Becoming Mwimi

Matthew 5:3
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

What do you want out of life? Let’s be honest. I’d like to receive a graduate degree from a well-known seminary. I’d like to have a few kids. I’d like to stay in moderately good health along with my wife so that people will look at us and say, “They’re looking good these days.” I’d like to build a house someday. I think it would be pretty awesome to own a fam van for toting my straight-A kids to their extracurricular activities. I want a bumper-sticker that says “Baby On Board.” I want to walk into my suburban home and smell pot roast cooking in the oven while I sit down in my recliner, take off my shoes, and rest for a few moments while my wife asks me how my long day was and…

Looking over the things I’ve written, some of which are slightly exaggerated, it’s like I’m detailing some ideal Caucasian, suburban lifestyle. It’s the life that most people like me long for at some capacity. I don’t think it’s a life that most people actually live. The more I think about it, the more it seems like some modern-day Cleaver household with an i-Book laptop, wireless internet, and FOX news delivering headlines on the kitchen plasma TV. And all of a sudden, Jesus’ slogan sideswipes me as I coast along in my Honda Odyssey: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” Oh yeah… that. The kingdom of heaven. I forgot already.

So I change my mind one more time, close my eyes, and feel the power of Christ’s royal reign in my life. Then, in some faint voice, Jesus begins to teach me a new, radical way: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” The poor in spirit, huh? What’s that all about? I mean, do I actually have to be poor to be poor in spirit? I whisper in my head, “Please, God, no… not that… anything but poverty! I like my stuff! I’m an American!”

I think it would be beneficial for me to review for just a minute what that one line signifies… that the ones who attain the kingdom of heaven are the poor in spirit. I think it’s important to take a deeper look at the language that Jesus is using and try and get a good feel of what’s implied in the words themselves.
I want to contemplate the word “poor.”

Poor.

Destitute.

Lacking.

When I think of the word “poor,” I think about the Compassion International child that my fiancée and I are supporting- Daniel Jackson Mwimi. I’ll never forget seeing his face for the first time after a chapel service at King College. When I looked down at his picture, I saw destitution in his eyes. There were holes in his shirt and he had no shoes. Dust covered his legs and his hands were dirty. In my heart I felt sick for standing there in my clean clothes… in air conditioning… with shoes on my feet.

With all my education, could I be taught to be poor in spirit? With all my savings, could I buy even a small percentage of what Mwimi had already attained of the kingdom of heaven? Sadly, no. In fact, my education and my money deter me from the kingdom.

The word “poor” in the Greek is ptochos; it’s a really rich word with a lot of meaning. Ptochos goes beyond lacking wealth to lacking honor, position, and influence. It means to be “helpless to accomplish an end.” Jesus is saying, “Happier are the people who are helpless to get anything done and lack the means to get things done, for they’re the ones who can submit to the reign of heaven.”

So then do I actually have to be economically impoverished to grasp the kingdom of heaven? Well, if you take the passage for what it says: yes… and no. What a gloriously ambiguous answer. The word ptochos or “poor” implies lacking the means to “accomplish an end” which would include financial means; however, the exact phrasing is “poor in spirit.” Ah! The sun is breaking through the clouds. It looks like I might not have to sell my i-Pod after all!
Don’t rush to conclusions.

While Jesus is calling for a destitution of the heart, I believe there is a very real connection between the poorness of spirit and the poorness of circumstances.
A need for the true King is difficult to ascertain when our own kingdoms have safeguarded us from pain. When the wealth the world can provide detaches us from a reliance upon God for sustenance, it is close to impossible to distinguish his reign in our lives. This is why the lame and the sick of the gospels were the first to trust the ragamuffin Jesus. There was no honor, no status that they had attained that would be put in jeopardy if they were to abandon themselves to nothing but Jesus Christ. What a beautiful thing! There is nothing that stops the poor from abandoning their lives to Jesus! Is it so difficult, then, to see why Jesus says that they are blessed? Is it hard to understand why the kingdom of heaven is theirs?

As I sit here and think once more about what I want from life, I have a changed mind. Maybe I don’t blindly want to be Mr. Cleaver living in my cushy white neighborhood in my cushy white house, with my white kids and my white wife. I want to be poor in spirit. I want to allow the Lord to put me and my family through painful situations just so that we can realize that we have no ability to accomplish anything apart from the rule of Jesus Christ in our lives. I want to pour out the wealth that is given to me like a sin offering so that I can become like the poor, like Mwimi. I want to understand in every moment of my life that I lack the means to accomplish anything apart from Jesus.

Do whatever it takes to become poor in spirit. As I seek first the kingdom of God, I begin to understand that I’m naked and unequipped without Jesus. The hard part is remembering that fact in every step of my journey. Of course, if I forget how poor I am… I can always remember Jesus’ slogan, and change my mind... again.