Pride and the Poor in Spirit
Seven Sins and Solutions
THE STORY IS TOLD OF A MAN WHO HAD A DREAM IN WHICH AN ANGEL showed him two doors — one marked Heaven and the other Hell. Curious, the man went to the door marked Hell. Inside he saw an unhappy sight. Twelve emaciated people sat around a cauldron of steaming hot soup. Beside them were large spoons — too large, in fact. The spoons required both arms and all one’s might to lift and place in the cauldron. Many were able to get food on the end, but the weight of the spoons caused them to tip over as the people brought the food to their lips. Those in hell were never able to eat from the deep cauldrons. The spoons were too long, too heavy. “Most in hell,” the angel explained, “have spent long hours trying to feed themselves but have failed again and again.” The dreamer watched them staring, starving, and he recoiled from hell’s doorway. These people have no hope, he thought. It seemed that God was mocking them. “It is torture,” he said to the angel, “to have what you desire sitting before you yet be unable to have even a taste!”
Turning, he opened the door marked Heaven. Inside he saw twelve people sitting around a deep cauldron of soup, with spoons too large to lift to their lips. The room was the same as the one in hell — the same light, the same size — but in this room there was a joy unlike anything the man had ever seen. He and the angel were caught up in the laughter. There was even singing, and the celebrated for long hours as the soup sat boiling before them.
Leaving, the man was puzzled by the contrast between the two rooms. One so filled with joy and the other a prison of misery. Certainly those in heaven were in denial. Perhaps they had grown content with want. Looking at the angel, the dreamer asked why those in heaven were happy while those in hell were not. “Those in heaven have learned to feed each other,” said the angel.
Privacy + Time = Destruction
Hell is ultimate privacy and time. Whereas the kingdom of heaven is communal and bent toward the service of others, the attitude of hell assumes everything exists for me — to serve me, benefit me — because I am that significant.
When all people everywhere stop serving one another and begin groping for what is “rightfully theirs,” this inward focus becomes deadly.
The ancients called this attitude of persistent self-focus… pride, and when pride takes hold of a culture, everyone starves. Pride is the natural love for myself magnified and perverted into disdain for others. Augustine called pride the foundation of sin.
The hell-bound do not travel downward; they travel inward, cocooning themselves behind a mass of vanity, personal rights, religiosity, and defensiveness.
Pride destroys our ability to connect with others
"The Great divorce" C.S. Lewis
At the bus stop at the beginning of the book. One of the first things he notices is how empty the town looks. Here he’s talking to someone else on the bus who explains why.
"It seems the deuce of a town," I volunteered, "and that's what I can't understand. The parts of it that I saw were so empty. Was there once a much larger population?"
"Not at all," said my neighbor. "The trouble is that they're so quarrelsome. As soon as anyone arrives he settles in some street. Before he's been there twenty-four hours he quarrels with his neighbor. Before the week is over he's quarreled so badly that he decides to move. Very like he finds the next street empty because all the people there have quarreled with their neighbors-and moved. So he settles in. If by any chance the street is full, he goes further. But even if he stays, it makes no odds. He's sure to have another quarrel pretty soon and then he'll move on again. Finally he'll move right out to the edge of the town and build a new house. You see, it's easy here. You've only got to think a house and there it is. That's how the town keeps on growing." "Leaving more and more empty streets?" "That's right. And time's sort of odd here. That place where we caught the bus is thousands of miles from the Civic Centre where all the newcomers arrive from earth. All the people you've met were living near the bus stop: but they'd taken centuries-of our time-to get there, by gradual removals."
"And what about the earlier arrivals? I mean -there must be people who came from earth to your town even longer ago."
"That's right. There are. They've been moving on and on. Getting further apart. They're so far off by now that they could never think of coming to the bus stop at all. Astronomical distances.
Imagine how big hell would have to be to contain all of the most prideful personalities this world has seen!
Later on in the book, we get a perspective of Hell from Heaven’s viewpoint.
"Yes. All Hell is smaller than one pebble of your earthly world: but it is smaller than one atom of this world, the Real World. Look at yon butterfly. If it swallowed all Hell, Hell would not be big enough to do it any harm or to have any taste."
"It seems big enough when you're in it, Sir."
"And yet all loneliness, angers, hatreds, envies and itchings that it contains, if rolled into one single experience and put into the scale against the least moment of the joy that is felt by the least in Heaven, would have no weight that could be registered at all. Bad cannot succeed even in being bad as truly as good is good. If all Hell's miseries together entered the consciousness of yon wee yellow bird on the bough there, they would be swallowed up without trace, as if one drop of ink had been dropped into that Great Ocean to which your terrestrial Pacific itself is only a molecule."
"I see," said I at last. "She couldn't fit into Hell."
He nodded. "There's not room for her," he said. "Hell could not open its mouth wide enough."
"And she couldn't make herself smaller?- like Alice, you know."
"Nothing like small enough. For a damned soul is nearly nothing: it is shrunk, shut up in itself. Good beats upon the damned incessantly as sound waves beat on the ears of the deaf, but they cannot receive it. Their fists are clenched, their teeth are clenched, their eyes fast shut. First they will not, in the end they cannot, open their hands for gifts, or their mouths for food, or their eyes to see."
Pride built hell and pride will send most people there.
Here’s why…Unlike the other sins, pride usually appears when I am at my best. Pride capitalizes not just on my failures but even more so on my successes. Pride is not thinking too much of myself; pride is thinking of myself far too much.
One writer said that pride is the only sickness that makes everyone ill except the one who has it. We ought to take this a step further, because pride hurts everyone, especially the proud.
In Luke 15, Jesus told a story of a man with two sons, both consumed with themselves.
11 Jesus continued: “There was a man who had two sons. 12 The younger one said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of the estate.’ So he divided his property between them.13 “Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living.
He runs out of money, and realizes that what he needed most wasn’t stuff, but people. He needed community.
Son comes to his senses, Father, even though he was betrayed, throws a party.
Check out how the brother reacts.
28 “The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. 29 But he answered his father, ‘Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. 30 But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!’ 31 “‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours.
Because of their self-infatuation, both sons moved from the company of their family into seclusion.
Pride pushes us away from people for longer and longer periods of time.
In the very next chapter we see how long pride can go on…
Jesus recounts what seems to be an actual event that takes place on the other side of the grave.
Luke 16:19 “There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day. 20 At his gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores 21 and longing to eat what fell from the rich man’s table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores. 22 “The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried. 23 In Hades, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side. 24 So he called to him, ‘Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.’ 25 “But Abraham replied, ‘Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony. 26 And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been set in place, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.’ 27 “He answered, ‘Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my family, 28 for I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.’
The rich man believes he still has some authority! He thinks he can command the beggar who used to sit at his gates. The rich man still does not believe Lazarus is his equal; he thinks Lazarus is an inferior to be sent on such menial errands as fetching water.
When the rich man doesn’t get his way, he begins to argue with Abraham. But the rich man — alone, dead, and on fire — still thinks he has clout
It did not take the rich man’s dying for him to be placed on the wrong side of a chasm. He built that chasm through self-obsession. He didn’t have to die for his soul to catch fire. Flaming pride consumed the man well before his death. He used his money not to cover the sores of a desperate man but to cover himself with fine clothes. And as in life, in death he has no one to lean against.
Privacy + Time = Destruction
Hollywood knows about this…
That’s how horror films work: divide and conquer. When people are split up, they lose their power. The directors of these films love to separate their characters because those who are alone are easily destroyed. We instinctively know this to be true.
Imagine being forced to camp in a dark wilderness. The trees around you cast long shadows. You have to get water by yourself, you have to get firewood by yourself, and at some point you will have to go to sleep. Many of us feel uneasy just at the thought of it. Now imagine you are in the exact same place with five friends. For most of us, the feeling totally changes. Our fear evaporates. The night outdoors may even be fun. Yet when we are alone, we are thrown into survival mode, because when we are alone, we have no power
There’s a simple explanation for why we feel this way: We were not made to be alone
Genesis 2, he creates a man, the crown jewel of his entire creation. This should be the culminating moment. God has placed in his beautiful world the one who was meant to become his son. But here God stops. He pauses. And for the very first time, when God speaks, he does not create something new. His words, in fact, have a hint of disappointment. Looking on the man who shares his breath, God says, “It is not good for the man to be alone.” It seems the entire creation was no longer good because a solitary man stood at its center.
Then God created the woman and creation had reached a new status; now “it was very good.” And all the fellas said…AMEN Self-giving community changed everything.
When Jesus spoke, his favorite topic was not love. It was not peace. It was not grace. Though all of these were important to him, Jesus’ favorite topic — the subject at the heart of every story he told and every miracle he performed — was the kingdom of heaven.
Jesus taught us to pray, “ Our Father in heaven,… your kingdom come,… on earth as it is in heaven.”
He consistently painted pictures for his disciples that would start with the phrase “The kingdom of heaven is like …”:
Verse references on screen
The kingdom of heaven is like a wedding feast that none of the posh attended, so the Father threw open the doors and invited everyone everywhere to fill his banquet halls. (matthew 22:1-14)
The kingdom of heaven is like a king who forgave all those who owed him unpayable debts and then asked the forgiven to forgive in the same way. (Matthew 18:21-35)
The kingdom of heaven is like a lost son who in his desperation remembered his father’s house and returned to find his father waiting for him, ready to throw a mighty celebration. (Luke 15:11-32)
For Jesus, the kingdom of heaven is always about people coming together. Just like this.
Here’s a pretty good picture of heaven…
Luke 22:14 When the hour came, Jesus and his apostles reclined at the table. 15 And he said to them, “I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. 16 For I tell you, I will not eat it again until it finds fulfillment in the kingdom of God.” 17 After taking the cup, he gave thanks and said, “Take this and divide it among you. 18 For I tell you I will not drink again from the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.” 19 And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me.” 20 In the same way, after the supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.
The life of heaven focuses on the good of others. It picks up the spoon not to fill its own belly but to offer a bite to the other starving stomachs in the room.
As in the story of Lazarus, heaven is life together, where one can lean against someone and be able to eat; on the opposite side, hell is life alone, where one must shout in order to be heard
All that was introduction. Here’s the key text for the night. This is the antidote to pride…
Found in the sermon on the mount…
Matthew 5:1 Now when Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, 2 and he began to teach them. He said: 3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Jesus did not begin the invitation to his audience with a message to “fill up.” Instead, Jesus affirmed those who were empty in the most significant way imaginable.
This is what you need to get to make sense of it all…
This was not an encouragement to become poor in spirit; it was addressed to those who were poor in spirit already, elevating them to the highest status possible.
Eugene Petersen translates Matthew 5:3, “You’re blessed when you’re at the end of your rope.”33 Dallas Willard interprets it, “Blessed are the spiritual zeros — the spiritually bankrupt, deprived and deficient, the spiritual beggars, those without a wisp of ‘religion.’ ”
The bottom line is this: Being “poor in spirit” is a condition, not a prescription. Being spiritually poor is something you are, not something you seek to become. You’re job is just to recognize it. Once that happens, you’re like the prodigal son. Everything changes.
So when Jesus spoke of the poor in spirit, who was he referring to? Who is this misfortunate bunch in such desperate need? Everyone.
Everyone fails. Everyone hurts those they love most. Everyone lacks the kindness, the courage, and the wisdom they ought to possess. No one is solid inside; everyone is deficient.
The difference between Heaven and Hell is in whether or not you are wiling to admit this reality and bring it to God.
Every story about a fall from grace is first a story about secrets you’ve kept to yourself.
Pride vigorously guards the chain binding us to solitude. Pride loves the masks that hide our lonesome faces. Pride insists that we are just fine and tells us that no one will respect us if we expose the places we’ve failed. Pride prefers isolation to the kingdom of heaven
On the other hand…
Total exposure is not a requirement to enjoy heaven; total exposure is what enjoying heaven looks like.
When Adam and Eve failed, they ran for fig leaves. When Jesus was crucified, he was unclothed. The life of heaven despises fig leaves.
For Adam, it meant God would kill an animal in the Garden of Eden (probably for the first time ever) and
Genesis 3:21 The LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them.
For you and I it meant that God would kill his son on Skull Hill (definitely for the first and last time) and
Galatians 3:26 in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, 27 for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.
*** Credit goes to Jeff Cook and his book "Seven" for much of the content found in this sermon.
