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By Martin Schmaltz
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The Kingdom of God is for the poor. I have been pondering about this truth and it has astounded me what kind of power the truth has that the kingdom of God is for the poor. James tells us an important truth: "But you have dishonored the poor man." (James 2.6) The Gospel of Luke is written for the outcasts, for those outside of society: the sinners, tax collectors, poor people like the poor Lazarus who went into the bosom of Abraham, drunkards, lost sheep, prodigal sons, heathens, etc. We read that even Jesus was an outsider. He did not find room in an inn. He had to be born in a manger.
James continues to exhort us: "Has God not chosen the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which He promised to those who love Him?" (James 2.5)
God has chosen the poor of this world. When Jesus started his sermon in the field in Luke, he said that "blessed are you poor, for yours is the kingdom of God" (Luke 6.20b). The poor are called blessed. It is not the rich, not the famous, not the popular, but the poor, the nobodies. "Blessed are those who hunger now…blessed are you who weep now..." (Luke 6.21).
We can Learn from the Poor
There is so much we can learn from the poor. There is a dependency upon God with the poor that we Westerners have lost many times. The poor have it much easier to enter the kingdom of God. Why is it that when preachers enter into third world countries that the people there convert much faster and in a much more numerous way? When I am in India I feel much more the urge to pray than when I am at home in Germany. It is something about the need you have there that you feel much more pushed to pray. Luke 4 quotes Isaiah 61:1 that says that Jesus was anointed to preach the good news to the poor. Why not to the rich? Because Jesus said that "it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God" (Luke 18.25).
Jesus said that there are two lords, two masters: Mammon and God. Mammon is not just money but anything that gives you safety. The young rich ruler was controlled by this spirit. He was so near to enter the kingdom and to become a real close disciple of Jesus but Mammon kept him from entering. Jesus told him to "sell all that you have and distribute to the poor" (Luke 18.22b). He was not faithful in the unrighteous Mammon and so God could not entrust him with the true riches. If he had followed Jesus, it did not mean poverty but it meant dependency on God. It meant living like the wind, where you don´t know where you are coming from or where you are going. (Christians should be leading in business and be successful. I am not talking against this.)
Let's Go to the Harvest
Jesus wondered: "How hard it is for those who have riches to enter the kingdom of God!" (Luke 18.24b) When the rich do not want the gospel Jesus compels us to go to the poor and sick. God was being angry at the rich that they did not follow His invitation to his wedding feast. After the refusal of the occupied and rich people to come to the wedding of his son, he commanded to "go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in here the poor and maimed and the lame and the blind…Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled." (Luke 14 21b + 23b)
When the rich don´t want to come, the outsiders are forced to come. God´s house will be full and with people we have least expected. When I see a Mother Teresa who gave became poor to be a help to the poor, it just amazes me. When someone like her says that God loves me it has such a more powerful impact, because she really is an example of love. She has experienced the love of God. She knows what she is talking about.
Let us go into the harvest! Let us go into the highways and hedges to fill the house of God with the people He loves so much.
Benedikt Schwabe
