The Poor Kingdom

Matthew 5:3

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

Tom Wright, Matthew for Everyone (Vol. 1)

The life of heaven—the life of the realm where God is already king—is to become the life of the world, transforming the present “earth” into the place of beauty and delight that God always intended. And those who follow Jesus are to begin to live by this rule here and now. That’s the point of the Sermon on the Mount, and these “beatitudes” in particular. They are a summons to live in the present in the way that will make sense in God’s promised future; because that future has arrived in the present in Jesus of Nazareth. It may seem upside down, but we are called to believe, with great daring, that it is in fact the right way up (38).

A. Orendorff

What would it look like to live as though being “poor in spirit” really were the way of blessing and inheritance? What would it mean to live “right way up” in an “upside down” world? Reflecting briefly, I suppose this would mean at least two things. First, it would mean living honestly. Living honestly means more than just telling the truth about who I am (what we normally call “confession”—owing my sin and presenting myself as I am); it also means ordering my life beneath the reality that in and of myself I am both untrustworthy and untrusting, unlovely and unloving, unfaithful and disbelieving. I am poor and to live as though I were rich is a lie.

Second, it would mean valuing “poverty,” valuing what can (for all intents and purposes) offer me nothing that this world considers valuable. The litmus-test for Matthew 5:3 is: In what ways am I giving my time, money and relational energy to people and projects that cannot add any profit to my life?