All I can say is thank God for the "in spirit" addendum. Jesus really had me going there for a minute. And I bet I'm not the only one. Blessed are the poor? Riiiiiight. You just knew Jesus had to be setting us up with the whole "Blessed are the poor" thing. Startling us a little to get our attention before adding the liberating phrase, "in spirit."
"In spirit" is wonderful. It does everything we need it to do. Frankly, it salvages the whole verse by spiritualizing words of Jesus that were otherwise decidedly unspiritual. "In spirit" completely saves the first beatitude. A rather earthy and, if I may say so, objectionable saying (blessed are the poor) becomes a quite palatable. It allows us to understand that there are a lot of types of poverty all of which can affect our spirit. But mostly, "in spirit" is wonderful because it allows us to remain rich and still be "blessed." Why? Well, because we are "poor... in spirit." God bless us all -- everyone!
What a wonderful thing it is to know that we can still be utterly self-reliant, high achievers living high lifestyles, who need nothing from anyone -- and still receive the blessing of the Kingdom -- because of our rich poverty.
A few heads nod in puzzled agreement.
Nobody laughs.
Very few weep.
But those who do weep know what's up. Rich people, even rich church members are in a heap of trouble. Why? Because we have all we need. We have more than we want. We smile when talking about security. We don't need to rely on others, or even on God -- only on ourselves. Our plates are piled high, our closets are overflowing, our confidence soars. We are blessed!
To the losers, to the abjectly poor, to those whose circumstances beat them down so low that they are forced to turn to the only real Help anyone can get anyway -- to these, but never to the rich Jesus says, "You, my friends, are fortunate indeed. You get the whole kingdom"
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