Epiphany 6, Year C

​“Then Jesus looked up at his disciples.”  It’s a small detail in today’s scripture, and I’m very grateful it’s there.  There are plenty of places in the scriptures in which people are looking at Jesus.  Here, in contrast, Luke specifically points out that Jesus is looking at them.  We’llcome back to that in a minute.

​In the verses before this passage Luke tells us that Jesus went out to the mountain to pray, and he spent the night in prayer to God.  He calls his disciples to him and chooses twelve of them whom he names apostles.  Then he came down with them and stood on a level place with a crowd of his disciples and a great multitude of people from all around.  Luke shows us Jesus in two modes, up on the mountain in prayer with God, and then coming down, to be on the same level as all of us.  Since Jesus is on a level place here, many scholars refer to what Jesus says here as “the sermon on the plain”.  It is very similar to “the sermon on the mount” in Matthew’s gospel.  Both Luke’s version of the sermon and the Matthew’s version of it include beatitudes, the teachings about loving your enemies, the parable of the two trees, and the parable of the two houses. Many scholars think that the similarities are because Luke and Matthew were both working from an earlier document of Jesus’ teachings, which no longer exists, that scholars call Q.  When people study ancient texts, and have two different versions of a text, they often ask which is closer to the original.  The common guideline is that the one that is less palatable and less easy to understand is probably closer to the original, because people who pass down texts are much more likely to smooth out the parts that are either unappealing or difficult.  They’re not likely to take a text that is already smooth or easy and decide to make it less appealing or more difficult.   As a result, most scholars think Luke’s version is closer to the original, and Matthew has probably taken out the parts people don’t like, such as the four woes, and added to the parts people do like by increasing the number of blessed parts from four to eight, and spiritualizing the original four so that “blessed are the poor” becomes “blessed are the poor in spirit”.  That sounds persuasive to me.

​I am grateful that the Bible does not insist on only one version of Jesus’ teachings, and that it gives us Luke’s version as well as Matthew’s.  While I admit that I often fall into the habit of trying to spiritualize things, I am grateful that Luke shows me a very down-to-earth Jesus, a Jesus who will level with me, a Jesus who will make things plain.  When Jesus says the poor, he means the poor.

​In Jesus’ society, there was a tendency to idolize the rich, to idolize those who eat well, to idolize the happy, to idolize those who are spoken well of. I notice that in our modern society, there is a tendency to idolize the rich, to idolize those who eat well, to idolize the happy, to idolize those who are spoken well of.  

In Jesus’ society there was a tendency for religious people to believe that the people who are blessed by God are the rich, those who eat well, the happy, those who are well spoken of.  I notice that in our modern society, there is a tendency for religious people to believe that the people who are blessed by God are the rich, those who eat well, the happy, the well spoken of.  And the rich want to make sure that everyone keeps believing that, because it gives them even more power to get more for themselves, and to take more away from the poor, the hungry, the weeping, the excluded.  

​Jesus is not having it.  Jesus comes down and stands on a level place among the crowd of his disciples and the multitudes.  Jesus looks up at them.  And Jesus says what he sees when he looks at them, which is the exact opposite of what is woven so thoroughly into societal and religious attitudes.  When Jesus looks up at them, what Jesus sees in them is their blessedness.

Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the Kingdom of God.

Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be filled.

Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh.

Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you on account of the Son of Man.  Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, for surely your reward is great in heaven; for that is what their ancestors did to the prophets.

​This Jesus is very different from the Jesus that the rich and the Christian Nationalists want you to believe in.  I believe in this Jesus.  

​And Jesus is not done.  And he is not mincing words.  He tells us what else he sees when he looks at people:

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.

Woe to you who are laughing now, for you will mourn and weep.

Woe to you when all speak well of you, for that is what their ancestors did to the false prophets.

This Jesus is very different from the Jesus that the rich and the Christian Nationalists want you to believe in.  I believe in this Jesus.  

I’m not entirely at ease with this Jesus, since I’m someone with a comfortable life.  I’ve got money, I’ve got food, I’ve got laughter, I’ve got people who speak well of me.  And when the future seems so uncertain, I’ve also got anxiety that I might lose those things, and that people I care about might lose those things.  I see many people in society losing those things already.  I want God to fix the world so that doesn’t happen, and fast. I’m not sure that’s the way things work.

The timing in this passage is interesting, since the four beatitudes talk about time in three different ways.  

The first beatitude says blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.  Right now in the present the kingdom of God is already yours.  

In the second and third beatitude we find “will be”: Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be filled.  Blessed are you who weep now for you will laugh.  

And the fourth beatitude talks about heaven.  Blessed are you when people hate you and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you on account of the Son of Man.  Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, for surely your reward is great in heaven.

I don’t know the future and can’t know the future.  Still, it is a comfort to me to know that although the rich and powerful in the kingdoms of the world often use their power to exploit, exclude, hate, and defame the poor, the hungry, the weeping, the marginalized, still the kingdom of God already exists, and Jesus sees that it belongs to the poor.  Jesus sees their blessedness, and Jesus sees the blessedness of the hungry, the weeping, the despised.  They are already blessed.  They are already precious to God.  They are already holy.  They are already sacred.  If any of us find ourselves in those circumstances, remember that regardless of what you lose, regardless of what is taken from you, nothing can change your blessedness.  Remember that regardless of what anyone, even someone with earthly power, says to revile, hate or exclude you, nothing can change your blessedness.

And when there are other people whose circumstances are worse than our own, we can remember to look at them as Jesus does, to see them through Jesus’ eyes, to see that the poor are blessed, the hungry are blessed, the weeping are blessed, the hated and excluded are blessed.  We can use whatever resources or influence we have to care for those who are poor, hungry, weeping, excluded, and to advocate for them.  To treat them with the respect and dignity with which we would want to be treated.  

We in the church do have our times of going up to the mountains to pray with God, and that’s important.  And we in the church also have our times of going to a level place with the multitudes, and lifting up our eyes to the people around us, the poor, the hungry, the weeping, the rejected, and looking at them the way Jesus does, to see their blessedness, and to treat them as sacred and beloved.