In his most famous teaching, Jesus Christ begins the Sermon on the Mount by blessing and congratulating the same people many of us are tempted to pity, ignore or (in some cases) even despise when we actually meet them in real life.
Who are the poor in spirit? Matthew scholar Dale Bruner describes them this way,
“…any who have come to the end of their tether and for whom the saving God is now an absolute necessity and no longer a theoretical postulate–for all such “failures” God is there.
Kathy’s Story
Kathy grew up as most girls do, playing with her dolls, whispering secrets about boys with friends over the too-long telephone calls that bugged her parents, dreaming about the shining knight she would one day marry. It was an innocent childhood. Then in her early teens, she took a wrong turn.
Looking back, even she didn’t know exactly how it happened. She just knew that her stable, secure life with a loving mom and dad lacked excitement. She began to gravitate to girls who by their appearance, their attitude, their conversation, their actions were not quite “safe”—being with them was an adrenaline rush she had never experience before. And, if and when she needed help, she could always return to her nice, safe family.
Kathy’s new friends led her into deeper experiences to satisfy her craving to push the envelope. First it was experimenting with drugs, then sex. She and her friends would meet Sunday mornings at Starbucks and giggle like little girls as they shared their escapades of the night before.
Her parents wished Kathy would still go to church with them on Sundays, but by now, as an opinionated, willful eighteen-year-old, Kathy had for all practical purposes declared herself independent and used home only as a motel and laundry service. Her real life was lived elsewhere.
She graduated from high school—barely—not because she wasn’t smart but because she had long ago decided that books and studies were too staid and uptight for her free spirit. She continued to live at home, working menial fast-food jobs for gas money.
The big change came when her father unexpectedly died of a coronary. Kathy’s mother remarried just nine months later to a man who soon took her to live out of state. Casting around for some safe harbor in the midst of this storm, Kathy met Freddy. Two weeks later, they impulsively got married by a justice of the peace. No family attended.
If she thought Freddy would be anything like her strong and gentle father, Kathy was disappointed. Freddy was a leech, and a self-centered one at that. When he left her for another woman, all Freddy left behind were some old Beatles CD’s and a six-month old daughter named Carmen.
Kathy knew nothing about being a mother. Her own mother, who might gladly have helped with Carmen, was a thousand miles away. She stumbled along, living off welfare, always tired and worn out, no social life, then saw an ad in the paper seeking babies for adoption. She called on a whim, talked to a nice woman, went in and signed reams of legal documents. Four weeks later, 10-month-old Carmen was placed with a family that wanted her, and Kathy was $10,000 richer.
Still only 23, Kathy made a down payment on a BMW, moved her meager belongings into an apartment complex filled with singles and college students, and began to enjoy the good life. It wasn’t long before she met a number of men like herself in her building—physically attractive, worldly-wise.
She told herself she wasn’t going to make another mistake like Freddy, and she didn’t—Ted lasted five years. But Ted’s many affairs, and then his lies to cover them up, left her feeling cheap and used. Her self-esteem hit rock bottom when she caught him with one of her girlfriends from high school. Divorced from Ted, the BMW long ago repossessed, her waitress job paying minimum wage, Kathy’s life reached a complete dead end.
Working the morning shift at Denny’s, she served a group of six who met every Wednesday morning in the same corner booth. One day after the others had gone, one guy in his early 30’s remained at the table. She struck up a conversation—the fact that he was so cute may have had something to do with it.
“What are you people meeting so intensely about every week? It looks like you’re planning to rob a bank or something!!” as she flashed him her biggest flirtatious smile. He smile back and said, “ Well, in a way we are.” “Huh?” was all she could respond. “We’re the organizing team planning a new church” he said, “Maybe you’d like to come and check it out.”
“Oh, I’m not much for church anymore” she started backing away, “I went as a girl, but you know….” “No, tell me” he said. “Well, let’s just say I don’t think God has much use for someone like me. Anyway, have a nice day,” and she fled into the kitchen until he left.
Another Wednesday a few weeks later, the same guy lingered after the others had left. “Kathy, I have something for you” he said as he handed her a flyer. “Our church is starting this week at a restaurant downtown that’s closed on Sundays. I really hope you’ll check it out. I hope you might give Jesus another chance; I know he hasn’t given up on you.” He said it so sincerely as he looked straight into her eyes that for a moment she almost believed him. “I’ll think about it” was all she said.
As the weekend approached, she kept coming back to those words “Jesus hasn’t given up on you.” She happened to have that Sunday off, and, without consciously deciding, she found herself in her old Honda Civic driving to the location on the flyer. There was some singing, and then a woman went to the microphone and began talking about her life. Enough of it paralleled her own life that Kathy began to listen.
The woman described all the ways she had not measured up to what she thought God expected of her. She said she would go to church and hear the word “righteous” and feel angry at the people sitting around her who she felt must all be hypocrites, and yet, at the same time, she feel dirty and unclean and that her life was hopeless. Then one day a Christian friend told her something amazing—God knew it was impossible for her to be righteous! Instead of a judgement on how you’d lived your life, really being “righteous” was a gift only God could give. Only God could help her be right again. The woman kept on talking, but tears were beginning to trickle down Kathy’s cheeks.
More than anything else, Kathy wanted her life to be right again….right with God… right with herself…..right with the men she’d used and had used her….right with her mother …right with her daughter who she had sold for $10,000.
In the tears now on her lips, she could taste the salt in the wounds of the last twenty years since she was a little girl hugged by the Daddy she adored. Slowly, she gained control of herself and rejoined her surroundings. The service was over and people were milling around; many had already left.
Then the same cute guy from the restaurant came and sat down next to her. He didn’t seem bothered that her face was a mess and said simply, “I’m glad you came today Kathy; would you like to talk?”
Epilogue
Who are the “poor in spirit?”
Kathy’s story may not be yours, but anyone with a passing interest in the Bible will recognize it. Throughout the gospels, Jesus has a powerful attraction for people like Kathy (often called “prostitutes, tax collectors, and sinners”). All are losers. In what is amazing good news, Jesus says to them: “You’re down, but not out!”
Even more, in a way those of us who have never seen ourselves as losers can barely comprehend, Jesus congratulates them:
But there are still other “poor in spirit” stories to tell besides Kathy’s. Next week I’ll have another story of a very different kind of loser: those who are “up, but not in.”
