Luke 6:17-26
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. They had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases; and those who were troubled with unclean spirits were cured. And all in the crowd were trying to touch him, for power came out from him and healed all of them.
Then he looked up at his disciples and said:
"Blessed are you who are poor,
for yours is the kingdom of God.
"Blessed are you who are hungry now,
for you will be filled.
"Blessed are you who weep now,
for you will laugh.
"Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you on account of the Son of Man. 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.
"But woe to you who are rich,
for you have received your consolation.
"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.
"Woe to you when all speak well of you,
for that is what their ancestors did to the false prophets."
What we just heard is Luke’s version of the Beatitudes, the better known version of which is found in Matthew’s gospel as the Sermon on the Mount. Before we get into this reading I want to share part of the Old Testament reading for today. The reading is from the 17th chapter of the writings of the prophet Jeremiah and If we listen carefully here I think we will better understand the Luke reading when we get into it.
Thus says the LORD:
Cursed are those who trust in mere mortals
and make mere flesh their strength,
whose hearts turn away from the LORD.
They shall be like a shrub in the desert,
and shall not see when relief comes.
They shall live in the parched places of the wilderness,
in an uninhabited salt land.
Blessed are those who trust in the LORD,
whose trust is the LORD.
They shall be like a tree planted by water,
sending out its roots by the stream.
It shall not fear when heat comes,
and its leaves shall stay green;
in the year of drought it is not anxious,
and it does not cease to bear fruit.
Jeremiah is, of course, not really giving a lesson in horticulture here. He isn’t talking about trees and shrubs – he is talking about people. People, those who trust in mere mortals instead of a loving God, people who turn their hearts from God – people who when hard times hit, won’t see relief even when it’s all around them. Those who will continue to live in what they see as a waste of desert land and perceive everything around them as parched and lifeless.
On the other hand, there are the people who are firmly rooted in trusting God. These people still face the same heat, the same years of drought, but they do it without fear of destruction – their trust remains like the green leaves and they continue to bear fruit instead of growing anxious and being made sterile by fear.
Keep all this in mind now while we go back to Luke. This reading starts out sounding very familiar because we are used to hearing Matthew’s version, but halfway through the Luke version we start to run into language that is not so very familiar.
First off, there is some playing on words here that the original writers may or may not have intended – but our twenty-first century ears hear them. Matthew’s version is the Sermon on the Mount. In that one Jesus sits up high above the crowd and preaches down to them. He speaks to them at a distance, in third person: "Blessed are the poor, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." Not you people, but them, those guys over there.
In Luke’s version, Jesus speaks to the people directly, in second person: Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. While most often called the Sermon on the Plain, Luke’s version here is sometimes known as the Sermon on the Level – a play on words all it’s own. Here Jesus not only sits down on the same level among his listeners, he speaks straight to them – on the level – person to person. Again, whether these nuances were intended or not, we perceive them and they affect how we hear these words.
But the primary difference is that, while there are nine blessings in Matthew, here there are only four. Four blessings followed by four “woes.” And here lies the meat of this teaching. Before we go any further let’s be clear on what Jesus does not say. He does not say that those who are full now, those who laugh now, those who are rich now are going to be punished in any way for their good fortune. It is not a sin to be comfortable – unless, of course, your comfort has been bought by the misery of others.
There is nothing wrong with going to bed warm and sheltered at night, nothing wrong with being well fed or famous. What Jesus does say is that if these are the things you count on to make your life good, if you judge your own value by what you possess – then one of these days it isn’t going to be enough for you. If ego is all you have that matters to you – it will never be enough to fill the emptiness left by the lack of love and compassion. If you have no spiritual depth, no love or kindness counted among your blessings, then you will one day come up on the short end of things. It's not a threat - it's a prediction.
When you lose someone dear to you, when your health fails, when your retirement fund crashes – and you have nothing else to give you comfort – you will be like Jeremiah’s shrubs in the desert, parched and shriveled in a barren salt land.
If, however, you are on the losing end of things now – as were most of the people who came out to hear Jesus teach at this time – those who walked for miles to hear him remind them of the promise of God’s unfailing love for them – if you have little of what the world values, then you have nowhere to go but up. You already know the things that matter – a kind word from a friend, a helping hand, a look that says you are seen as a valued person. You know how to value kindness and love over fancy meals. You rely on God rather than the world because the world has shown that it doesn’t care and God is all you have.
You are like Jeremiah’s trees planted by the water, those whose roots go so deep that even in years of drought they continue to bear fruit.
None of this should come as a surprise to us. Remember that Jesus’ first words that morning in Nazareth were a message of reversal – I have come to bring good news to the poor. This is the teaching the church today calls “the preferential option for the poor,” -- the belief, in the words of theologian Gustavo Gutierrez that God prefers the poor "not because they are necessarily better than others, morally or religiously, but simply because they are poor and living in an inhuman situation that is contrary to God's will." They get more of God's attention because they need it more than those who are already comfortable.
Jesus tells us here – and all throughout his teaching – that we are blessed whenever we are a blessing. Not when we have stuff. Not when we have privilege or power. But when we ourselves are a blessing to others – and that doesn’t require stuff. It only requires compassion and respect and caring.
On the other hand, there are the people who are firmly rooted in trusting God. These people still face the same heat, the same years of drought, but they do it without fear of destruction – their trust remains like the green leaves and they continue to bear fruit instead of growing anxious and being made sterile by fear.
Keep all this in mind now while we go back to Luke. This reading starts out sounding very familiar because we are used to hearing Matthew’s version, but halfway through the Luke version we start to run into language that is not so very familiar.
First off, there is some playing on words here that the original writers may or may not have intended – but our twenty-first century ears hear them. Matthew’s version is the Sermon on the Mount. In that one Jesus sits up high above the crowd and preaches down to them. He speaks to them at a distance, in third person: "Blessed are the poor, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." Not you people, but them, those guys over there.
In Luke’s version, Jesus speaks to the people directly, in second person: Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. While most often called the Sermon on the Plain, Luke’s version here is sometimes known as the Sermon on the Level – a play on words all it’s own. Here Jesus not only sits down on the same level among his listeners, he speaks straight to them – on the level – person to person. Again, whether these nuances were intended or not, we perceive them and they affect how we hear these words.
But the primary difference is that, while there are nine blessings in Matthew, here there are only four. Four blessings followed by four “woes.” And here lies the meat of this teaching. Before we go any further let’s be clear on what Jesus does not say. He does not say that those who are full now, those who laugh now, those who are rich now are going to be punished in any way for their good fortune. It is not a sin to be comfortable – unless, of course, your comfort has been bought by the misery of others.
There is nothing wrong with going to bed warm and sheltered at night, nothing wrong with being well fed or famous. What Jesus does say is that if these are the things you count on to make your life good, if you judge your own value by what you possess – then one of these days it isn’t going to be enough for you. If ego is all you have that matters to you – it will never be enough to fill the emptiness left by the lack of love and compassion. If you have no spiritual depth, no love or kindness counted among your blessings, then you will one day come up on the short end of things. It's not a threat - it's a prediction.
When you lose someone dear to you, when your health fails, when your retirement fund crashes – and you have nothing else to give you comfort – you will be like Jeremiah’s shrubs in the desert, parched and shriveled in a barren salt land.
If, however, you are on the losing end of things now – as were most of the people who came out to hear Jesus teach at this time – those who walked for miles to hear him remind them of the promise of God’s unfailing love for them – if you have little of what the world values, then you have nowhere to go but up. You already know the things that matter – a kind word from a friend, a helping hand, a look that says you are seen as a valued person. You know how to value kindness and love over fancy meals. You rely on God rather than the world because the world has shown that it doesn’t care and God is all you have.
You are like Jeremiah’s trees planted by the water, those whose roots go so deep that even in years of drought they continue to bear fruit.
None of this should come as a surprise to us. Remember that Jesus’ first words that morning in Nazareth were a message of reversal – I have come to bring good news to the poor. This is the teaching the church today calls “the preferential option for the poor,” -- the belief, in the words of theologian Gustavo Gutierrez that God prefers the poor "not because they are necessarily better than others, morally or religiously, but simply because they are poor and living in an inhuman situation that is contrary to God's will." They get more of God's attention because they need it more than those who are already comfortable.
Jesus tells us here – and all throughout his teaching – that we are blessed whenever we are a blessing. Not when we have stuff. Not when we have privilege or power. But when we ourselves are a blessing to others – and that doesn’t require stuff. It only requires compassion and respect and caring.
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