Last week as we looked at the beginning of Jesus’ sermon on the plain, and Jesus’ language on who is blessed was a bit unsettling. This week we will look at those who Jesus has a loving warning to those who might seem to be living the blessed life.
I invite you to read both last week’s scripture and this week’s scripture together…
Luke 6:17-26 New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
17 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 everyone in the crowd was 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 on that day and leap for joy, for surely your reward is great in heaven, for that is how their ancestors treated 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 how their ancestors treated the false prophets.
In Jesus’ sermon on the plain, we are invited to step aside from our preconceived notions of being blessed and be willing to embrace the kind of upside-down reversals that Jesus presents. Luke’s version of the Beatitudes is meant to startle us out of our complacency and inspire us to action.
These four pairings, the blessings and woes, challenge us to look at our lives and our world with new eyes. They challenge us to clarify our values and examine what are the things in life that we will take a stand for in relation to faithful living. Packed into these verses are very real instructions for the disciples, including those of us who claim to follow Jesus, to reorient our relationships and reverse the social, economic, and political injustices that surround us so that we might live more fully into the way of Jesus in our everyday lives.
Our scripture this week is giving us a vision of what God’s Upside-Down kingdom looks like. It invites us to a better understanding of what it looks like for God’s kingdom to be among us, to be in relationship with God who sees all of God’s creation as beloved and blessed and calls us to be in a community that models such a perspective. These words from Luke are not words of comfort, but words of challenge to embrace the world with the love and eyes of Jesus.
Let’s talk about it on Sunday.
~ Pastor Dustin
