The First Door

The first recorded sermon of Jesus opens with a sentence nobody would have chosen. Not "blessed are the faithful," not "blessed are the wise," not "blessed are those who get it right." "Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." (Matthew 5:3). Bankrupt in spirit. Nothing in the account. And to those, not later but presently, belongs the kingdom.

The word is stronger than we let it be

The Greek word behind "poor" here is not the word for a working man with little. It is the word for a beggar, someone crouched, entirely dependent on what a hand gives him. Luke drops the qualifier and simply says "And he lifted up his eyes on his disciples, and said, Blessed be ye poor: for yours is the kingdom of God." (Luke 6:20), which has driven commentators in both directions for centuries, some spiritualizing Luke, others materializing Matthew. The honest reading keeps both. Jesus blessed actual poor people, repeatedly and specifically, and He also named a condition of the spirit that a wealthy man can have and a destitute man can lack.

Either way the posture is the same: empty-handed, and knowing it. Not humble in the sense of good manners. Bankrupt, with the books open.

It is not what it is usually mistaken for

It is not low self-esteem. A man can think poorly of himself and still be the centre of his own attention, which is the opposite of this.

It is not poverty of intellect or a suspicion of learning. The sermon that opens with this line is the most demanding moral teaching in literature.

It is not performed humility. Nothing is easier to counterfeit and nothing is easier to spot, and the counterfeit is always faintly pleased with itself.

It is not despair either. Despair is bankruptcy with nowhere to take it. This is bankruptcy standing in front of someone who pays debts.

The rest of the list follows from it

Read the beatitudes as a sequence rather than a menu and they stop looking like eight unrelated virtues. A man who sees he is bankrupt will mourn, and "Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted." (Matthew 5:4) is what that grief is promised. A man who has stopped defending an inflated account can afford to be meek, and "Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth." (Matthew 5:5). A man who owns nothing gets hungry, and "Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled." (Matthew 5:6). Mercy is easy for a man who has been forgiven a great deal and hard for one who thinks he has been forgiven a little.

So the first is not the easiest of the eight. It is the door the other seven come through.

God said the same thing long before the sermon

This is not a New Testament innovation. "The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise." (Psalm 51:17), written by a king after the worst week of his life. And God, surveying everything He has made, names the one thing that gets His attention: "For all those things hath mine hand made, and all those things have been, saith the LORD: but to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word." (Isaiah 66:2). Poor and of a contrite spirit. That is the whole of creation on one side and one broken man on the other, and God says He will look at the man.

The clearest picture Jesus drew of it

Two men went up to pray. One had an itemized list and it was all true; he really did fast and tithe. The other stood at a distance, would not lift his eyes, struck his chest, and said seven words: "And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner." (Luke 18:13). Jesus says: "I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other: for every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted." (Luke 18:14).

Notice what the publican did not do. He did not compare himself favourably to anyone. He did not promise to improve. He did not explain. He brought nothing but the fact of himself, and he went home justified, which the man with the accurate list did not.

Why it cannot be manufactured, and what to do about that

Here is the difficulty everyone eventually hits. The moment you try to be poor in spirit as an achievement, you have already failed, because you are now adding it to the account you were supposed to have emptied. It is the one qualification that evaporates when you reach for it.

Which means it is not a technique but a discovery, and the ordinary way people discover it is by running out of something. Money, health, reputation, a marriage, the ability to fix what they broke. Every one of those is a mercy if it ends in an open hand, and a disaster if it ends in the fist. Nobody should go looking for the losses. But when they arrive, this is what they are for.

What can be done is small and it is enough. Tell the truth about yourself, first to God and then to one person who is allowed to answer honestly. Stop the running comparison with people doing worse. Ask for things rather than earning them, which is harder for competent people than for anyone else. And come to the Table, which is the church's rehearsal of having nothing and being fed anyway.

Where this lands

The kingdom is not given to people who have assembled enough. It is given to people who have stopped counting. That is the first thing Jesus said when He opened His mouth on a hillside, and every other qualification anyone has invented since is downstream of it or in competition with it.

The beggar who opens his hand for bread has not baked the bread. He is not less than the baker for that. He is simply the one who eats.

Related: What the Word Says, and What We Believe It Means, Grace, Repentance, The Heart, The Thief Did More Than Believe, Partakers of the Divine Nature, Prayer, Money, and The Words of Christ. Scripture from the King James Version, linked to BibleHub; the words of Christ are marked in purple. The note on the Greek term follows the standard lexical distinction between the beggar and the labouring poor, and is offered as a gloss rather than an argument.