First Round of Bible and Bux. We assembled at the notable coffee shop not to exercise our bodies today, but to exercise our souls. (We know souls get exercised on the other workout days as well)
However, it is good at times to do some targeted training so this morning we focused specifically on the inner man.
We are considering a passage from the Bible and what that has to say about our masculinity and what that may change in us as men. for the next 4-6 weeks we will be looking at the Beatitudes from Matthew 5 and Jesus’s famous Sermon on the Mount.
2 And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying:
3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. – Matthew 5:2-3
Jesus his view of power, influence, and the kingdom is radically different from our own. In a Day of cutthroat politics (literally) Jesus says blessed are the poor in spirit.
We face the same kinds of Temptations in our day to think that we need to play politics, or run over people in order to get our way. Jesus says these are not aspects of the kingdom, and thus not parts of true masculinity as well.
Sandbar pointed to the parable of the rich man and Lazarus (Luke 16:19-31) as an example of how Jesus teachings turn our sensibilities on their head. The rich man died and went to Hades, while Lazarus who was poor in life died and went to Paradise.
A truly masculine man has to recognize that there are things in life greater than him, and he needs to be giving himself in service to others.
Blessed are the poor in spirit also recognizes that we have nothing of ourselves to contribute. Everything we have is given to us by God and only the truly humble going to realize this. It is those humble man that are able to receive the kingdom.
Make no mistake, Jesus teaches clearly that there is a kingdom. It does not belong to us but to God. We only receive it as those who are poor in spirit.