Jesus’ mission was not just to change our state of being. It was to change our thinking. In Matthew 3:2, he says: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” What is Jesus wanting when He’s asking for repentance? He uses a Greek word μετάνοια (metanoia). This word wasn’t a religious term until Jesus used it in a religious context. It was a philosophical word that meant to change your perspective, to change your mind. Later, it took on a deeper meaning relating to our moral and spiritual transformation, but that doesn’t mean that it lost its original meaning. Repentance is fundamentally a change in how we think.
Jesus establishes clearly that the way out of poverty is to hear the good news. To repent, to change your thinking. God created this universal concept and idea that has been repeated and restated by just about every religious, philosophical and spiritual school: when you elevate your thinking, you elevate your life.
This line of thinking seems insensitive when we apply it to finances. So let’s apply it to our mental, emotional or physical state. If you are emotionally broken and traumatized, how do you get free of it? Therapy and counseling? That’s one way, what’s the main goal of going to therapy and counseling? Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is one of the leading therapeutic methods in the world and has its origins in ancient philosophy. CBT is all about learning how to think differently about our lives and experiences so that we can ultimately live better lives. What about physically? If you are physically obese, can someone cure you of it? Or do you need to learn to rethink your relationship to food and exercise. The physical “state of being” of obesity is a result of a mindset - a way of thinking. Until the way of thinking changes, the state of being won’t change. That’s what makes poverty different from the sicknesses, diseases and death that Jesus healed. Poverty of any kind is a state of being that is the result of a way of thinking. The “good news” is that you and I can change our thinking. And when we change our thinking, our state of being will change. My dad has said it this way: “God will do for you what you cannot do for yourself, but he won’t do what you can do for yourself.”
Despite the truth of the problem being how we think, there are plenty of people who think that their emotional, physical, spiritual, mental and even financial state is not their responsibility to fix. Its someone else’s fault, therefore it is someone else’s responsibility. Jesus knew this, and this is why He said to us “you will always have the poor among you…” (Matthew 26:11). Why will we always have poor people among us? Because as long as humans are on the earth, some of them will have poor thinking. And their poor thinking will keep them poor emotionally, mentally, spiritually, and financially.
Some of us can believe that God will heal people and raise them from the dead, but when we hear that God wants us to prosper materially, our response is: “God doesn’t care about that.” Or maybe we have misquoted the Beatitudes for so long that we don’t know what the Bible actually says. Some people may say that Jesus himself said “blessed are the poor.” Those people will find themselves squarely in the 96% of Christians who do not have a Biblical worldview. Jesus said in Matthew 5:3; “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” The Greek words Jesus uses in Matthew 3 are, πτωχός (ptoche) and (πνεῦμα) pneuma. When put together, these words mean “spiritually inadequate.” Blessed are those who realize that, by themselves they are inadequate to succeed on their own.
Well, maybe Jesus actually believed that poverty is a good thing. If poverty is a good thing, we should congratulate the next homeless person we see on the street. If poverty is somehow more spiritual than prosperity, why wouldn’t we celebrate them for being closer to God than those of us who have enough food to eat, or a place to live? That makes as much sense as congratulating a morbidly obese person on their heart disease and inability to go up stairs without losing their breath. I’m not saying that to make light of these people, I’m saying it to illustrate how our ideas on prosperity, poverty and God make no sense. Even if we didn’t have the Bible, the modern Christian approach to prosperity is foolish and illogical. The idea of poverty making us closer to God comes from Benedictine monks in the 16th century who took vows of poverty and were supported by wealthy benefactors. We’ll talk more about that later. But, even for the monks, a vow of poverty would have been impossible without the prosperity of others.
Poverty is meant to be a temporary condition attached to not living God’s way.
There’s one of two ways for us to live. We can live according to truth, or we can live according to lies. We can do things God’s way, or we can do things the wrong way.
Poverty of any kind is a symptom of a larger issue; either we are living life with the wrong motives, or we are not doing something God’s way. Poverty is not God’s blessing. Poverty - emotionally, spiritually, mentally, emotionally - is a warning sign that we are not thinking right about that part of our life. This is a good time to mention, prosperity is not the same as having a lot of money. So if you have a lot of money and you’re reading this, you’re not off the hook. Yes, according to Proverbs 10, the “blessing of the Lord makes rich.” That doesn’t mean that God’s blessing is the only way to get rich. Prosperity means having money. But having money doesn’t always mean we have prosperity. If poverty is a mindset, so is prosperity. A person can seem like they are prospering and still not have a prosperous mindset. People who think in order for them to win, someone else has to lose also have a poverty mentality. God is not the God of the zero sum game. It is a poverty mentality that says that in order for us to win, someone else has to lose. Or that in order for you to have a lot, someone else has to get a little bit. This isn’t about unbridled capitalism that is often destructive. That would be like saying that in order for you to be physically healthy, someone else’s health must be sacrificed. God invites us into a world where everyone can win. And that’s what the good news is about.
So, what is the good news that needs to be preached to the poor? More next time.