A Need to Know

Matthew 5:1-3 Now when he saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, 2 and he began to teach them, saying: 3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
 
THE first four chapters of Matthew essentially are the apostle Matthew’s (the one-time tax collector) confirmation to the Jews that Jesus of Nazareth is the promised Messiah. He identifies Jesu’s genealogy, birth story and early residence to be the fulfillment of prophecy. He points to John the Baptist’s ministry of preparation. In chapter 4 Jesus confronts the devil, calls his disciples and begins the call to repentance.  
   We’ll begin our view of this gospel of Jesus’ life and teachings at Matthew 5-7. Called the “Sermon on the Mount”, this marks some of Jesus’ first definitive teachings in this gospel. The king has come. He gathers disciples – people intent to learn from him – to begin opening their minds to a kingdom view.
   Immediately we see the view is much different than the world’s. With “blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” Jesus is causing us to stop and say, “What’s that? The poor are blessed? How does the kingdom belong to them?” The poor didn’t have anything in Jesus’ day, and they don’t today. How do the poor possess?
   But this is not about physical poverty, is it? It is about our spiritual poverty. Being poor in spirit is realizing we do not know and love God as he desires. To learn anything, we must know what we don’t know. For example, we know we are born unable to read, write and have certain skills. We are poor in knowledge. Then what happens when we know such “poverty”? We either accept it and remain poor. Or we reject such poverty and act  to enrich our lives with new knowledge. Hopefully we are all eager to learn necessary skills to become rich in knowledge to live well, so we can care for ourselves, families, communities and nations.
   This is certainly true of kingdom life. To learn of God, we must confess, “My knowledge of God is very poor. I need to be intentional to learn of him.” Although we all are made in God’s image and born with the knowledge of God (Romans 1), we have much to learn if we desire to enrich our lives in the kingdom of heaven.
   When we sit down to hear from Jesus, we must know that have much to know. This is how we are to approach each sermon, Bible teaching, Bible reading, prayer and service for God. Each of these is an opportunity to learn and know.
   Is there anything more essential than to know how to belong to the kingdom of heaven?
 
Psalms 51:17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.