Blessed are Humble Matthew 5:1-12

Blessed are Humble Matthew 5:1-12

When Jesus sits down on the hillside to teach he is surrounded by everyday people. People who were not the leaders of the temple and religious society. They came out by the thousands to find some hope. As they sit on the hillsides Jesus has good news for them. These are the very people Jesus has come to find.

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of God.”

The word Blessed can be translated Happy. The word for “Poor in Spirit” is the same as humble. So, John MacArthur translates this passage as “Happy are the humble, for theirs is the Kingdom of God.”

Jesus is saying if you are feeling poor in spirit rejoice for you have the Kingdom of God. You don’t measure up, others put you down. You can’t seem to remember all the laws, you seem incapable of following them. You must earn a living you can’t be in temple praying all day. You do not feel spiritually clean or strong.

Jesus’ message to them is that they are just the person who gets to enter the Kingdom of heaven.

Heaven is a gift of God. “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” Ephesians 2:9

Only the truly humble person recognizes their spiritual poorness before God. It’s only those who are poor in spirit that know the vast gulf between God and man. They are the ones seeking the grace God provides.

This contrasts with the religious people who flaunt their righteousness and self-sufficiency in the town and in the temple. The leaders who are evaluating what Jesus says, even as He sits on the hillside teaching. They are saying “who does this Jesus think he is?”

In Luke 8:11 Jesus put it this way “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.  The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed £ thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector.  I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’  But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’  I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”

The people on the hillside understand why Isaiah, when he saw God, said “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!” For this reason, because they see their own need God sends seraphim with the burning coal with the message “Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.”

At the end of Job in chapter 42 Job says “Then Job answered the Lord and said:  “I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.  ‘Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge?’ Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know. but now my eye sees you; therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes.”

It is only in our poorness that we can be made rich. Humility before God and before others is essential to receiving the grace of God.

As Jesus is teaching, where are you? Are you standing off to the side filling out your evaluation forms? Are you sitting on the hillside desperate for some Good News? Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Blessed are you the pour in spirit, for you will enter the kingdom of heaven.”