This is the sixth Sunday after Epiphany and our lectionary reading for today is Luke 6:17-26.
In the verses just prior this text, Jesus has chosen his twelve apostles from among a larger group of disciples. Jesus had a number of disciples who were committed to him as followers and learners, but weren’t apostles. The 12 apostles were a selected few who comprised Jesus’ inner circle and who he sent to preach the Good News and heal.
So when Jesus preaches his message in this passage, his audience includes three groups: the twelve aposles, a large group of committed disciples, and an even larger crowd of people who were attracted to Jesus and came to him to hear his teachings and to be healed
Blessed are you who are poor, Jesus begins this session of teaching which is usually called “the Sermon on the Plain.” It’s very similar to his sermon on the mount in Matthew. Except that in Matthew Jesus seems to be talking about the spiritually poor. Whereas here it’s clear that he’s talking about those who are living in actual poverty.
Let’s talk a minute about blessings. As Jesus uses this term, being blessed means to be the recipient of God’s favor and goodness. Scripture names a variety of people who are blessed by God, including, among others:
Blessed are those whose sins are forgiven.
Blessed are those who persevere in hardship.
Blessed are the peacemakers.
These folks are blessed because they are recipients of God’s presence and favor, as they trust in him. Which brings peace, joy and hope, whatever one’s outward circumstances may be.
God’s blessing also sometimes brings practical benefits to our everyday lives. We’ve all experienced times when God has blessed us perhaps with food, healing, a job, a friend, a spouse. We are blessed by God in many ways, aren’t we?
Scripture also talks about us blessing God. To bless God means to praise and adore him. The Psalmist cries out, “Blessed be the Lord from everlasting to everlasting.”
There are some wonderful Jewish prayers of praise and blessing to God. Many begin with the Hebrew words, Barukh ata Adonai Eloheinu, melekh ha’olam. . . “Blessed are You, LORD our God, King of the universe. . .
Such blessings sometimes praise God for practical things: Before going to sleep at night:Blessed are you, Lord our God, king of the universe, who brings sleep to my eyes, and slumber to my eyelids.Before a meal: Blessed are you, Lord our God, king of the universe, who brings forth bread from the earth.
Even more important is blessing God for a relationship with him. A principal Jewish prayer is, Blessed are You, LORD our God, King of the universe, who has made us holy through your commandments.
Similarly, in Ephesians the Apostle Paul writes, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms.”
So these are blessings, but today’s passage also speaks of woes.
When Jesus pronounces woe on someone, he’s warning that their actions are courting disaster. If they don’t change their ways the consequences will be catastrophic, especially for their relationship with God. Jesus most often pronounces woes on religious leaders who lead people astray.
In today’s passage, Jesus pronounces blessings on the poor and woe on the rich.
When Jesus says “Blessed are you who are poor,” and “blessed are you who hunger,” he’s announcing God’s favor on people struggling with poverty. This seems contrary to common sense, doesn’t it? How are people who are poor and hungry blessed?
But Jesus says that they are blessed because God is present with them in a special way. In spite of their outward circumstances, they are recipients of God’s favor. God is working for their good, as they put their trust in him. Giving them peace, joy and hope even in their hardship.
They’re also blessed, Jesus says, because they will be included in God’s glorioius coming Kingdom. Where their circumstances will be reversed. Instead of poverty and hunger, their lives will be filled with an abundance of good things.
In contrast, Jesus says, those who are rich, well-fed and who lead privileged lives are facing destruction. Unless they repent, they will be excluded when God’s kingdom comes.
We see this warning to the rich throughout the New Testament. In Mary’s song of praise in Luke 1, saying God has filled the hungry with good things but sent the rich away empty. In Jesus’ warning that it’s hard for the rich to enter the kingdom of God.
This may seem shocking to us. After all, what does God have against rich people? Why are they judged so harshly?
Scripture gives two major reasons. One, the rich should be helping the poor and empowering them for a better life. But although there are exceptions in Scripture and in life, many wealthy people ignore the poor and look only after themselves and other rich people.
That’s the lesson of Jesus’ parable about Lazurus and the rich man. You may remember the story. A rich man lives in luxury in a mansion, dresses in expensive clothes and feasts daily on sumptuous food. But lying at the gate of his house is a poor man, Lazarus, who is straving and covered with sores. Then they both die. Lazarus goes to joyful paradise in the bosom of Abraham, and the rich man to suffering in Hades.
Jesus’ point is that the rich man could easily have helped Lazarus with food and medical care when they were alive. But he did nothing to help him. This is the reason that Jesus pronounces woe on the rich who are indifferent to the poor and cruelly ignore their needs.
The other reason that the rich are warned to repent is that the rich are often the cause of the poverty of the poor. They use their power to rig the social and economic systems so that the rich get richer and the poor are further impoverished
The Old Testament prophets rage against the rich taking the lands of the poor. And against wealthy merchants who cheat customers by using rigged scales in the market place. And against the rich who bribe judges to make biased rulings in the courts.
In the New Testament Jesus condemns religious leaders, who love wealth and defraud poor widows out of their property. The letter of James condemns the rich for cheating workers out of a fair wage and causing the deaths of innocent people.
Being indifferent to the poor and rigging the political and economic systems against the poor are grave sins. Jesus says that the rich who do these things will be excluded from God’s coming kingdom.
The world we live in now is unjust in many ways. It is an upside-down world from what God wants the world to be. But when God’s kingdom comes, justice will be done. The world will be set right, put right-side-up. The first will be last, Jesus says, and the last first.
An eminent Biblical scholar once said that Christians should hold the Bible in one hand and a newspaper in the other. He meant that we should look at public events through the lens of Scripture.
We’ve all read or heard about the controversial actions of the President and his administration. Actions that are direct violations of Jesus’ teachings. Instead of helping the poor and vulnerable members of society, these policies are causing them harm.
As you know, ICE, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, has begun carrying out a plan to deport, in the President’s own words, “millions and millions” of immigrants.
Also, many federal grants are being frozen, which may threaten school lunch programs and other assistance for families in need.
There is also a freeze on foreign assistance, even though such foreign aid is less than 1 percent of U.S. government spending. This is preventing food aid and life-saving medicines from reaching impoverished people in other countries. Threatening the lives of millions of children and adults.
And these things are only the beginning. Plans are underway to make even more cuts In assistance to poor and vulnerable people.
At the same time, a tax cut is being renewed that mainly benefits the rich. In other words, government policies will increase the wealth of the rich while reducing help for the poor. This is the opposite of what Jesus’ commands.
We may feel that there’s not much we can do in the face of such massive cruelty. But we can begin with lament. By sorrowing for the harm that’s being done.
Lament is the natural response for those who are directly affected by these policies. But all people of good will can join in lamentation with those who are being harmed. We can weep with those who weep, as Scripture instructs.
And we can pray. These heartless plans are already doing much harm, but so far, for various reasons, they are being blocked from being fully carried out. There’s a story in Scripture where David asks God to confuse the counsel of his adversaries. To cause them to follow bad advice so that their war against David would fail. I’ve been praying for God to confuse the President’s counsel and prevent his harmful plans from succeeding. We can all lament and pray, and perhaps more outward opportunities for protest will arise.
Blessed are you who are poor, Jesus says, for yours is the kingdom of God. . . Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh.
But woe to you who are rich, for you have already received your comfort. . . Woe to you who are laughing now, for you will mourn and weep.
And, “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil,” cries the prophet Isaiah to the wealthy and powerful who take from the poor what little they have.
But “blessed,” the Psalmist says, “are those who care for the poor.”
May our government and all of us hear the Word of the Lord
Marty Shupack, February 2025