The Good News: Luke 6:17-26 NRSVUE
Jesus Teaches and Heals
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.
Blessings and Woes
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[a] 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.
Reflection: “Blessings and Woes”
All of our readings today touch on the theme of blessing, but I have struggled for years with the central idea in Luke’s gospel that there is blessing in poverty.
I had a friend Jason in my class at St. Andrew’s College in Saskatoon. He was young, outgoing, funny and moody. We didn’t have a lot in common, but somehow we bonded. He died from cancer a couple of years ago, barely 40 years old.
Early in our acquaintance, he gave me a little pamphlet called “SCM’s Revolutionary Devotional”.
To give you a bit of background, the Student Christian Movement (SCM) of Canada is a youth- and student-led grassroots network passionate about social justice, community in diversity, and radical faith in action. It is most active on university campuses. It is 100 years old, and my parents were members when they attended the University of Alberta.
A few days after Jason gave it to me, I opened the booklet to the Friday meditation and this is what I read:
“The only way to live in any true security is to live so close to the bottom that when you fall you do not have far to drop, you do not have much to lose.” From Dorothy Day, a Christian anarchist and founder of the Catholic Worker movement. That’s her photo above.
It became really important to me to know more about the larger context of that very radical thought that living at the bottom is a place of true security. So I went on a search for the source of the quote and finally found it in her 1963 book “Loaves and Fishes”, the story of her role in the establishment of the Catholic Worker newspaper and movement along with anarchist Peter Maurin.
Here is the full paragraph from page 82:
The act and spirit of giving are the best counter to the evil forces in our world today, and giving liberates the individual not only spiritually but materially. For, in a world enslavement through installment buying and mortgages, the only way to live in any true security is to live so close to the bottom that when you fall you do not have far to drop, you do not have much to lose.
One of the things that bothered me about this quote is that for us to choose poverty is one thing, but for the majority of the world’s people poverty is not voluntary. If you have not chosen to live at the bottom with no assurance from day to day that you will have a roof over your head or food to eat, does that feel like security?
Here’s what Day has to say about the difference between chosen and enforced poverty from page 78:
Chapter 8: “A Baby Is Always Born with a Loaf of Bread Under Its Arm”
This was the consoling remark my brother’s Spanish mother-in-law used to make when a new baby was about to arrive. It is this philosophy which makes it possible for people to endure a life of poverty.
“Just give me a chance,” I hear people say. “Just let me get my debts paid. Just let me get a few of the things I need and then I’ll begin to think of poverty and its rewards. Meanwhile, I’ve had nothing but.” But these people do not understand the difference between inflicted poverty and voluntary poverty, between being the victims and the champions of poverty. I prefer to call the one kind destitution, reserving the word poverty for what Saint Francis called “Lady Poverty.”
So although we can never deny the privilege that allows us to choose poverty or not, Day says that making that choice is a matter of solidarity with those who do not have that privilege.
Theologian David L. Ostendorf says, “In this world, even poverty does not translate into blessing. John Dominic Crossan distinguishes between the pauper/peasant and the destitute/beggar…God’s blessings do not fall on “the poor” simply because they are poor…The utterly reviled and expendable of the human family, the wretched of the earth, are the favoured of God’s blessings…God does not take kindly to halfheartedness…God does not bless us as we protect and build institutions and empires…The realm of God rests among those who have nothing but God.”
The blessing doesn’t lie in the condition of poverty, the blessing lies in the removal of barriers between us and God.
Today’s passage from Luke is part of what is known as “The Sermon on the Plain.” The setting on the plain is important. Much of the content of this sermon is the same as “The Sermon on the Mount” in the gospel of Matthew. But Jesus in the gospel of Luke is standing not above his followers but with them. It is one of the recurrent themes in Luke, God in Jesus turning the world upside down and inside out.
Earlier in Chapter 6, we are told that Jesus went to the mountain to pray, and after praying all night he chose the twelve apostles from among his followers. And then, in verses l7 to 20, we hear “He came down with them and stood on a level place, with a great crowd of his disciples and a great multitude of people…They had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases…Then he looked up at his disciples and said: Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.” Jesus is being very clear with the disciples about the cost of following him.
An upside down world indeed! This certainly isn’t the so-called “prosperity Gospel” that promises wealth and power to Christ’s followers, that implies that the rich deserve their riches and the poor deserve their poverty.
It also isn’t a pie-in -the sky gospel, where heavenly rewards are promised to those who suffer here on earth. A key word in this passage is now.
Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be filled. Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh.
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.
Jesus is on the plain with us. Jesus works from a grounded place, and he takes care of immediate needs first. Before he preaches and teaches, he heals. Jesus looks up at us, and he truly sees us in all our longing, our weakness and our strength. Jesus asks us to also be on the level with him: to give up what we need to give up, to empty ourselves and to open ourselves to God’s grace.
What are the blessings and the woes in today’s world? How do we help to level the playing field so God’s grace and abundance is visible and active Now, for everyone?
For Reflection: What blessings or sorrows come to mind that speak to our times? What do we value or reject?
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