Beckett: Blessed Are the Lowly

“Blessed are the lowly, for they shall inherit the Earth” (Matthew 5:5; my translation).

Most translations say “meek,” but this is a mistranslation. “Lowly” or “humble” is a much better rendering, especially because it is the same as the Hebrew from Psalm 37:11, “But the lowly shall inherit the Earth, and delight themselves over great peace” (my translation), and also because this first section of the Beatitudes (vv. 3-6) are not positive qualities. Thus, “lowly” is a more fitting translation.

In the world, it is not good to be lowly—to be empty-handed. When we look at beggars on the street with empty hands, we look at them with disgust and judge them, “Lazy bums! They’ll only use the money I’ll give them for drugs and alcohol,” so we harden our hearts against them and leave them in their misery, judging them unworthy of our mercy. They’re not lazy bums; they’re human.

Thanks be to God that when He sees our empty hands, knowing how addicted we are to sin, He does not despise us and leave us in our miserable condition but promises the inheritance of the Earth! Thus, when you are stingy with your compassion because you judge the poor will squander your gift in their addiction, consider how it would be if God were stingy with His compassion toward you because you squander His gracious gifts in your addiction to sin. In God’s kingdom, to be lowly is a blessing, for in Christ He has “exalted those of humble estate” (Luke 1:52). How might we, then, exemplify the grace of our Lord for our lowly neighbour? Christ’s grace is reckless, as He illustrates for us in the Parable of the Sower (Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23). How dare we put limits on His grace! The Earth belongs to the lowly, not to the haughty.

How can this be? How can lowly knaves such as us receive such a great inheritance? Surely, it is nothing we’ve done or could ever do, for we have nothing to offer but our wretched sin! We are miserable beggars before our King. We are unworthy to receive His mercy, yet He gives it to us anyway. He gives us the inheritance of the new heavens and the new Earth, of New Jerusalem (Revelation 21). Such is Christ’s great love for us, that our sinful condition did not repulse Him from us like the fetid beggars we are, but rather that He willingly went to the cross with all our sins—all our poverty—upon Him and to rise from the dead with the promise that He, too, will raise us from the dead in the eternal riches of the life of the world to come! He will raise us from the humble estate of our sin to the glorious station of life eternal!