introduction to the beatitudes
This is to say that in the beatitudes there is no verb, there is no are. Why should that be? Jesus did not speak the beatitudes in Greek; he spoke them in Aramaic, which was the kind of Hebrew people spoke in his day. Aramaic and Hebrew have a very common kind of expression, which is in fact an exclamation and which means: ‘O the blessedness of …’. That expression (asherē in the Hebrew) is very common in the Old Testament. For instance, the first Psalm begins in the Hebrew: ‘O the blessedness of those who do not follow the advice of the wicked’ (cf. Psalm 1:1). That is the form in which Jesus first spoke the beatitudes. The beatitudes are not simple statements; they are exclamations: ‘O the blessedness of the poor in spirit!’
Makarios, then, describes that joy which has its secret within itself, that joy which is serene and untouchable, and self-contained, that joy which is completely independent of all the chances and the changes of life
The world can win its joys, and the world can equally well lose its joys. A change in fortune, a collapse in health, the failure of a plan, the disappointment of an ambition, even a change in the weather, can take away the fickle joy the world can give. But the Christian has the serene and untouchable joy which comes from walking forever in the company and in the presence of Jesus Christ.
The greatness of the beatitudes is that they are not wistful glimpses of some future beauty; they are not even golden promises of some distant glory; they are triumphant shouts of bliss for a permanent joy that nothing in the world can ever take away.
As we have also seen, the beatitudes were originally spoken not in Greek but in Aramaic. Now the Jews had a special way of using the word poor. In Hebrew, the word is ’ani or ebiōn. These words in Hebrew underwent a four-stage development of meaning. (1) They began by meaning simply poor. (2) They went on to mean, because poor, therefore having no influence or power, or help, or prestige. (3) They went on to mean, because having no influence, therefore downtrodden and oppressed. (4) Finally, they came to describe those who, because they have no earthly resources whatever, put their whole trust in God.
So, in Hebrew the word poor was used to describe the humble and the helpless people who put their whole trust in God. It is thus that the psalmist uses the word, when he writes: ‘This poor soul cried, and was heard by the Lord, and was saved from every trouble’ (Psalm 34:6). It is in fact true that in the Psalms the poor person, in this sense of the term, is the good person who is dear to God. ‘The hope of the poor [shall not] perish for ever’ (Psalm 9:18). God delivers the needy (Psalm 35:10). ‘In your goodness, O God, you provided for the needy’ (Psalm 68:10). ‘May he defend the cause of the poor of the people’ (Psalm 72:4). ‘He raises up the needy out of distress, and makes their families like flocks’ (Psalm 107:41). ‘I will satisfy its poor with bread’ (Psalm 132:15). In all these cases, the poor are the humble and helpless who have put their trust in God.
Let us now take the two sides, the Greek and the Aramaic, and put them together. Ptōchos describes someone who is absolutely destitute, the person who has nothing at all; ’ani and ebiōn describe the poor, and humble, and helpless who have put their whole trust in God. Therefore, ‘Blessed are the poor in spirit’ means:
Blessed are those who have realized their own utter helplessness, and who have put their whole trust in God.
If people have realized their own utter helplessness, and have put their whole trust in God, there will enter into their lives two elements which are opposite sides of the same coin. They will become completely detached from material things, for they will know that things do not have the power to bring happiness or security; and they will become completely attached to God, for they will know that God alone can bring them help, hope and strength. Those who are poor in spirit are men and women who have realized that things mean nothing, and that God means everything.
We must be careful not to think that this beatitude calls actual material poverty a good thing. Poverty is not a good thing. Jesus would never have called blessed a state where people live in slums and do not have enough to eat, and where health deteriorates because conditions are all against it. It is the aim of the Christian gospel to remove that kind of poverty. The poverty which is blessed is the poverty of spirit, when people realize their own utter lack of resources to meet life, and find their help and strength in God.
Jesus says that to such a poverty belongs the kingdom of heaven. Why should that be so? If we take the two petitions of the Lord’s Prayer and set them together:
Your kingdom come.
Your will be done in earth as it is in heaven,
we get the definition: the kingdom of God is a society where God’s will is as perfectly done in earth as it is in heaven. That means that only those who do God’s will are citizens of the kingdom; and we can only do God’s will when we realize our own utter helplessness, our own utter ignorance, our own utter inability to cope with life, and when we put our whole trust in God. Obedience is always founded on trust. The kingdom of God is the possession of the poor in spirit, because the poor in spirit have realized their own utter helplessness without God, and have learned to trust and obey.
So, the first beatitude means:
O THE BLISS OF THOSE WHO HAVE REALIZED THEIR OWN UTTER HELPLESSNESS, AND WHO HAVE PUT THEIR WHOLE TRUST IN GOD, FOR THUS ALONE CAN THEY RENDER TO GOD THAT PERFECT OBEDIENCE WHICH WILL MAKE THEM CITIZENS OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN!