Spiritual Zeros

Do you ever read the words of Jesus and get confused? For instance, his Sermon on the Mount begins with a peculiar description of people he considers blessed. Reading the list might make you scratch your head and wonder, “What is Jesus really saying?”
 
Blessed are the poor . . . those who mourn . . . the meek . . . the hungry . . . the persecuted. 

It’s a strange list indeed. Who in their right mind wants to be poor, sad, week, hungry, and picked on? Is Jesus really saying, “be like this and you’ll be blessed,” or is he making it clear that his kingdom includes and values those who are typically unblessed and excluded by the world’s criteria for blessing?  I believe the latter.  When you read the beatitudes through this lens his sermon becomes “good news to the poor.” 
 
Think about that day in Galilee, when Jesus first spoke these words. Who was there on the hillside, listening to him teach?

• Right before the Sermon on the Mount we read about Jesus calling his disciples—a rogue group of men, who would have been passed over by every other rabbi in the region . . . They were there. 

 

• After Jesus calls his disciples, Matthew writes: people brought to him all who were ill with various diseases, those suffering severe pain, the demon possessed, those having seizures, and the paralyzed; and he healed them . . . They were there.

 
The people gathered on the hillside were the poor. They were the hungry. Collectively, those setting with Jesus had spent a lifetime mourning, grieving and longing to be included in a beloved community. Jesus sits with them, celebrates their beauty and includes them in his circle of friendship—a circle he calls the kingdom of heaven.
 
In his book, Divine Conspiracy, Dallas Willard paraphrases the beatitudes by saying, Blessed are the spiritual zeros—the spiritually bankrupt, deprived and deficient, the spiritual beggars, those without a wisp of religion—when the kingdom of heaven comes upon them.
 
Unfortunately, spiritual zeros are typically not celebrated in the life of the Church; instead, we celebrate those who add “value and leadership” to the programs we offer.  All to often, the church’s definition of blessing mirrors the ways of the world, more than the ways of Jesus. We fall for the lie and believe “the blessed” are the wealthy and powerful, the attractive and thin, the youthful and talented.
 
When we chase after the world’s values—seeking a blessed life—we run the risk of missing the blessing that is being offered through the hands of Jesus. Perhaps that’s why Jesus follows the beatitudes in the Gospel of Luke with a list of woes:
 
Woe to you who are rich . . . Woe to you who are well fed . . . Woe to you who laugh . . . Woe to you when everyone speaks well of you.
 
The tension between the beatitudes and the woes is resolved in my mind by a quote from St. Augustine:  God is always trying to give good things to us, but our hands are too full to receive them. 

• If you feel like a spiritual zero . . . Celebrate! Hear Jesus say, “You are beautiful; yours is the kingdom of heaven!”

 

• If you are rich, well fed, and receive an abundance of praise from others . . . pause for a moment; make sure your hands are not too full to receive the good gifts God wants to give you.