Poor in Spirit

Matthew 5:3 NIV “Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs in the Kingdom of Heaven.”

I’m starting a series on the Beatitudes, which is part of a more significant portion known as the Sermon on the Mount. This teaching by Jesus is full of powerful wisdom and is the first recorded sermon in Matthew. This seems to be the first public time that Jesus started to outline the concepts for his followers. He was saying this is what the Kingdom of God is all about.

Knowing this, it’s hard to believe that his first words were, “Blessed are the poor in spirit.”

The word in Greek for blessed is makarios, meaning to become large or long, and used to mean fortunate, well-off, happy, or blessed. Spiritually, it means experiencing and living into God’s benefits and grace. Almost in complete contrast to blessed is the word poor or ptochos in Greek. It means to crouch or cower like a beggar and to be deeply destitute. By itself, this word is used in terms of socio-economic or tangible goods. However, Jesus says poor in spirit. The word in Greek for spirit is pneuma. It is literally air or breath, often used in the New Testament to refer to the Holy Spirit.

Our “spirit” is different than our soul (the Bible uses the Greek word psuche or psyche for this). Our soul is the totality of our personhood; it combines our will, emotions, and thoughts. Our soul, though, needs the spark, the “spirit” or breath of God, to be living. Think of spirit as breath itself, which allows us to be alive. When I think about being poor or destitute in spirit, I think of all the ways the spark of life can cower. This is when our spirit is beaten down, flattened, or belittled. It’s when we think, “Do I have anything left in my tank?” I pictured this initially as a deflated balloon, so I included these in my image. I wanted to depict an expression of exhaustion on my subject but face upward in hope.

So why is there hope, and why is this person blessed? Jesus says it’s because they have the Kingdom of Heaven. By the way, though Matthew uses the phrase Kingdom of Heaven, the other gospels use Kingdom of God, so we can use them interchangeably. The Kingdom of Heaven or God is a bit vague because we clearly can’t physically look around and see the Kingdom of Heaven. And yet Jesus always talked about it, constantly telling parables to explain how the Kingdom operates. Paul does help out a little when he says in Romans 14:17, “For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.”

In this art piece, I depicted righteousness, joy, and peace as perfection – a utopian landscape, because ultimately, isn’t that what we aim for in the end? I also added Helium/inflated balloons to represent the “refilling” the spirit gives us in the Kingdom of God.

The final question for me is why the poor in spirit have the Kingdom of Heaven? I suppose it could be because in their desolation and discouragement, they are willing to embrace and step out into the Kingdom of Heaven offered. There’s nothing left to lose, so why not risk it? I think the Kingdom is an offer for all of us, but our false sense of self-sufficiency and distractions chasing other “kingdoms” keep us from seeing what is right outside the door.