Who is Blessed? Luke 6:17-26
We all have ideas about who is blessed and who is not. Every individual and every culture has a criterion for both, though it might not always be said out loud. Blessed are those with a solid retirement savings. Blessed are those with a family who are all married with good jobs and healthy children. Blessed are those who are not dealing with any major health problems. And cursed are those who are plagued by addiction and debt. Cursed are those who struggle with cancer. Cursed are those who have an estranged child. Cursed are those with below average intelligence, or below average social skill. Cursed are those with crippling social anxiety.
Human beings are often consumed with thoughts about being on the “right side” and avoiding the “wrong side”. We do this in almost every area of human life. Socially, we create a kind of hierarchy of success with some above and some belove. Politically, we talk about being on the “right side of history”. Sometimes this even effects our food choices- do you eat eggs from free range chickens and only eat grass-fed hormone-free beef? Do you eat organic? Are you vegan? … How about our driving habits- do you drive a small hybrid, or an electric car? Or do you drive a giant diesel pickup truck? … As I’m asking these questions you might feel a kind of hierarchy going to work inside of you categorizing these choices as good or bad, and therefore being a part of a good road or a bad path.
This is obviously a big theme within the Bible. How does one walk the path God wants us to walk? How do we walk the path that pleases God, or at least avoids the path that displeases God? The Bible sometimes speaks about this in terms of those who are blessed and those who are cursed, or the righteous and the wicked.
We see the way of the blessed in our Psalm reading.
“Happy [or blessed] are those who do not follow the advice of the wicked, or take the path that sinners tread, or sit in the seat of scoffers; but their delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law they meditate day and night” (Ps 1:1-2).
The psalm sets forward a good path and a bad path, both with appropriate consequences. Those on the right path (the blessed) are
“like trees planted by streams of water, which yield their fruit in its season, and their leaves do not wither. In all that they do, they prosper” (Ps 1:3).
The wicked (the cursed) they
“are like chaff that the wind drives away” (Ps 1:4).“… The Lord watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish” (Ps 1:6).
Our reading from Jeremiah says,
“Cursed are those who trust in mere mortals and make mere flesh their strength, whose hearts turn away from the Lord” (Jer 17:5).“Blessed are those who trust in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord” (Jer 17:7).
… Jeremiah is going a bit deeper here. He is considering not just outward actions, but inward dispositions- trust. But there is a complication that is introduced. As Jeremiah says,
“The heart is devious above all else; it is perverse— who can understand it?” (17:9).
As we seek to look deeper, not just at our outward actions, we see that we can be motivated in all kinds of ways. We can even do what seem to be good things, with perverse motivations. I can do something good just so that my own ego can be puffed up by the admiration of those around me. If what Jeremiah says is true, then maybe we should be a bit more careful about telling people to follow their hearts.
We all seek to follow the right path and avoid the wrong path. We all want to belong to the blessed, and avoid being the cursed. … You might remember the story about the Pharisee and the Tax-Collector in Luke 18. In a way, it is a story about who is blessed and who is cursed.
We all seek to follow the right path and avoid the wrong path. We all want to belong to the blessed, and avoid being the cursed. … You might remember the story about the Pharisee and the Tax-Collector in Luke 18. In a way, it is a story about who is blessed and who is cursed.
“Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’ (Lk 18:10-12)The Pharisee believes he is on the right path- and that God is pleased with him. He does what is right, he even goes beyond what is expected. Outward actions are a simplistic way to determine someone’s status before God. … Jesus confronts this thinking by continuing the story in an unexpected way-
“But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’ “I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted” (Lk 18:13-14).Jesus isn’t saying anything bad about the Pharisee’s statements about fasting and tithing. Those are good things to do. Jesus also isn’t saying there is anything good about being a tax-collector. Often they got rich by over-charging those they collected taxes from and keeping the extra. They betrayed their people by serving their Roman oppressors, and got rich doing so. … What Jesus is pointing out is the state of their hearts. Regardless of their outward circumstances, what is the state of their hearts? In Jesus’ story, the Pharisee was full of pride and self-exaltation. His heart deceived him. … The tax collector was full of humility and repentance. Jesus is saying that these states of heart take precedence over outward actions. For good actions to be valuable, the heart has to be in the right place.
A couple of weeks ago we had a reading from 1 Corinthians 13 in which Paul lists a number of important and impressive feats- speaking in tongues, expressing prophetic powers and incredible faith, giving away all one’s possessions, and dying as a martyr. He says that we can do all these things, but if they aren’t grounded in love, then these actions aren’t worth anything. The disposition of the heart overrides these actions and determines if they are worthy actions. Again, Paul isn’t saying these are bad things. He is probably mentioning them because they are good and impressive, but to do them with the wrong disposition twists the action and seems to pollute it.
Jesus is teaching us something similar in our Gospel reading. He is confronting an assumed idea about the blessed and the cursed. Jesus’ words here are very much like the words we find in Matthew’s beatitudes (Matt 5:1-12). Jesus describes a number of situations people might find themselves in and then calls them “blessed”, “happy”, or “fortunate”. But they seem to be backwards.
Our society, as well as Jesus’ society, would say “Blessed are the rich”; but Jesus says, “blessed are you who are poor”.
Society would say, “blessed are the full and satisfied”; but Jesus says, “Blessed are you who are hungry”.
Society would say, “Blessed are those who laugh”; but Jesus says, “blessed are you who weep”.
Society would say, “Blessed are you when people love you”; but Jesus says, “blessed are you when people hate you, exclude you, revile you, and defame you on account of [Jesus]”.
It all seems very backwards.
There isn’t anything inherently good about being poor, hungry, sad, or hated. They are not situations we are to try to imitate. Just as we shouldn’t try to be the tax-collector. … I should say that some Christian commentators do try to find ways for us to be imitators of these traits. So, they might suggest we give away all our money to be poor, and thereby become poor ourselves. Or some suggest that we spiritualize the reference to poverty and recognize our spiritual poverty. We have nothing we can bring to God- we recognize that we are beggars in His presence. They might suggest the practice of fasting to be hungry- perhaps to recognize our internal hunger for God. They suggest weeping over our sins in repentance. And they suggest participating in evangelism and publicly standing up for Christian values in the political arena to the point of being hated, excluded, reviled, and defamed. There is value in reading Jesus’ words this way, but I’m not so sure that was Jesus’ original intent when he spoke these words.
I suspect that Jesus is trying to draw attention to his society’s assumptions about who is blessed and who is cursed. Just as we might be tempted to assume that when we are facing tragedy we have been forgotten (or rejected) by God, so we might be tempted to make the assumption that when things are going well and we experience fortunate circumstances that we are somehow favoured by God. …
This is a tension within the Bible. The prophets will often say that if the people follow God’s direction, then things will go well. They also say that if they ignore God’s direction that things will go badly. There is a general truth to this- if you drink and drive you are more likely to get into an accident, or have your license taken away, maybe even end up in jail. … But we sometimes try to read this backwards. We have something tragic happen to us and we can group ourselves in with the rejected. This is where the book of Job comes in. He faces tragedy having done nothing wrong. Tragedy isn’t evidence of being on the wrong path.
What Jesus is saying is that we shouldn’t automatically assume that people are in God’s favor, or out of God’s favor, merely because people are in the situations he describes (poor, hungry, mourning, hated). These situations are often out of our control, but we can control how we respond to these situations. Wealth, for example, can be an opportunity to live in self-isolating hedonistic indulgence, or it can be the opportunity for generosity through considering one’s wealth as being God’s wealth that comes with the responsibility of proper stewardship. …
It has been said that Jesus comforted the disturbed, and disturbed the comfortable. To the poor Jesus wanted to assure them that their circumstances were not evidence of God’s rejection. They too are welcome to be a part of the kingdom. … To the wealthy, Jesus wanted to warn them against seeing their wealth as evidence of God’s approval. Jesus often taught in hyperbole to make a point, so I suspect the point is true in both cases. Your wealth, or lack of it, is not evidence of your standing before God. There is a different standard. That of your heart before God. Whatever your situation, you are welcome to participate in the Kingdom of God.
Wherever we are, and whatever we are going through, we are welcomed to take our first steps into the kingdom. Living in the kingdom isn’t a promise to live a stress-free life. Living in the kingdom for Jesus meant a cross. Living in the midst of suffering and struggle doesn’t mean you are excluded from the kingdom. If you struggle because you’re poor, or hungry, or because you are sad, or hated, excluded, reviled, and defamed, you can still be a citizen of the kingdom. Even in the midst of these struggles you are welcome to live the life of the kingdom. Even on the cross Jesus was living the life of the kingdom. AMEN.
There isn’t anything inherently good about being poor, hungry, sad, or hated. They are not situations we are to try to imitate. Just as we shouldn’t try to be the tax-collector. … I should say that some Christian commentators do try to find ways for us to be imitators of these traits. So, they might suggest we give away all our money to be poor, and thereby become poor ourselves. Or some suggest that we spiritualize the reference to poverty and recognize our spiritual poverty. We have nothing we can bring to God- we recognize that we are beggars in His presence. They might suggest the practice of fasting to be hungry- perhaps to recognize our internal hunger for God. They suggest weeping over our sins in repentance. And they suggest participating in evangelism and publicly standing up for Christian values in the political arena to the point of being hated, excluded, reviled, and defamed. There is value in reading Jesus’ words this way, but I’m not so sure that was Jesus’ original intent when he spoke these words.
I suspect that Jesus is trying to draw attention to his society’s assumptions about who is blessed and who is cursed. Just as we might be tempted to assume that when we are facing tragedy we have been forgotten (or rejected) by God, so we might be tempted to make the assumption that when things are going well and we experience fortunate circumstances that we are somehow favoured by God. …
This is a tension within the Bible. The prophets will often say that if the people follow God’s direction, then things will go well. They also say that if they ignore God’s direction that things will go badly. There is a general truth to this- if you drink and drive you are more likely to get into an accident, or have your license taken away, maybe even end up in jail. … But we sometimes try to read this backwards. We have something tragic happen to us and we can group ourselves in with the rejected. This is where the book of Job comes in. He faces tragedy having done nothing wrong. Tragedy isn’t evidence of being on the wrong path.
What Jesus is saying is that we shouldn’t automatically assume that people are in God’s favor, or out of God’s favor, merely because people are in the situations he describes (poor, hungry, mourning, hated). These situations are often out of our control, but we can control how we respond to these situations. Wealth, for example, can be an opportunity to live in self-isolating hedonistic indulgence, or it can be the opportunity for generosity through considering one’s wealth as being God’s wealth that comes with the responsibility of proper stewardship. …
It has been said that Jesus comforted the disturbed, and disturbed the comfortable. To the poor Jesus wanted to assure them that their circumstances were not evidence of God’s rejection. They too are welcome to be a part of the kingdom. … To the wealthy, Jesus wanted to warn them against seeing their wealth as evidence of God’s approval. Jesus often taught in hyperbole to make a point, so I suspect the point is true in both cases. Your wealth, or lack of it, is not evidence of your standing before God. There is a different standard. That of your heart before God. Whatever your situation, you are welcome to participate in the Kingdom of God.
Wherever we are, and whatever we are going through, we are welcomed to take our first steps into the kingdom. Living in the kingdom isn’t a promise to live a stress-free life. Living in the kingdom for Jesus meant a cross. Living in the midst of suffering and struggle doesn’t mean you are excluded from the kingdom. If you struggle because you’re poor, or hungry, or because you are sad, or hated, excluded, reviled, and defamed, you can still be a citizen of the kingdom. Even in the midst of these struggles you are welcome to live the life of the kingdom. Even on the cross Jesus was living the life of the kingdom. AMEN.
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