Grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen
The text for this meditation is written in the 6th Chapter of the Gospel according to St Luke: Verses 17 – 26:
He came down with them and stood on a level place, with a great crowd of his disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea, Jerusalem, and the coast of Tyre and Sidon. 18 They had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases; and those who were troubled with unclean spirits were cured. 19 And all in the crowd were trying to touch him, for power came out from him and healed all of them.
20 Then he looked up at his disciples and said:
“Blessed are you who are poor,
for yours is the kingdom of God.
21 “Blessed are you who are hungry now,
for you will be filled.
“Blessed are you who weep now,
for you will laugh.
22 “Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you on account of the Son of Man. 23 Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, for surely your reward is great in heaven; for that is what their ancestors did to the prophets.
24 “But woe to you who are rich,
for you have received your consolation.
25 “Woe to you who are full now,
for you will be hungry.
“Woe to you who are laughing now,
for you will mourn and weep.
26 “Woe to you when all speak well of you, for that is what their ancestors did to the false prophets.
Last week, our gospel focused on call. It specifically focused on Jesus’ call to Peter and the disciples. Today, Jesus addresses the disciples, those who have chosen to follow him, those who have made a real commitment to follow him. Today, as Jesus comes down from the mountain to the plain to speak, it is clear the writer of Luke’s gospel wants us to know that Jesus’ words today are spoken to the disciples, to the church, to those who follow him.
As Jesus looks out on the followers who stand before him, he sees the poor, the weak, the oppressed, the women, and the slaves, and he begins preaching a radical sermon proclaiming the promise of a new society.
This Great “Sermon on the Plain” is a call to a radical way of discipleship, a way of living in the world that turns the way of the world upside down, because what he is essentially saying is, “Blessed are all of you who are disregarded by the powerful, for you are God’s beloved community.” In this sermon, as Jesus lays out his vision of a new community, he blesses history’s losers! The blessings he proclaims were truly a protest against injustice!
No wonder it was radical. And, no wonder it is still radical today!
Can you imagine a proud a self-righteousness Pharisee being told by Jesus that he was on the bottom of God’s blessings list? Ever been to one of those opulent city Cathedrals where the pews are filled with some of the most powerful people in Australia? I wonder how they feel about today’s message.
Before we begin to look at what Jesus is saying, it is important that we understand what the word “blessing” means as used here in scripture. The Greek word for “blessing” ascribed to Jesus in these Beatitudes is makarios.
This word means both “happy” and “favour.” In the Christian scriptures, the word specifically means God’s favour, often called “grace” or “abundance.”
So, what Jesus is saying is “Favoured are the poor.” He is not saying “Be happy for poverty.”
Essentially, he is saying to the people, “God privileges the poor. If you are poor, you are favoured by God. God’s gifts are with you.”
In the culture of that time, this was shocking, and I must say it is still shocking in our time because our social structure is really not all that different from prevailing Roman culture and society at that time. In this Sermon on the Plain, Jesus turns things upside down and drives home this rather controversial statement regarding the order of things in God’s kingdom.
Jesus is speaking directly to the disciples and each one of us as he invites us into His holy venture to live out our faith. Jesus is not describing an ideological agenda or a political platform. He does not provide us with an abstract or empty definition of discipleship or sainthood. He is not listing for us qualifications describing some “how to” method to get into heaven. Jesus is describing a vision of God’s reign which he totally and completely represents.
What he is doing is calling all of us to become faithful and effective agents of God’s reign right here and right now. And, quite frankly, for those of us who live in middle class to upper class Australia, his words to us are so very, very challenging. The “rules of engagement” of Jesus’ reign stand in sharp contrast to the presumed rights of the prosperous as he talks about wealth, abundant food, the good stuff of life and all that we consider blessings.
Jesus’ words and vision are simply at odds with the way things are in our lives and in the world. Jesus knows that we are possessed by our possessions and the so called “blessings” we feel we have and enjoy. Quite frankly, most contemporary people have a very different idea of what makes a blessed life. Theologian, Diana Butler Bass, when talking about this passage, in her book on this subject, describes the contemporary line of thought most people have of blessings in this way:
“Blessed are the rich, for they own the best stuff. Blessed are the sexy and glamorous, for everyone desires them. Blessed are the powerful, for they control the kingdoms of the earth. Blessed are those who get everything they ever wanted; they alone will be satisfied. Blessed are the famous, for their reward is eternal life. Money, beauty, power, achievement, and fame – we hold these things in esteem. If only we had them, or just one of them, we would be blessed”. (Grateful: The Transformative Power of Giving Thanks, pl 140.)
Yes, these aspects of life are what we tend to name as “blessings.” But, Jesus sees these as characteristics of the lost and proclaims woe to any of us who find ourselves looking at life in this way.
By proclaiming woe to this way of life, Jesus announces the evil and injustice in our way of living and thinking. Jesus says the poor and the hungry are the ones who are blessed, for their fortunes are going to be reversed. He says, “Are you weeping? You are blessed because you will laugh. Do people hate, exclude, and revile you on account of the Son of Man? Jump for joy, for your reward is great in heaven; you know your persecutor’s grandparents hated and excluded the prophets of old as well.”
Jesus is saying God is not impressed with what we consider blessings. In fact, all that we consider “blessings misrepresent his message.
Oh, yes, Jesus is again turning this world, our thinking and even our conventional assumptions about religion upside down. Jesus blesses those who suffer, and he curses those whose wealth, comfort, and prestige are built upon this same suffering.
Now, quite honestly, as we live in the cushioned environment of our so called “blessings,” many of us would probably say, “I am not poor, but I identify with the poor,” or “I work with the poor,” or maybe even “I send money to the poor, I care about the poor.” We might even want to quibble about the definition of “poor,” or “hungry” or “weeping.” Surely, we the faithful, are among the blessed. So, if we are honest with ourselves, we need to ask, “If we are not the poor, the hungry, the weeping, or the excluded, what are we to hear from this so-called “good news” message?
Theologian Laura Sugg, in her book, when asking this question, suggests:
“Luke’s Jesus is fulfilling God’s compassion for the oppressed. Jesus’ first words to people in Luke’s Gospel repeat the words from Isaiah (4:18a): “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor.” Throughout Luke’s Gospel, Jesus lives this out by talking with those on the margins, challenging the status quo, and convicting those who feel certain they are righteous”. (Feasting on the Word, p. 240.)
The kingdom of God that Jesus expresses is not some abstract theological term that we find it hard to relate to, set in a time and place the world has never known. Jesus is calling us to be faithful agents of God’s reign right here and right now. God’s kingdom, God’s reign, breaks through when we love our enemies. It takes hold when we do good to those who hate us. It comes alive when we bless those who curse us. It shines brightly when we pray for those who abuse or mistreat us. It shows up when we honour the request of the beggars.
When we live our lives by the principle of “do unto others as you would have them do to you,” and when we love all others as God calls us to love, we truly live out our citizenship in God’s kingdom and bear witness to God’s reign.
I must say, living this kind of life is not easy. In fact, it is very difficult. It means we must become vulnerable and that is a condition most of us would rather avoid. But the thing is, Jesus is always unsettling us and, as he tells us that the order of things in God’s rule is reversed, we discover that life with God means knowing what poverty and hunger and sorrow and being cursed look like. It means knowing how it feels to be overlooked and discounted. It means knowing what it is like to be hated. And, it means allowing ourselves to become vulnerable, living in solidarity with all others, and admitting our total dependence upon God.
Listen again to Diana Butler Bass’ words about this passage. She writes:
“When Jesus said, “Blessed are the poor,” he overturned the politics of blessing. He preached that blessings were more than happiness. They were a social vision. God gives gifts to everyone, but especially to the vulnerable and those at the bottom of society. Gifts are not only for the few, but wildly distributed for all. And the people at the bottom? The losers? God’s favour resides with them. God has uniquely blessed them”. What is the proper response to gifts? Blessing is an invitation to give thanks…..a blessed community is a grateful community. “When Jesus spoke to the people on that day, that gathering started as a crowd, and the way opened for them to become a society formed by gratitude”. (Grateful: The Transformative Power of Giving Thanks, pl 142.)
The very nature of that society; the Christian Church and the crux of the message from St Luke is well explained by St Paul in 1 Corinthians 9: 19 – 23:
“For though I am free with respect to all, I have made myself a slave to all, so that I might win more of them. 20 To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though I myself am not under the law) so that I might win those under the law. 21 To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (though I am not free from God’s law but am under Christ’s law) so that I might win those outside the law. 22 To the weak I became weak, so that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that I might by all means save some. 23 I do it all for the sake of the gospel, so that I may share in its blessings.”
Jesus calls us to live out this social vision of a blessed community as he speaks to us today. He calls us regardless of our wealth or status, to be like Paul, all things to all people.
The world desperately needs such grateful, inclusive, open, blessed Christian communities. I pray God continually forms us and shapes us into this kind of community of grace and gratitude, that we may be instruments of ‘true Christian blessing’ in the lives of those around us. Amen
The love and peace of our Great Triune God that is beyond all human understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen
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