Matthew 1:18-25: What the Angel Told Joseph

INTRODUCTION

When the time comes to name a baby, some people choose the name of Father or Mother, or a favorite grandparent, or someone they admire.

Some names are traditional and run in families. My grandfather, William Sommerville, came from Scotland. The practice was that in Scotland the oldest child was traditionally named for his father. My father was William, the same name as his father and grandfather and so on back for many generations. My older brother also inherited the name William.

Parents used to buy a book with a title like What to Name the Baby, and pick a name with a special meaning. For example, John means “God Is Gracious,” Charles means “Strong and Manly,” Dorothy means “Gift of God,” and Sarah means “My Princess.” The name Sally comes from Sarah, so it also means “My Princess.” Ingrid is a Norse name meaning “Beautiful.” Rosemary is a combination of Rose and Mary, and also the name of a fragrant herb.

My father named each of his six children a name from an admirable character in the Bible: David, James, Mary, John, Ruth, and Timothy.

Today I want to talk about how Jesus got his name—actually two names.

The story is told in Matthew 1:18-25:

Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found to be with child of the Holy Spirit; and her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly.

But as he considered this, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit; and she will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”

All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet:

“Behold a virgin shall conceive and bear a son,

and his name shall be called Emmanuel”

(which means, God with us).

When Joseph woke from sleep he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him; he took his wife, but knew her not until she had borne a son; and he called his name Jesus.

So the angel gave Joseph two names for the Savior: Jesus and Immanuel. We will now consider why God chose these two names for his Son.

I. The angel told Joseph that our Lord’s name would be “Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”

A. The actual name in the Hebrew language was Yeshua, a form of Joshua. When Yeshua is translated into Greek it becomes iesous. Eventually the “i” became “j” in the English language, and that is why we say “Jesus.” The important thing is that the name “Jesus” means “God saves.”

Our Lord Jesus wasn’t the first person to have this name. In fact there were other Jesuses in New Testament. In fact, one of St. Paul’s friends was named Jesus Justus (Colossians 4:11). According to some of the best manuscripts of Matthew, the bandit and murderer who was released when Jesus was crucified was named “Jesus Barabbas.”

B. So the name “Jesus” means Savior, the one who would save his people from their sins. I would like to consider the ways in which Jesus saves us from our sins.

Salvation is to be forgiven.

Salvation begins with forgiveness.

Forgiveness is more important than we think. Most of us are not constantly aware of how far we fall short of being all we ought to be.

So, even if we are blind to most of our sins, we still need to be forgiven. That is why when we pray our Lord’s Prayer we ask the Father to forgive us our trespasses—or sins—or debts.

But there’s more to it than that.

Salvation is also to be set free from sin.

In Jesus’s world a large proportion of people were slaves. They belonged to someone who could do with them what he or she wished. The people of Jesus’s time would have been familiar with the idea of being “set free.” The word for “saved” also means “set free.”

The Bible tells us that all of us who are without Christ in our lives are slaves to sin, whether we know it or not.

Without Christ we can never overcome the selfishness, the wrong attitudes, the bad habits that keep us from being all that we can be—and keep us from enjoying God’s blessings in our lives.

We struggle against our bad habits and bad attitudes and stubborn faults. But Jesus, as Savior, can set us free.

Salvation from sin is also healing.

As I have mentioned before, “saved” and “healed” are the same word in the language of the Bible.

Sin is not only guilt but also sickness of the soul. The sickness of sin is deep in our hearts—mostly out of sight.

This deeply-hidden corruption in our hearts calls out for healing.

When I was in the army in Korea, I dug a lot of holes. One day I was digging a hole when I hit something hard. I thought it was a rock and I kept striking it. But as I uncovered it further, I saw that it was an unexploded mortar round. It could have exploded and torn me to pieces. I carefully covered it up and dug my hole elsewhere.

Suppose that unexploded shell could talk. It might say, “Why should I be treated so? I have never hurt anyone!”

I might answer, “It is not what you have done; it is what you have inside you.”

And what we all have inside us is what the Bible calls “uncleanness,” the sickness of sin just waiting to be expressed.

Salvation is also to be brought home to God.

In our natural state we are estranged from God. God seems far away and not a Friend at all.

According to 1 Peter 3:18, “Christ suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the righteous, that he might bring us to God.” Jesus came into the world to make God our Friend. Through Christ’s death he removed the barrier of sin that separates us from God.

Salvation is to enter into the light.

Sin blinds us. Jesus healed more blind people than any other kind of healing. After Jesus healed a blind man, he then told the people, “I am the light of the world.” When we come to Jesus as Savior we begin to walk in the light—we know why we are here and where we are going. We see things as God sees them, and we finally know what is most important—and it isn’t money or health or respect or success.

St. Paul wrote, “If anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, every thing has become new” (1 Corinthians 5:17).

II. And the angel gave Joseph another name for the baby: “Immanuel,” which means in Hebrew, “God with us.”

A. All through the Bible God is pictured as being with his people.

In Genesis God is pictured as walking and conversing with the Adam and Eve in the garden in the cool of the evening.

In Deuteronomy 31, God promises to go always with his people—never to leave them or forsake them.

In Psalm 73, the psalmist says to God:

“I am continually with you.

You hold my right hand.

You guide me with your counsel,

and afterward you will receive me to glory.”

And in our favorite 23rd Psalm we acknowledge:

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,

I will fear no evil, for thou art with me…”

B. But something more happened when God came to the earth in the man, Jesus.

Let me tell you a story.

Long ago a great monarch, Shah Abbis, ruled the Persians. Shah Abbis loved his people. To know them more perfectly he used to mingle with them in various disguises. One day he went as a poor man to the public baths, and there in the tiny cellar, he sat beside the fire-tender.

At mealtime he shared the fire-tender’s coarse food and talked to the lonely man as a friend. Again and again he visited him until the man grew to love his frequent visitor. Then one day the emperor revealed who he was, and he invited the man to ask some gift from him.

The fire-tender sat gazing on him with love and wonder. At last he spoke: “You left your palace and your glory to sit with me in this dark place, to partake of my coarse fare, to care whether my heart is glad or sorry! On others you may bestow rich presents, but to me you have given yourself. And I can only ask that you will never withdraw the gift of your friendship.”

That story is a dim picture of what our Great God has done for us in coming to earth as Jesus, our Savior and Friend.

John’s Gospel puts it this way:

And the Word—that is, Jesus—became flesh and dwelt among us,

and we beheld his glory,

glory as of the only Son from the Father,

full of grace and truth (John 1:14)

A new and wonderful thing that happened when God came to earth as a little baby human. In Jesus Christ the Great God truly became one of us, “Immanuel.”

I don’t know whether Mary and Joseph or any of his friends ever called him “Immanuel.” But that is who he was. “God with us.”

As a human, Jesus—the Incarnate God—would experience what it is to be a baby, a growing child, an adolescent, and an adult.

God knows everything, but when God became flesh and dwelt among us, he not only understood—but actually experienced—the struggles, disappointments, and temptations that we humans experience—even death.

In the book of Hebrews we read that Jesus is able to sympathize with our weaknesses, for he has been tempted in every way as we are (Hebrews 4:15).

Jesus was “despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.” He was betrayed. He was ridiculed and tortured. He felt that God had forsaken him, and finally he died on that cross—a painful and shameful death.

Jesus is truly “God with us.” He understands. He is one we can trust.

After his resurrection Jesus promised his disciples, Lo, I am always with you, even to the end of the world.”

Jesus will always be Immanuel, God with us.

C. But there is something even more wonderful at the end of the very last book of the New Testament.

In the next to the last chapter of the Book of Revelation, John writes of his vision of the New Heaven and the New Earth. He sees heaven opened up, and he hears a voice saying,

“Behold the dwelling of God is with men and women.

He will dwell with them, and they will be his people,

and God himself will be with them;

he will wipe away every tear from their eyes,

and death shall be no more,

neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain any more,

for the former things have passed away.”

So we can look forward to a time when Jesus will be “Immanuel”—God with us—in an even more intimate and more glorious way. We will dwell with him in the Father’s house.

In that time we will “see him as he is.” And we will “enter into the joy of the Lord.”

What could be better than that?

Luke 2:8-18 and Matthew 2:1-12: What the Shepherds and Wise Men Teach Us

INTRODUCTION

Isn’t it curious that in the Christmas story as told in the gospels we read of only three groups of people who were witnesses to Jesus as an infant—shepherds, wise men from the East, and two old people who met the holy family in the Temple 33 days after Jesus’s birth?

In our grade school Christmas play we had a major part played by the innkeeper. We had a procession of townspeople who came to the manger, while the fifth grade sang, “Bring a Torch, Jeanette, Isabella.” But the innkeeper and the townspeople aren’t mentioned in the Bible.

I assume that the reason why the stories of the wise men and the shepherds have been preserved for us is because they have something special to teach us. Today I would like us to think about what their meaning might be.

I wonder why the wise men and shepherds were especially chosen to witness the birth of the Savior. They were not typical of most of the people in the world into which Christ was born.

I. First, let’s talk about the shepherds.

A. It may surprise you to know that shepherds were not highly respected in ancient Israel of the first century.

It is true that the Jews knew the 23rd Psalm in which they call the Lord their shepherd.

And later Jesus would call himself “the Good Shepherd.”

But real-life shepherds were not respected. They were dirty and smelly. Their occupation tied them down and prevented them from showing up at the Temple for the required rituals, or to the synagogue for instruction and prayer. They had a reputation for thievery.

They were poor, illiterate, marginalized people.

But Luke tells how they were honored above all others by being visited by the angels and being the first to see the Holy Child only hours after his birth.

The story of the shepherds is in keeping with Luke’s emphasis on Christ’s concern for the downtrodden and despised among the people. Luke likes to dwell on the reception Jesus received from Samaritans, prostitutes, tax collectors, the poor, and women.

God honored these lowly shepherds by letting them know before anyone else in the world that the baby lying in the manger was the Savior of the World.

B. Here’s the story from Luke:

And in that region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And the angel said to them, “Be not afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of a great joy which will come to all the people; for to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find a babe wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.”

And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying,

“Glory to God in the highest,

and on earth peace among all those with whom he is pleased!”

When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us.”

And they went with haste, and found Mary and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger. And when they saw it, they made known the saying which had been told them concerning the child; and all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them (Luke 2:15-20).

II. Now we turn to Matthew’s gospel and the story of the wise men.

A. Tradition has it that the wise men arrived in Bethlehem the 13th day after the birth of Jesus. The 6th of January is celebrated in many churches as the Feast of the Epiphany—or manifestation of Christ. In many countries this is called “Three Kings Day,” and this is the day when the children unwrap their presents.

It may be that the wise men arrived only a few days after Jesus’s birth, or it could be that the wise men arrived any time up to two years after Christ’s birth.

When Herod had learned from the wise men when the star appeared, he killed all the boy babies in Bethlehem under two years old, so the wise men must have told him that the star must have appeared two years before they arrived in Jerusalem.

B. Let me tell you what we know about these “wise men.”

Our translations call them “wise men,” and they surely were wise men. But the word in the original is “magoi.” The word in English is “magi.”

Magi originally were priests of the Zoroastrian faith, an ancient religion of Persia, which dates from 600 years before Christ.

A magi was thought of as a combination of an astronomer, an astrologer, a priest, a philosopher, and a magician.

According to ancient people everything that happened on earth had its counterpart in the heavens—that is, the sky.

The various constellations represented the nations of the world. The new star would have appeared in Israel’s constellation.

The magi believed that what was happening on earth—and what was about to happen—would appear as a sign in the stars. So studying the stars was important to them.

We now know that this was bogus science. We know that stars are burning gases; they are not heavenly beings.

This story shows how God may use human errors and superstitions and weave them into a language that expresses eternal truths.

And this was the way that God spoke to these men outside of the faith of Israel in a way they could understand.

We read, Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, saying, “Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we have seen his star in the East, and have come to worship him” (Matthew 2:1-2).

And when they told their story in Jerusalem, we read that King Herod called together the priests and scribes, who told them the prophecy that the promised Messiah would be born in Bethlehem—about six miles from Jerusalem.

C. The star, which they had seen in the east, appeared again and in some way that I don’t understand, it led them to the house where Mary and Joseph and the child were living.

And going into the house they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him. Then opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh.

And being warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they departed to their own country by another way. (Matthew 2:11-12)

III. We can learn from these two stories that God speaks to different people in the language they can understand.

A. Jewish shepherds knew about angels. So God sent them an angel with the news.

They were poor people. They didn’t know much theology but they knew enough of their heritage to know what an angel was. And God sent them an angel to announce the Holy Child, the Savior of the World.

B. The wise men, being pagan astrologers, wouldn’t have had background in the Hebrew faith, so God spoke to them in a way that they could understand—through the stars.

Hundreds of years before Christ, Isaiah prophesied:

The people who walked in darkness

have seen a great light;

those who lived in a land of deep darkness—

on them light has shined

(Isaiah 9:2).

The magi in Persia lived in darkness, but God sent them light, and they responded by making this long and arduous journey to Bethlehem.

The priests in Jerusalem had studied the scriptures and had inherited the promises of God. They thought they were living in the light—but they saw nothing.

The Magi’s religion was full of darkness and superstition. But their hearts were open to God, and God came to them in a way they could understand, and they found the Savior.

C. This is still going on. Wherever hearts are open, wherever people are hungry for God, God comes to them and brings them light and truth.

They may be ignorant about things every churchgoer knows, but God draws them and they respond.

In Matthew 25 we read about the last judgment. Here Jesus describes the judgment of the nations. All people come before Jesus the judge and he divides them as a shepherd divides the sheep from the goats of an evening.

And to some he says, “Come, O blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.”

Then the righteous will answer him, “Lord, when did we see a stranger and welcome thee, or naked and clothe thee? And when did we see thee sick or in prison and visit thee?”

And the King will answer them, “Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers or sisters, you did it to me” (Matthew 25:31-40).

Jesus is not teaching that we are saved by our good deeds. He is telling us that loving actions reveal faith in the heart.

Everyone who comes to God, comes to God through Christ, who is the Way, the Truth, and the Light.

Abraham and Joseph and David and Isaiah and Jeremiah and all the faithful believers we read of in the Old Testament were saved through Jesus, even though they never knew his name.

Just so, even today, God reaches out to hungry hearts that are open to him and draws them to himself, even those outside Christian circles.

CONCLUSION

I want us to think about some of the ways people come to Jesus.

Some of us have grown up in very formal churches, the rituals and liturgies have brought us into God’s presence. We have learned to know Christ and we love the settings in which we came to that knowledge.

Some of us have grown up in very informal churches, with not much ritual at all. I have been to many church services that consisted of two hymns, a prayer, a sermon, a prayer, and one more hymn.

In some churches the centerpiece of the service is the Lord’s Supper. In other churches, the centerpiece is the sermon. But God is not limited to one expression of faith.

I have known people who grew up in good churches, but faith took root when they visited a church from another tradition, and suddenly, in that different setting, the truth became clear, and they came to assurance that they had indeed found Jesus as their Savior and Lord.

Some come to Christ because of an overwhelming sense of their sinfulness.

Others are seeking meaning in their lives, and they are drawn to Christ because he gives purpose and meaning to their lives.

Some come to God because they are afraid of death, and they respond to Jesus’s promise of resurrection to eternal life.

Some come to Jesus because they see God’s love embodied in a friend who they admire. They want to have what she has.

I have some CDs of cantatas by J. S. Bach recorded in Japan. The conductor is a Christian man named Masaaki Suzuki. They are wonderful devotional music, intended to be played and sung in churches. As Maestro Suzuki rehearses his musicians he explains the meaning of the scripture. Some of the musicians come to faith as they sing this beautiful music.

I knew a woman once who came to Christ when a young woman came to the factory where she worked in Scotland and sang the hymn, “My Savior First of All.”

My grandfather from Russia found salvation when he read a story in a Sunday school paper.

Many, many people find salvation because they have believing friends. They begin to fellowship with believers, study the Bible with them, and finally, come to believe for themselves.

I have read accounts on the Internet of Muslims who had dreams in which they saw Jesus, clothed in a white robe, beckoning them to come to him. They then looked up Christians to learn more and come to faith.

I read a book by a woman named Frederica Matthewes-Green. In college, she decided to become a Buddhist. After she was married, she and her husband took a vacation trip to Ireland. They visited a church, and as she walked around the dimly-lit interior admiring the stained glass windows, she eventually came upon a small side altar. Above it there was a white marble statue of Jesus with his arms held low and open, and his heart exposed on his chest, twined with thorns and springing with flames. (You’ve probably seen pictures like this—especially if you’re Catholic.)

She describes her experience this way: “I was standing there looking at the statue, and then I discovered I was on my knees. I could hear a voice inside me. It said, ‘I am your life. You think that your life is your name, your personality, your history. But that is not your life. I am your life. …You think that your life is the fact that you are alive, that your breath goes in and out, that energy courses in your veins. But even that is not your life. I am your life. I am the foundation of everything else in your life.’”

Ms. Matthewes-Green continues, “I stood up feeling pretty shaky. It was like sitting quietly in your living room and having the roof blown off. I didn’t have any doubt who the ‘I’ was that was speaking to me, and it wasn’t someone I was eager to get to know. If someone had asked me a half hour earlier, I would have said I was not sure Jesus had ever lived. Yet here he was, and, though I didn’t know him, it seemed he already knew me, from the deepest inside out.”

In the rest of her book Ms. Matthewes-Green tells how she has lived out her faith since that time. (At the Corner of East and Now, pp2-5)

God called the shepherds to Jesus in one way, and he called the wise men to Jesus in another. He called me in one way and you in another. And he calls each of us to himself in the way that is most suited to our needs.

It is wonderful that God has so many ways to draw men and women to himself. It remains for us to open our hearts to Jesus, invite him into our lives, and let him change us into faithful people who live for God to the end.

Matthew 5:3: “Blessed Are the Poor in Spirit…”

INTRODUCTION:

Back in my school teaching days, I used to ask my students to write an essay for me each week. One of topics I asked them to write about was what their ambition was for their lives.

The most common ambition of these 5th, 6th and 7th graders was simply to be happy. They weren’t dreaming of fame or riches. They just wanted to be happy.

Well, those children are in their 60s or 70s now, and I hope that they have learned by now that there are more important things than “being happy”—and that happiness is not achieved by aiming at it.

Jesus gave us some instructions for what makes a “happy” life.

We call them “The Beatitudes.” “Beatitude” just means “blessing.” The Beatitudes are the first nine sentences of the Sermon on the Mount.

The first one goes like this: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.” Then follows: “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.” Next: “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.” You would recognize the others.

These words are familiar, so familiar that when we hear them, we are not especially impressed.

That is because we have heard them so much that we don’t realize that they are like 9 little bombshells, demolishing the ideas we take for granted about what it takes to have a happy life.

If you asked most people, “What makes a happy life?” they might tell you that the good life is to be young and healthy, to have good friends, to have fun, to be respected, and to have enough money to buy nice things.

Many dream of winning the lottery. They think that if they had a million dollars, their troubles would be over. This, in spite of the fact that winning the lottery has ruined—not helped—many lives.

What Jesus says constitutes a happy life is just the opposite of what most people would choose.

Today I intend to talk about the first Beatitude: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

I. First, I want to talk to you about this first word: “Blessed.”

The word in Greek is makarios. According to my Greek lexicon, makarios has three meanings: “happy,” “blessed,” and “fortunate.”

We think of “happiness” as a feeling, but here Jesus isn’t really talking about feelings.

He’s talking about a reality that is more than just a feeling. So our translation uses the word, “blessed.” Or equally good would be the word, “fortunate.” The meaning is, “How fortunate are those who are poor in spirit!”

Even if they don’t always feel happy, the poor in spirit are blessed—because they are fortunate. They have the best in this life—and in the life to come.

II. People can be poor in different ways.

A. Some people are poor because they’ve not got the things necessary for life.

When Jesus was on earth poor people were much more likely to be attracted to him than rich people.

Rich people are actually at a disadvantage when it comes to responding to the gospel.

That is why Jesus warned so often about the danger of riches. Three of the four gospels record Jesus’s saying: “It is harder for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”

It is hard for a rich person not to think that he or she is somehow better than other people. Rich people get their way in the world. People respect them because they are rich.

To have plenty of money makes a person feel comfortable in his world and it dims his hope for something better to come.

Another time Jesus said, “Blessed are you poor, for yours is the Kingdom of God” (Luke 6:20).

B. But Matthew has it a little different. As we have read it, Matthew quotes Jesus as saying, “Blessed are the poor in spirit…”

Now, I think that Jesus, like every other preacher, said similar things at different times. And one time he said, “Blessed are the poor in spirit,” and another time he said, “Blessed are you poor.”

When Jesus says, “Blessed are the poor in spirit…” he isn’t limiting his blessing to those who are poor in money. This is good for us. We aren’t literally poor, but we can have the blessing of the “poor in spirit.”

One may have money and be poor in spirit, and one can have no money and be proud and forgetful of God.

Jesus told a story about two men who went to the temple to pray. One looked up to God and said, “God, I thank you that I am not like other people: thieves, rogues, adulterers. …I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of all my income.”

But the other man—a despised tax collector—could not look up to God but bowed his head and beat his breast and simply said, “God be merciful to me, a sinner!” (Luke 18:9-14).

Now the tax collector was probably had more money than the Pharisee, because Pharisees weren’t generally rich. But Pharisees tended to be proud. They knew they were more righteous than most people.

Many tax collectors became wealthy. But this tax collector knew that before God he was poor and needy, and he begged God for forgiveness.

And Jesus said that the sinful, but repentant, tax collector went back to his house with the gift of salvation, while the self-righteous Pharisee went home unchanged.

We are not poor. We have enough to eat and a comfortable place to stay and money to pay our bills—but we are also needy. We need God.

We know how far short we have come from being all that God intended us to be, and, like the tax collector, we bow our heads and cry out, “God be merciful to me, a sinner.”

III. Now it’s time to talk about what it means to be “poor in spirit.”

A. One translation has it this way: ““Blessed are those who know they are poor.”

When the great Martin Luther came to die it is said that his last words were: “We are beggars; this is true.”

Luther was a great man. He was successful. He was admired.

But Luther realized that before God he was a beggar.

Everything he had that was worth having was what God, in his mercy, had given him.

To be poor in spirit is the opposite of being “rich in spirit.”

To be rich in spirit is to be self-sufficient, pleased with myself, to have a feeling of superiority—not perfect, but better than most people.

To be rich in spirit is to be constantly aware of the faults of other people and mostly blind to my own.

To be rich in spirit is to think that I deserve to have my share of good things and to suppose that my wealth, health and success are evidence of my goodness.

To be poor in spirit is to be empty and open before God.

To be poor in spirit is to have a deep sense of my sin and need. It is to know my helplessness and God’s goodness.

To be poor in spirit is to have plenty of room for God in my life. It is to have Jesus so fill my heart that I become small in my own eyes—and Jesus becomes great.

If I am poor in spirit, I live in the presence of God. I will be open-handed and open-hearted. I will know in the depths of my heart that what I have is not mine but God’s.

To be poor in spirit is to be like Jesus.

In Philippians 2, St. Paul writes this:

In lowliness of mind, count others better than yourselves.

Let each of you look not only to your own interests,

but also to the interests of others.

Have this mind among yourselves, which you have in Christ Jesus,

who, though he was in the form of God,

did not count equality with God a thing to cling to,

but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant,

being born in the likeness of men.

And being found in human form,

he humbled himself and became obedient unto death,

even death on a cross

(Philippians 2:3-8).

Someone said, “God wants to give us something, but our hands are too full.”

Or maybe we should say, “Our hearts are too full”—too full of feelings of self-satisfaction…goodness…superiority.

We are too often, like the Pharisee in the temple, thankful that we are not like other people.

We forget that we are sinners and need God’s mercy as much as the worst sinner in the world.

It’s only when we realize our spiritual poverty that we are willing to accept the gift of life that God is holding out to us.

“Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound,

That saved a wretch like me.

I once was lost but now I’m found,

Was blind but now I see.”

The man who wrote that understood his spiritual poverty.

And because he understood his spiritual poverty, he could experience God’s amazing grace.

CONCLUSON

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

The “Kingdom of Heaven” simply means God’s Kingdom.

God’s kingdom is where God rules.

If God is ruling your life, you are living in God’s kingdom—even while you are still in this world.

And someday you will experience the Kingdom of God in its glorious fullness.

In this world we have trials and tribulations. Sometimes we are walking through the valley of the shadow of death.

But we are blessed, because we have the riches that can never be taken away.

We are rich because we have God, and God is enough.

Once I was riding in an elevator in a retirement center where a lot of rich people live.

It is a luxurious place and no one can go there unless they have plenty of money.

But riding in the elevator I heard one woman say, “This is a very sad place. Everyone here has a sad story.”

We all have sad stories, whether we are rich or poor, but if we have Jesus we are blessed anyway because we can look forward to everything that is good and pleasant.

A hospital chaplain left the hospital shortly before noon on Ash Wednesday to attend a service at a nearby church. As part of the worship, the minister inscribed on the chaplain’s forehead a cross made of ashes mingled with oil. He returned to the hospital, ashes still in place, and began to visit the patients. One of the patients, a woman, noticed the ashes on his forehead and, thinking it was a smudge of dirt, grabbed a tissue, moistened it, and said, “Come here, Hon, you’ve gotten into something.”

The chaplain artfully avoided the tissue and explained: “No, they are ashes. They’re supposed to be there.” She looked at him, puzzled.

He told her the meaning of Ash Wednesday, that the minister places ashes on our foreheads as he says, “From dust you came and to dust you shall return.” They remind us that God was with us when we were weak and sinful. They represent our acknowledgment of our mortality and our sin and our need of God.

The woman thought for a moment and then she said, “I think I want some of that.” The chaplain slowly reached to his forehead, borrowed some of the ashes, and with his finger traced on her forehead the sign of the cross.

Let me end with these lines Isaiah’s prophecy, written hundreds of years before Jesus came. But I believe that these words were in Jesus’s mind when he said, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven”:

Thus says the high and lofty One

who inhabits eternity,

whose name is Holy:

“I dwell in the high and holy place,

and also with him who is of a contrite and humble spirit,

to revive the spirit of the humble,

and to revive the heart of the contrite.”

(Isaiah 57:15)

If we are poor in spirit—if we are humble and lowly in heart, God dwells with us and we are already part of his realm. To us the Kingdom of Heaven is a reality even while we are in this world, and the more empty our heart is of love for the fleeting pleasures of this world and the more full it is of the love of Christ, the more sure we are of our glorious destiny.

The world may call it a “pie in the sky, by and by,” but we can see it from afar.

Soon it will be Christmas, when we commemorate a time when, in an obvious way, God’s reality entered ours. And Jesus calls us to himself to partake of the life of that other world which is eternal—a world that is normally hidden from sense and sight but is more real and permanent than all that we see and feel.

Dear Jesus, teach us our spiritual poverty so that we may embrace your Kingdom—so that we may find our rest in you. Fill our lives with your love and peace. Prepare us for Glory.