17 He went down with them and stood on a level place. A large crowd of his disciples was there and a great number of people from all over Judea, from Jerusalem, and from the coastal region around Tyre and Sidon, 18 who had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases. Those troubled by impure spirits were cured, 19 and the people all tried to touch him, because power was coming from him and healing them all.20 Looking at his disciples, he said:
“Blessed are you who are poor for yours is the kingdom of God.
21 Blessed are you who hunger now,for you will be satisfied.
Blessed are you who weep now,or you will laugh.
22 Blessed are you when people hate you, when they exclude you and insult you and reject your name as evil, because of the Son of Man.
23 “Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, because great is your reward in heaven. For that is how their ancestors treated the prophets.
24 “But woe to you who are rich, for you have already received your comfort.
25 Woe to you who are well fed now, for you will go hungry.
Woe to you who laugh now, for you will mourn and weep.
26 Woe to you when everyone speaks well of you for that is how their ancestors treated the false prophets. Luke 6
turns your world upon its head.
Finding the broken and hungry are
the blessed ones instead
of those who rise up like obelisks
and hold they’ll never fall,
depending on fame and fortune,
shielded by their golden wall.
The commandments give order
to a society as a whole.
The Beatitudes, made for wrestling,
give strength to the soul.
The inner beast refutes them
as irrelevant and weak.
Yet in the “blessed are the poor”
is the sacred power we must seek.
Wrestling with the Beatitudes
is no small or easy task.
For in these blessings and these woes,
we find our lies unmasked.
I confess to you that each time I ponder the Beatitudes I wrestle deeply with them. I cannot believe, and perhaps this is my own bias, that Jesus is calling us to live in poverty or to be in a constant state of weeping. Rather, I believe that Jesus is trying to show us that in many ways we are blind (perhaps by choice) to the truth. It is easy to admire and nearly worship those who are rich and powerful and famous and beautiful.
I am often asked if I don’t just have a library of old sermons to rely on. And it would probably make sense to not have to reinvent the wheel, so to speak. But if I did that I would miss so much the Spirit loves to share as we prepare a message together.
I looked up the word translated as the poor. I don’t know why I never saw this before but I read it this time. The original Greek word, according to the Vine’s Expository Dictionary, (a dictionary that defines original Greek words) comes from the adjective of “one who crouches or cowers.” This is a much deeper poverty than economics.
Truthfully, in Jesus’ day, and in ours, those without economic means bow and cower before those over them. They are at the mercy of the ruling class. But not only those economically challenged have to cower. Women, the blind, the disabled, the sick, the oppressed. Each of these are at the mercy of those who rule.
So how in the world are these individuals blessed? My suggestion is not that their affliction is the blessing but rather their confession of their weakness holds the blessing. Paul writes: “[God’s] grace is sufficient for you, for [God’s] power is made perfect in weakness.”
Our strength is not in what we can do for ourselves but in the faith, the trust, the belief that God walks with us in it.
Hunger and tears hold the same connotations. There is a hunger and a weeping that physically hurts and will seep deeper into the soul. These moments batter our hope and our faith. But the blessings rise up when we acknowledge it is not through our own strength that we will survive but the power of God. Again as Paul puts it, “the same power that raised Christ from the grave.”
The blessing is never the affliction but rather, as The Message translates in the first Psalm, that “you thrill to God’s Word, you chew on Scripture day and night.” You believe.
And what of the woes? We have all heard stories of the pain and chaos and emptiness that resides in the houses of the wealthy. The word hypocrisy comes from the word meaning actors. And so many of those we see on our television screens, on our social media feeds are just that, actors, hypocrites. I do not suggest that with condemnation but with sorrow.
Do you remember what happened to so many of the wealthy during the Stock Market Crash? They could not face life without all that they had lost. Wealth, notoriety, reputation. Out of this came suicides and addictions and a fury to succeed no matter who they hurt.
Again the Message writes that these “are mere windblown dust—without defense in court, unfit company for innocent people.”
“Woe to you who are rich.”
These declarations of blessings and woes do not encourage weakness but strength. Strength to live in faith in a broken world. Strength to move forward in love no matter what. Strength to follow Jesus, even to the cross. That takes real strength, sacred and divine strength.
Nor are these blessings and woes irrelevant for today. They speak to the heart of what we know and see in our world. They challenge us to wrestle with them until they touch the secret places in our hearts where sovereignty lives. Revealing who and what is sovereign in our lives.
This is a hard thing. And we have a truckload of distractions to keep us from going there. Retail therapy will keep us busy. But so will good deeds. Anything to keep us too busy to stop and pay attention to the Spirit.
Jesus comes down from the mountain after prayer, after being with God, and the power was emanating from him.
Wrestling with the Beatitudes
is no small or easy task.
For in these blessings and these woes,
we find our lies unmasked.
I definitely relate to this reflection -esp the “truckload of distractions “
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