Matthew 5:1-3 The Poor In Spirit

January 18, 2023

Jeff Harrington

The word “beatitude” is derived from the Latin term “beatus” which means “blessed”. The Sermon on the Mount context is to be blessed is to experience what follows. As children of God, we are meant to experience and express all that is said here. Each beatitude is meant to characterize every follower of Jesus. Jesus is not dividing us up into eight different kinds of disciples as though some of us are poor while others are meek and so on and so forth. The follower of Jesus is all eight of these things (i.e. the follower of Jesus is meek and poor and pure of heart, etc.). The first set of four Beatitudes focuses on our vertical relationship to God; the second set of four on our horizontal relationship to people. Each of the eight builds upon the other so that there is this wonderful natural progression. Today we focus on the one that is the most foundational to all the others…blessed are the poor in spirit.