Dad never said much. He was not a silent man, but fathers and sons seldom communicate in words. When exercising words, he did say to me, “There really is no problem like your own.” The statement has implications. The message remains.
Anyone who wishes to arrive at the Cross, and thus become a true disciple, must first confront the conflict within every man. Never are we more sanguine than when grace appears. The Holy Spirit makes us instantly aware of our poverty as sinners and our sufficiency through God’s forgiveness and salvation. Never are we more bereaved than when the good feeling subsides, and God calls us to a deeper, truer faith – to poverty.
Penury is no more a currency to allow a man to purchase heaven than is wealth a symbol of God’s favor. When asked to sell all that he owned and follow Christ, it was not that the man was wealthy that made him sad; it was that he was attached to all he owned.
The poor man succumbs to the same dilemma when he clings to his victim status. “Now a certain man was there who had an infirmity for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he already had been in that condition a long time, He said to him, ‘Do you want to be made well?’ The sick man answered Him, ‘Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; but while I am coming, another person steps down before me’” (John 5:5-7).
When the distance to our faith seems so far and unattainable, despair fills our sadness. This is what I believe the good book means by poverty. It is the deep and stark realization the Cross is distant because the desires to which we cling are too enticing.
Grace is the moment God comes to us and says, “I love you and claim you as my own.” Poverty compels us to come to God and say, “I love you, claim me and remove from me all desires hindering my full resignation to submission in thee.”
And to what shall we cling? Shall we cling to a hierarchy of logs and specks or forgiveness, love and empathy? God’s kingdom promises and demands so much more than finger-pointing.
Spiritual poverty is not the journey’s end. It is the beginning. Our final conflict comes at the Cross. Here, we can make no claim before the Lord except an incongruent desire to be in his physical presence and to serve him as he wills while breath remains. A Christian’s burden is not without pain.
“Then Jesus said to him, ‘Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.’ At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked’” (John 5:8,9).
There really is no problem like your own. But then, the Cross really is not so distant, is it?
“Those who have ears to hear, let them hear” (Matthew 11:15).
Amen