Luke 6:17-26
God Among Us
A lofty God is much easier to handle and live with. That’s the picture the Beatitudes recorded in Matthew gives us. In Matthew’s version, when Jesus saw the crowds, he went up a mountain and the disciples came up to see him. In response Jesus offers his disciples an idealistic, spiritual vision of his kingdom: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven… Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled…”
But Luke’s recording of the Beatitudes is different. Jesus is among the crowds and travels down with them to a level place. Jesus is not lifted above the crowd. Jesus is one among them. Jesus is approachable. Merely touching him brings forth healing power from him. And the way Luke begins the Beatitudes offers a hint into what Jesus was doing among the crowd.
Luke introduces the Beatitudes by writing, “Then he looked up at his disciples and said…” Not only was Jesus among the crowds on a level place, he appears to be stooping down to minister to those around him. Jesus is on the ground and physically below his disciples. He must raise his eyes to look up at his disciples. It is a complete reversal of the setting that is found in Matthew.
When Jesus does speak, Luke’s version of the Beatitudes does not attempt to spiritualized away the difficulties of life. In Luke’s recording Jesus says, “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be filled…” In Matthew, the Beatitudes are lofty, idealistic philosophy — Jesus speaks in abstract, religious terms. In Luke, Jesus speaks directly to his disciples in immediate, physical terms.
Matthew’s Beatitudes read more comfortably. It read more like moral philosophy and something that we might strive toward, but we don’t necessarily expect a complete fulfillment until some distant future.
Luke’s Beatitudes are uncomfortable. Jesus is speaking to you — to me. And whereas Matthew omits any kind of woes, Luke carefully balances four blessings with countering four woes: “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…”
Luke’s Beatitudes are uncomfortable, because for most of us sitting here we identity more with the conditions that bring woe than with the blessings. How many of us are so destitute that we are begging for handouts on the streets? How many of us are so destitute that we would sell our own bodies or our children just to survive? How many of us are so hungry that we would search bags of garbage and dumpsters for a scrap of spoiled food? How many of us face the hopelessness and desperation of having the powers and structures of society turned against us? How many of us are recipients of public spite, exclusion, and slander for speaking out against injustices and standing with the desperate and marginalized?
On the other hand, how many of us live in relative comfort? How many of us worry about being homeless and out on the streets? How many of us had a good dinner last night? How many of us have full refrigerators and pantries? How many of us are generally living a good life, where despair and hopelessness are far from our thoughts? How many of us are respected members of community?
On balance, it seems that as individuals and as a faith community, we find ourselves on the “woe” side rather than on the “blessings” side of Luke’s formulation of the Beatitudes. It isn’t surprising that the more spiritualized Matthean version is the one we hear more. After all, all of us can honestly claim that we are “poor in spirit” and “hungry for righteousness.” But Luke doesn’t offer us that option, and so we must sit in the discomfort and with questions about what we are supposed to do with this text.
One possible interpretation is a very literal one. I point to a later section in this very same Lucan gospel where Jesus seems to advocate and praise such a literal application. In chapter 18 we read about the rich ruler:
18 A certain ruler asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” 19 Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone. 20 You know the commandments: ‘You shall not commit adultery; You shall not murder; You shall not steal; You shall not bear false witness; Honor your father and mother.’” 21 He replied, “I have kept all these since my youth.” 22 When Jesus heard this, he said to him, “There is still one thing lacking. Sell all that you own and distribute the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.” 23 But when he heard this, he became sad; for he was very rich. 24 Jesus looked at him and said, “How hard it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God! 25 Indeed, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”
26 Those who heard it said, “Then who can be saved?” 27 He replied, “What is impossible for mortals is possible for God.”
28 Then Peter said, “Look, we have left our homes and followed you.” 29 And he said to them, “Truly I tell you, there is no one who has left house or wife or brothers or parents or children, for the sake of the kingdom of God, 30 who will not get back very much more in this age, and in the age to come eternal life.”A couple of the most notable examples who literally followed Jesus’ words just read include Francis and Clare of Assisi. Each was born into wealthy families but left their families and what they could have inherited and vowed themselves to severe poverty to serve the poor through service and prayer.
Again, we are forced to sit in discomfort as we ponder the Beatitudes of Jesus.
Another way to read this is to see it as time and culture bound. In other words, the words which Jesus spoke and Luke wrote down are specific to the historical period and people that is being addressed. Whether the early or later authorship dates of Luke are considered, both fall in periods during which followers of Jesus were at best seen as oddities and at worst seen as danger to the establishment. There may not have been prolonged and systematic persecution of the church, but they would have been targets of harassment and occasional persecution at the hands of both fellow Jews and Romans. The lengthy fourth blessing about being hated, excluded, and defamed seems to emphasize this historical circumstance about the audience community.
It should, therefore, not be surprising that the Beatitudes seek to bring comfort to those who are suffering and being slandered. It should not be surprising that woes are directed against those who are probably seen to be the instigators against Jesus’ followers, who laugh and mock them, and who are the respected citizenry and who hold power in society.
It would be easy to dismiss the Beatitudes as not that applicable to us. We live in very different circumstances from its original audience. Or we might say that it is applicable to present-day Christians who are experiencing the things described in the Beatitudes, but not to the rest of us. We could say that the words are meant to offer comfort and promise of divine attention, but it bears little practical relevance for most of us.
This too, is uncomfortable, because now we are dismissing an entire scripture passage as having little relevance to present-day life.
Maybe the discomfort is the point of this passage. The unease and tension that we feel as we wrestle with this difficult text may be the point. We prefer settled interpretations and answers, but instead the words of Jesus invite us into questions and dialogue. We are encouraged to approach the text from many angles.
A rhetorical, literary structural perspective offers a third way.
The carefully constructed parallelism between the blessings and the woes are patterned after prophetic utterances found in the Old Testament. As with the prophets of old, Jesus is portrayed by Luke as announcing a reversal of fortunes. Those who have been oppressed and marginalized, Jesus offers relief and comfort. To those who have lived in comfort, Jesus prophesies discomfort and ruin. Jesus tells his hearers that contrary to what is often believed, God is among the poor and hungry, rather than with the rich and full. God identifies with those who are reviled and rejected by society. Just as Jesus stopped down to care for the hurting and suffering, God is found among the despised and diseased.
Perhaps the questions to be asked of this passage is this: Where are we looking for God to show up? Among what kinds of people are we expecting to find God’s blessings?
What seems to be the case according to these Beatitudes is that the groups that we typically think of as “blessed,” the life circumstances that we often label a result of God’s “blessings,” are in fact, not. Instead, those who seem to be suffering the most are the recipient of God’s blessings. Those who are least in control of their own fates are the most blessed by God. In God’s economy, those who appear to have the least have the most, and those who appear to have the most don’t have anything. I think we’ve been trained to think about God’s kingdom as a better, more improved version of what we have now. But it is a complete reversal.
The Church is a manifestation and a breaking-in of the kingdom of God into this world. Since the kingdom of God is a reversal of the priorities and fortunes of this present world, what should the church look like? What should the church’s priorities be? What kinds of activities should the church be involved in? Where and among whom should we be spending our time?
Today’s text isn’t comfortable, and I don’t think it’s meant to be. It is there to wake us up and lead us to examine our priorities, both individually and corporately. Jesus has described whom God calls blessed. Where are we in relation to that? Are we God’s blessing to the world?
Whatever the verdict of our own self-examination, we can be sure that God can work through our sincere efforts. God’s grace and power is larger than any of our shortcomings and failings. We need new minds to even think about a world ordered completely upside down from what we know. That is the kind of “repentance” God desires in us – a completely new way of thinking. Through the words of today’s Beatitudes, let us begin to allow God to change our minds and thoughts.
