Why the Poor Receive the Kingdom

The Mount of Beatitudes in Galilee, where Jesus likely preached the Sermon on the Mount

Jesus kicked off his famous Sermon on the Mount with a pretty surprising statement:

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.¹

Uh… what?

I think some of us who have been in church for a long time have forgotten how weird Jesus’ opening line is. Even if it doesn’t seem weird to us today, it definitely sounded weird to people in Jesus’ time. It seems like Jesus is saying the poor, the broken, and the needy are the people to whom God’s Kingdom belongs.

Throughout Jesus’ ministry on earth, He always attracted the wrong type of people. The prostitutes and corrupt tax collectors seemed to come to him in droves. The materially impoverished found hope in His teachings. Those deemed “sinners” by society found His forgiveness surprisingly attractive. The sick, the crippled, and the weak came to Him to experience healing and restoration.

Ironically, the “important” people of Jesus’ time didn’t want much to do with Him. There were exceptions of course, but Jesus’ group of disciples was largely made up of not very successful people. Jesus did not intentionally ignore successful people; rather, the “rich in spirit” seemed to ignore Jesus.

We see this vividly in the story of the rich young ruler, one of the most moving (and tragic) passages in all of Scripture. I recommend you go read it right now (Mark 10:17-31), but here’s an abbreviated summary: A wealthy man goes up to Jesus and asks what he needs to do to have eternal life. Jesus tells the man to follow the commands of God, and the rich man says he has followed them all. Then Jesus looks at him and tells him he lacks one thing, and that he should sell all his possessions and follow Him. The man walks away sad because he is very wealthy. Then Jesus declares, “How hard is it for the rich to enter the Kingdom of God!”

Much can be said about this story, but here are a couple of observations in relation to our topic. First, the thing keeping the man from following Jesus was his wealth. The very thing giving him status in the world was a barrier to him following Jesus. Second, Jesus tells the man he “lacks one thing,” which is ironic considering he owns many possessions.² He “wanted” eternal life, as his initial question shows, but he didn’t really “need” it. At least, he felt like he didn’t.

One of the reasons it is hard for the “rich to enter the Kingdom of God” is because wealth prevents people from realizing their need. Wealth in this story is referring to money and possessions, but there are other forms of “wealth” that have the same effect.³ Do you notice how most people don’t pray much when life is going well? When we are “wealthy” in terms of life circumstances, we are less likely to realize our dependence on God. But when times get hard and we become “poor” in regard to life circumstances, we all of a sudden have an increased desire to pray. Why? Because poverty reveals to us the reality of our need. It opens us up to the frailty of our souls and of our lives, revealing to us just how incompetent we are when left only to our own capabilities.

Wealth can cause us to be delusional. If we have financial security, or the model girlfriend, or the dream job, or the perfect house, or the perfect life, then we convince ourselves we don’t need to depend on anyone or anything. “Wealth” allows us to live in the illusion of self-sustainment, a life lived without dependency.

The problem is wealth, in the end, is not enough. The richest person in the world could die at any moment. Some of the most successful people in the world have mental health catastrophes every other week. Some of the people we hold in the highest esteem fall asleep most nights wondering if their lives actually matter.

All of us—if we are honest enough to admit it—live a life of constant need. We depend on others for food, transportation, jobs, etc… We depend on God for air, food, clothing, and basically everything else. None of us are truly “self-sustaining.” It can be easy to believe we don’t need anyone or anything when things are going well. But visit someone suffering the loss of a spouse, or talk to the parents of a six-year-old undergoing chemotherapy for the third time, and you will find the things we rely on to make us feel in control are nothing more than ticking-time bombs, destined to fail us at one point or another.

The reality is that everyone is poor—but only some people realize it.

All of us are just a couple of bad days away from a crumbled life.

The reason Jesus attracted the poor and the “poor in spirit” is because they weren’t too proud to realize they needed him. They didn’t have wealth to trick them into thinking they could provide for themselves, into believing they were the master of their fate and the captain of their soul.⁴ In the words of Richard Bauckham, “Jesus requires of all disciples the radical trust that for the destitute is the only sort available.”

The Kingdom belongs to the poor in spirit because they are the only ones who are willing to receive it. You are only willing to be led if you believe you can’t find the way on your own.

So what does mean for us? A lot, but here are a few things.

1) If we continue to believe we can do everything on our own, we will never receive the grace offered freely to us. So many of us live functionally with a self-salvation worldview, where we rely on our own strength to get us through life. This is not the way of Jesus. Following Jesus means being honest about our need and dependency on God in Christ. It means saying, “I can’t do this. I’m not enough on my own. I need help.” Some might consider this self-deprecating, but it’s really just an acknowledgment of reality.

2) Acknowledging our spiritual poverty gives God room to work. It is in our weakness where Jesus’ power is displayed (2 Corinthians 12:1-10). The world doesn’t need more people who act like they’re awesome. It needs more people who know they are weak, and therefore allow God to show his greatness through them.

3) Accepting our state of dependence on God actually sets us free. We no longer have to attempt to carry a load we were never meant to carry. We can take up the easy yoke of Christ (Matthew 11:28-30).

To conclude, why do the poor receive the Kingdom? Because they are the people who realize they need it.

So, wherever you are reading this, ask yourself this: Do you realize your need for the Jesus and His Kingdom?

Because if you don’t realize you need it, you’ll never actually receive it. So pray. Pray you would realize you need it. Pray God would reveal to you your need for Him. Pray for a heart humble enough to receive the beautiful gift of the Kingdom God wants to give to you.

Notes

¹ Matthew 5:3

² For Jesus and the early church, wealth itself is not inherently a bad thing. But they recognized how easy it is for wealth to distract people from their need for God. Money, as Jesus says, makes a terrible master, and many, many people are enslaved to it (Matthew 6:24). For an outline of how wealthier Christians should view and use their money, see 1 Timothy 6:17-19.

³ Any area of life where we have abundance—whether that be money, talent, friends, etc.—can cause us to become self-reliant and conceited if we don’t recognize everything we have in life is a gift from the Lord. Recognizing God as the Giver of all good gifts (James 1:17) and thanking Him for them humbles us, helping us realize our need for Him.

⁴ See William Ernest Handley’s poem “Invictus”

⁵ Bauckham, Richard. Jesus: A Short Introduction. (United States: Oxford University Press, 2011), 79.