POVERTY OF SPIRIT
POWER
387
understand the message of the Kingdom and re- spond to it. ' Blessed are the poor who have allowed their poverty to fulfil its work in them, — who are poor in spirit as well as in worldly cir- cumstances.' The truth of the saying may be best illustrated by the historical fact that our Lord's earliest disciples were drawn, almost wholly, from the poorer class. In this class alone He^found those who were capable of entering into sj'mpathy with Him and co-operating with Him in His work.
3. What, then, is the religious temper, the 'poverty of spirit,' which was associated in our Lord's mind with actual poverty ? When we examine the saying in the light of the general context of the teaching of Jesus, we can discover three main ideas which are implied in it. (I) In the first place, poverty of spirit is the receptivity for the Divine message. It corresponds, in this sense, with the teachable, childlike spirit to which the Kingdom is elsewhere promised (Mt 18^"^). The wealthier classes, in their scrupulous obedience to the Law, had become enslaved to custom and tradition. Before the new teaching could make any ajjpeal to them, they had everj-thing to un- learn, freeing their minds entirely of the prejudices and conventional ideas which had encrusted them. In the poor, the instinct for trutli had never been perverted by mistaken habit and education. They could listen to Jesus with an open mind, and allow His message to make its own impression. From those who would enter into His Kingdom our Lord demands this receptivity, which in His own time He found, almost exclusively, among the poor, — the common people who heard Him gladly (]Mk josT) — (2) The idea of humilifij is likewise implied. Arrogance and self-complacency are at all times the peculiar vices of men of wealth ; and in our Lord's day these vices bore a religious as well as a social complexion. The rich man could boast, like the Pharisee in the parable, that he Avas not as other men, since he Iiad fulfilled to the letter every demand of the Law. His pride as a rich man became, in the religious sphere, self-i'ighteousness. Our Lord perceived that to such a temper of mind no true desire for God or right relation towards Him was possible. God could not bestow His gift on those who had never, in a deep sense of personal unworthiness, realized their need of it. The King- dom of heaven was for the 'poor in spirit,' — the poor who are conscious of their poverty, and so make their approach to God. — (3) A third idea, characteristic of the whole teaching of Jesus, seems also to be involved in the words. Disciple- shii? is impossible without a renunciation of earthly possessions. The natural result of wealth is to hamper a man in his pursuit of the higher life, since he cannot help reflecting, like the young ruler, how much it is likely to cost him. The poor have little to lose, and need have no hesitancy. They can answer the call of Christ at any moment, with an instant, unquestioning obedience. It is not, however, an outward poverty that our Lord demands, but a ' poverty of spirit,' an inward re- nunciation. There may be no demand for a literal abandonment of Avorldly possessions, but the true disciple will hold them indifferent. He will not be retarded in any Christian service by the fear of losing them. Whatever be his outward condition, he will have laid aside every weight, detached him- self from all earthly considerations, and will act in the poor man's spirit of instant readiness at the Divine call.
The effect, therefore, of the added words in Mt. is to attach a deeper, moral significance to the original idea of poverty. Among the poor of His own land and time our Lord discovered the truest examples of the receptive, humble, unworldly temper which He demanded in His followers. The
idea of social status was subordinate in His mind to that of an inward spirit, which is not necessarily confined to any particular class. By Avhatever process the qualifying words were introduced into the saying, they correctly interpret the real thought of Jesus, and are necessary to guard it from misconstruction.
4. The Beatitude as a whole is clearly reminiscent of OT passages which comfort the ' poor in the land ' with the promise of jSIessianic blessedness (cf. esp. Ps 37). As in the other Beatitudes, our Lord arrests attention by stating His idea in a bold paradoxical form. The poor, whom men de- spisecl and pitied, were the truly rich ; a wonder- ful inheritance was reserved for them, and was already ' theirs,' in the midst of their seeming jjoverty. We may trace, likewise, an implied answer to current Jewish theories of worldlj" mis- fortune as evidence of God's displeasure. The poor, so far from sufi'ering a deserved punishment, were to be regarded as ' blessed.' — Their hardshiiJS were the promise and guarantee of their entrance into the Kingdom.
5. This Beatitude is placed first in the versions of both Mt. and Lk., and evidentlj' with a de- liberate intention. Poverty of spirit is the funda- mental requirement in the Christian life. It represents a condition of mind and heart without which a man is wholly irresponsive to the Divine influences. As Jesus began His ministry with a call to repentance, so He pronounced His first Beatitude on the 'poor in spirit.' He thus re- peated, under a different image, the great declara- tion, ' Except ye turn and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven ' (Mt W).