesus got up.

 

Treasures New and Old

The teachers of the law spoke with dull words that usually failed to increase understanding and propagate faith. They spoke truth but their logical explanations did not invoke interest in the human heart or instigate passion in the human soul. But Jesus could stir a crowd with the power of a story. The words of Jesus did not enable His listeners to grasp the history of their traditions or the nuances of their theology. But they went home inspired. Jesus’s parables had one simple point. The listeners surely did not remember the details of each parable but what they did recall gave them great lessons to mull over and discuss. 

Jesus did not give deductive lectures that the crowds had to choose whether or not to be a part of. But in His parables Jesus presented inductive thoughts that encircled those who gathered to listen. When I read the parables of Jesus, I find myself in the middle of the story. I cannot just walk away from it but I must make a decision. I can either reject the truth being taught or I can ponder that truth and examine it. My examination of the truth portrayed in the parable may still not cause me to embrace it. But it forces me to make another decision. I must decide to journey with Jesus by following the lessons He taught or choose to walk another path.

In Matthew 13 Jesus told a series of parables that compared familiar activities and events to the kingdom of heaven.  Each parable taught a lesson about the value and the priority of the kingdom of heaven. When Jesus finished speaking, He asked the disciples “Have you understood all these things?”. Maybe Jesus grinned when they quickly answered “Yes”. Surely, they had not understood everything taught in those parables. None of us have. Jesus did not quibble with their answer but gave a one sentence reply “Therefore every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house, who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old” (Matthew 13:52 ESV).

The scribes were the teachers of the law.  Humbly it occurs to me that I, a Baptist preacher, am a scribe who has been trained for the kingdom. God in His sovereignty called me and gave me some of “the secrets of the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 13:11 ESV). Jesus said a trained scribe was like master of a house. The master of a house was in charge of the welfare, the instruction, the mission, and the hospitality of the house. If one is a benevolent master of a house, he does not distribute junk to those who live in or who are guest in his household. But he reaches into his treasure and brings out the good stuff. The good stuff is that which we value and protect. It is that which we have discovered in the word of God and store deep within us. The good stuff, our treasures, are the basis of our convictions. We handle them carefully and display and dispense of them with prudence.

The scribe who is like the master of the house reaches deep into his treasure and brings out something new and something old. I ask myself “what can I retrieve from my treasure, both new and old, that will enhance the kingdom? How can I take the old truth and communicate it in fresh new ways”?

I recall days of yesteryear when I stood to preach with quivering knees and fluttering heart. It was not just nervousness but it was a Holy Spirit induced unction to accurately share what I had learned from God. I hope I can still pull from my treasure a passion for the word of God that translates into orations of substance that will move the listener or reader toward a greater commitment to the Lord. I trust that the words that flow from my soul enable people to have a wide peripheral kingdom vision. I pray that the criteria of the meditations of my heart are not based on biased earthly allegiances. The church is languishing because we have divided the kingdom with terms like left and right, white and black, contemporary and traditional. May God help us who are scribes trained for the kingdom of heaven to bring from our treasure ideas both new and old that will lead the church to a broader functionality.

I need Wisdom

 

I need wisdom. I need knowledge also.  But I have a reasonable measure of knowledge and I know how to learn. Acquiring knowledge can be difficult but it can be gained by our personal grit and study and with the help of others who know how to point us in the right direction. But gaining wisdom is more difficult. Wisdom is gained through a lifetime of failures and successes and the painful experiences along the way. Even then wisdom will not be fully gained unless we have a desire to learn from our experiences. Wisdom is ultimately acquired when we seek God’s advice and allow His mind to interact with our minds as we journey through life. Proverbs 9:10 says “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom”. In James 1:5 we read “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given to him”.

If we are honest, we will all agree that we lack wisdom and thus all of us are in need of wisdom. We understand however that wisdom comes from God and that God is delighted to dispense wisdom to us. Wisdom is available to us when we pray and ask God for insight and understanding and application. We need knowledge but wisdom is far greater because wisdom enables us to practically and properly use the knowledge that we have. Wisdom makes knowledge productive. God desires to be generous in dispensing wisdom to us. God is not harsh but gives generously to all without reproach. This means that God is not looking for flaws within us that would disqualify us from receiving wisdom. God is not looking at our faults to find reasons to not grant us wisdom. If He did none of us would be worthy of God’s gift of wisdom. God desires to lavish us with all the wisdom we need. But we do need to ask God for wisdom and we need to ask God for wisdom believing that God will indeed give us wisdom.

Receiving wisdom from God requires faith. James wrote “But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways” (James 1:6-8). Getting wisdom from God requires a focus that is grounded by faith in God. This does not mean that we do not struggle in our faith. God is not asking us to have blind faith. Faith in God is not ignorant of the realities of the world. God is not saying that we must have a faith that does not struggle with doubt. Indeed, that level of faith does not exist in frail humanity. We all struggle in our faith. Faith and doubt are often, maybe usually, mingled together. But faith needs to be dominate in our lives. The world around us is a doubting world tossed about by the wind and the movement of the earth. People who succumb to this kind of doubt are filled with so much duplicity that they are unable to find stability. In that predicament they will never discover God’s gift of wisdom. To have faith means that when the waves of doubt come, we stand firm holding onto to whatever amount of faith we have. It might not be much faith. It may be faith no bigger than a grain of mustard seed. It may be a weak faith that finds us crying out “Lord, I believe, help my unbelief”. But yet it is a faith that is certain of God’s love for us and is committed to fulfill our life’s purpose of serving God. It is a faith to which God will reward an abundance of wisdom.