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POVERTY AND MOURNING
MATTHEW 5:1-4
Series:  The Beatitudes - Happiness is... - Part One

Pastor Stephen Muncherian
October 25, 1998

This morning we are talking about happiness. If happiness is a permanent mood of joyful contentment - a deep-down state of peace and hope - not just an upbeat - fleeting feeling produced by good things happening to us. What really leads to happiness?

In January there was a USA Today survey that reported what gave people a feeling of success and accomplishment - happiness in life. 83% of the people said that satisfaction with their lives was important. 78% said happiness came from having a good marriage - 66% said being able to afford things that are important to them - 63% said having successful children is important.

If we think about it these are really good answers. But how are we suppose to achieve these things? And it seems like most of us are running after happiness - we’re so busy trying to get to this elusive state that we’re not really happy.

Dennis Wholey, author of “Are You Happy?” says that - according to the people who research these things - only 20% of Americans are happy.

This morning I invite you to turn with me to Matthew 5:1-4 and we’re going to begin looking at what Jesus said about happiness - real happiness - and how to experience it.

Matthew 5 is the beginning of one of the best known and most often read texts in the Bible - the Sermon on the Mount - and the verses we’re looking at this morning are the beginning of what has been called the Beatitudes. Off and on - over the next few Sundays we’re going to be looking at the Beatitudes - and exploring what Jesus said about real happiness in life - and eternity. This morning we’re going to look at the first two of these Beatitudes.

Matthew 5:1-12: Seeing the crowds, He - Jesus - went up on the mountain, and when He sat down His disciples came to Him. And He opened His mouth and taught them, saying: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.”

The word “beatitude” comes from the Latin “beatus” which means “blessed” - it translates the Greek makarios - which means blessed or happy. In other words - if we live according to what Jesus teaches here we will be happy - blessed.

First, Jesus says that:

1. SPIRITUAL POVERTY LEADS TO HAPPINESS

(3) “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven."

I recently read an article where the author gave 9 Steps to Third World Living - 9 things that we in this wealthy country could do to understand what its like to live in third world poverty. Let me share these with you and think about what it means to be poor.

First, take out the furniture: leave a few old blankets, a kitchen table, maybe a wooden chair. You’ve never had a bed.

Second, throw out your clothes. Each person in the family may keep the oldest suit or dress, a shirt or blouse. The head of the family has the only pair of shoes.

Third, all kitchen appliances have vanished. Keep a box of matches, a small bag of flour, some sugar and salt, a handful of onions, a dish of dried beans. Rescue the moldy potatoes from the garbage can: these are tonight’s meal.

Fourth, dismantle the bathroom, shut off the running water, take out the wiring and the lights and everything that runs by electricity.

Fifth, take away the house and move the family into the toolshed.

Sixth, no more postman, fireman, government services. The two-classroom school is three miles away, but only two of your seven children attend anyway, and they walk.

Seventh, throw out your bankbooks, stock certificates, pension plans, insurance policies. You now have a cash hoard of $5.

Eighth, get out and start cultivating your three acres. Try hard to raise $300 in cash crops because your landlord wants one third and your moneylender 10%.

Ninth, find some way for your children to bring a little extra money so you have something to eat most days. But it won’t be enough to keep bodies healthy - so lop off 25 to 30 years of life.

Most of us have never been that poor - in fact, its kind hard to relate to that type of poverty. Maybe as Armenians - we’ve come from situations which were like that - or our parents or grandparents have. Or if we’ve traveled abroad maybe we’ve been exposed to poverty. But its hard for us - living here - with everything we’ve got to imagine that kind of poverty.

Spiritually - its that kind of poverty - being destitute - that Jesus is talking about. Realizing just how empty and desperate we are for God to rescue us.

As Christians living in America this is really hard. Because we have so much its hard to understand how spiritually needy we really are. We have everything we need to experience life together in Christ - to serve Him - to grow individually in our relationship with Him. We have Bible Bookstores - mail order Christian catalogues - everything we want is available on the Internet. We have Christian radio - television - magazines. The freedom to worship God - to meet to study His word - to be together in fellowship. What are we lacking? - nothing.

All the things that we do and have available to us can distract us. We get caught up in doing the Christian life - and we forget our dependence - our desperate need for God. My brother-in-law - Steve - works in his church’s outreach to homeless people in Los Angeles. One time when I was down there I went with him and helped out. It was an interesting experience sharing and meeting people who seemingly had nothing.

One man stands out in my mind. While I was talking with him - he looked just like everyone else - there was no way to tell he was a beggar - he was clean shaven - and in fact a little overweight.

And he explained to me some of his techniques for successful begging - where and how to ask for money. At one point he actually changed his physical characteristics - I mean he just crumpled himself up and in a matter of seconds suddenly looked liked someone who hadn’t eaten for days.

Technique - the ability to perform as a beggar. This guy was a professional and very content in his lifestyle. But he had no idea of the true sad state his life was in - the ultimate disease and danger and hopelessness that was eating away at him.

We can act humble and open to God. We can say all the right words - walk the walk and talk the talk of being a Christian. And we can fool others - maybe fool ourselves - and try to fool God. But we’re not spiritually poor because we’ve never come to a point of complete dependence on God.

Spiritual poverty is like the Prodigal Son - who returns home - having wasted his inheritance - having done everything possible to grieve his father and earn his scorn - who returns destitute and begging for the smallest kindness to be shown to Him.

Who are we before God? And why should He show favor to us? Spiritual poverty is acknowledging our spiritual bankruptcy before God - we are destitute - condemned in sin - unworthy - and utterly dependent on God - and only God can rescue us.

This is where the blessing of God begins in our lives. The riches and blessing of the Kingdom of God belong to the poor in spirit.

Second, Jesus says:

2. MOURNING LEADS TO HAPPINESS

(4) “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.”

The idea seems contradictory to begin with. Blessedness is happiness, and mourning by definition is sadness. Happy are the sad? Maybe Jesus isn’t thinking clearly. But that’s really the point He’s making. Those who mourn are blessed because God will comfort them.

There are two ideas here in what Jesus shares. The first idea is that we must mourn for the poverty of spirit that we discover in ourselves. And this relates to acknowledging our spiritual poverty. We need to face what we see in the mirror and not let ourselves go past the heartache - but begin to sorrow and weep over who we are as sinners.

The second idea - when Jesus talks about mourning - is that we need to see our participation in the sins of the society in which we live.

In the 19th chapter of Luke there’s the account of Jesus entering into Jerusalem - what we celebrate as Palm Sunday - with all the pomp and circumstance - the tremendous crowds and the shouting of Hosanna.

In the middle of all the commotion - Jesus comes to a place where He can see the entire city of Jerusalem laid out in front of Him. Luke writes (Luke 19:41) “And when He - Jesus - approached, He saw the city and wept over it.” - mourned.

In one instance of time Jesus is confronted with the sin of Jerusalem - He sees all of the sins the people have committed - the spiritual poverty of the people - their judgment because of sin - and His crucifixion and carrying of their sin - and our sins as well - and Jesus mourns over the city.

This is what Jesus means by mourning - when we compassionately feel the spiritual bankruptcy of the society around us - and our own participation in it.

Several years ago - in an interview - the theologian Francis Schaeffer said this, "The only way to be foolishly happy in this world is to be young enough, well enough, and have money enough - and not give a care about other people. But as soon as you don't have any of the first three, or if you have compassion for the weeping world around you, then it is impossible to have the foolish kind of happiness that I believe some Christians present as Christianity."

True happiness comes when we’re moved to tears of compassion - and prayer - and action for those around us who live without God. We live together with people who are crying out - in the same ways that we cry out - who have the same needs and struggles - and who sin as we sin - and desperately need to know God and salvation and life in Jesus Christ.

Its this type of mourning brings us to a place in our lives where we’re open and ready to be comforted by God. The prophet Isaiah writes of Jesus and says - “Comfort, O comfort My people.” (Isaiah 40:1)

God’s answer to our mourning is the comfort of salvation and life in Jesus Christ. In Isaiah 61:3, Isaiah writes that Jesus comes to give “the oil of gladness instead of mourning and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair.” In Jesus, God Himself comforts us.

Where can we find real happiness? Happiness begins when we empty ourselves before God - destitute and in grief - and can only look to Him for our salvation.