Dear Christian friends:

One of the basic things that we humans strive for in life is to be happy, or as Jesus puts it in our text to be "blessed." But what really constitutes true blessedness? The world usually says: having wealth, fun, power, getting even with your enemies, doing what pleases you, and of course winning the big one, being number one, being accepted.

In our text, which is the Gospel Lesson for this Sunday, Jesus presents an entirely opposite description of one who is blessed. He talks about the poor, about those who mourn, about the meek, about those who are hungry, about the merciful and about the persecuted as being truly blessed people.

How can this be? This certainly seems to be a contradiction of all that we know and experience in the world. Yet, it is true. The world will not and cannot see this or appreciate this great truth. Only the Christian, only a believer in Jesus Christ, can see this and appreciate this great truth. What Jesus is really saying here in these nine beatitudes is this:


"Blessed are the poor in spirit." Right at the beginning of his famous Sermon On the Mount Jesus hits hard the philosophy of the world and many false religions the idea that if one is wealthy and healthy it is a sign that he has the favor of God.

A good many of our TV preachers embrace this false gospel of triumphalism and glory. The Jews of old embraced it. And we might excuse them for they did have many promises from God to the effect that if they would keep his covenant he would bless them with material prosperity as he did under King David and King Solomon.

In short, this is the greatest and most universal belief or religion on earth. On it all men depend according to their reason, and they cannot regard anything else as blessedness. That is why Jesus puts it right at the beginning of his sermon here. It is a totally new and radical sermon for Christians. He says: If you are a failure, if you have to suffer poverty and do without riches, power, honor and good days, you are still blessed in his book. You may not have a temporal reward but you will have an eternal reward.

Now, someone might ask: "Must all Christians be poor?" May they not have money, property, popularity and power? No! Jesus does not say that. Notice that Jesus says, "Blessed are the poor in spirit." Having money, property, and political office is not wrong in itself. In fact it is necessary in the secular realm and order. But here Christ is speaking about the spiritual realm how a Christian should regard worldly things, his attitude toward wealth.

Without money, property, honor, and power the secular realm could not function or endure. A politician cannot be poor because of his office and duties. Society could not endure if we were all homeless street people. A father could not support his family if he himself had nothing at all.

So be poor or rich physically and externally as God grants it to you. Jesus is not here concerned about that. But what he is concerned about is that we be poor in spirit, in a spiritual sense. That is, we must not put our confidence, comfort, happiness and hope on temporal things making Mammon our god or idol.

David was a great king, and he really had his wallet and treasury full of money and his storage houses full of all kinds of grain and provisions. In spite of all his wealth, power and honor he considered himself a poor beggar spiritually. He says in Psalm 39:12, "I am poor, and a guest in the land, like all my fathers." David did not tie his heart to property, riches and position. And although he had all this he behaved as if he had nothing.

David knew from whence his wealth and power had come. He considered himself a servant of the Lord, accountable to him. David had the right attitude regarding temporal goods.

One who is "poor in spirit" uses all temporal goods the way a guest does in a strange place, where he stays overnight and leaves in the morning. He needs no more than a bed and board and dare not say: "This is mine here I will stay." Nor dare he take possession of the property as though it belonged to him, otherwise the owner of the hotel will surely send him packing. So it is with us. God gives us earthly goods for this life to fulfill our various duties, but he would not have us fasten our hearts on these things as though we were to be here forever.

We need to go on and consider another higher treasure which is really ours and which will last forever. St. Paul reminds us of this when he says, "Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory." (Colossians 3:2-4) So we see what it means to be "poor in spirit." Now look at the promise which Christ gives to those who are such. He says, "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."

This is certainly a great and glorious promise. Because we are willing to be poor here and lightly regard temporal goods, we are to have a beautiful, glorious possession in heaven, and have it forever. It will never be in jeopardy. Inflation, con-artists, thieves and corrupt politicians and business men will not be there to take it from us. Death will not be able to end our enjoyment of it for there is no death there. It has been swallowed up in Christ's victory over the grave.

Further on in his Sermon On The Mount Jesus had these pointed words to preach: "Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth not rust corrupt, and where thieves do not break through and steal. (Matthew 6:19-20) What a glorious promise!

However, it almost sounds as if Jesus is saying that heaven is ours because of our correct attitude towards temporal goods, because we are "poor in spirit." Well, as any true Christian knows and any Lutheran worth his salt knows, this can't be what Jesus is saying here. That would contradict the basic teaching of the Bible, namely, that all men are sinners and under the wrath of God by nature and cannot justify themselves before God.

God has made atonement for all mankind's sin through the sacrificial, innocent, suffering and death of this same Jesus Christ who is preaching to us here. Heaven is not ours because we are poor in spirit; it is ours because of what Jesus Christ did for us by his holy life and innocent death. With these words Jesus is saying that no one can have this correct attitude, no one can possibly be poor in spirit, unless he is already a real Christian, justified by grace through faith in himself.

This beatitude and the eight others which follow speak of the fruits of faith, which the Holy Spirit Himself must create in the heart through the Gospel Word and Sacraments. Where there is no faith in the blood of Christ there is no promise of the kingdom of heaven, nor will spiritual poverty, meekness, mercy and peacemaking follow. Instead, there will be jealousy, pride, envy, quarrels, riots, and wars over temporal goods.

There is no promise of blessedness and the kingdom of heaven to such worldly hearts. In this life they constantly worry and fret over getting and keeping their wealth and positions, and in the next life they will sadly experience total rejection by their Creator, Redeemer and Sanctifier without hope of remedy. However, for those who believe in Christ crucified and risen there is true blessedness here and hereafter, forever and forever!

Unfortunately, we don't have time to take up the remaining beatitudes in our text. But this first one is the big one and the foundation of the others, so I have presented it at length.

In closing let me read to you the closing words of Martin Luther on this text: "Whoever wants to have enough here and hereafter, let him see to it that he is not greedy or grasping. Let him accept and use what God gives him, and live by his labor in faith. Then he will have Paradise and even the kingdom of heaven here, as St. Paul says: "Godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come." (1 Timothy 4:8)

Amen.