blessed

Luke 6:20-23 - The Beatitudes.

I had a professor once who reframed my reference for these verses. His take was that Jesus didn't just pull this stuff out of the air. He thinks it was more immediate than that. Jesus was teaching on the mountain and all these people had gathered to hear him. They weren't special people, they were just...people. And they had a ton of questions. They believed in what Jesus was saying - he spoke with such passion and authority and in plain language. Unlike other teachers of his day, Jesus reached out to the everyman and everywoman. It wasn't about him making himself more. He was all and didn't need to prove himself. It was about enriching people, bringing them back to God in real, meaningful ways. But his teaching didn't change the fact that most of them were living well below the poverty line and often couldn't afford basic neccessities like food and shelter.

Jesus wasn't stupid. He could see these people often sacrificed wages and their livelyhoods just to listen and learn from him. So he points at a group of them dressed in less than rags, "Blessed are you who are poor for yours is the kingdom of God." You there, yes, you, you are blessed. God will give you his entire kingdom one day. You are making the right choice to be here today.

He looks over at another group who are gaunt in the face and are having trouble focusing because their stomachs won't stop growling. "Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be filled." You are not forgotten. You are blessed because you have made the right choice - you've chosen God over your own hunger! That earns you food that will fill you beyond imagining. Food that will cure your hunger for eternity.

Another group, half hiding behind a clump of trees, eyes wary and on the lookout for their neighbours who have done nothing but taunt and abuse them since they discovered their allegiance to the rogue rabbi. Jesus locks eyes with them and says, "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 on that day and leap for joy, for surely your reward is great in heaven; for that is what their ancestors did to the prophets." God sees what they do to you. He sees how hard they make your lives. These kinds of people don't change. They abused God's own prophets - people sent to help save them were beaten, mocked, even murdered. Yes, I'm comparing you to the propehts! That's a pretty big honour. But guess what? You'll be honoured even more in heaven, so don't pay your tormentors any mind at all. In fact, rejoice instead of weep! You will gain what they can never achieve.

I like this approach to the beatitudes, this in-your-face kind of preaching. It makes Jesus more divine and more human to me all at the same time. He had the divine perspective on life, and yet he never dismissed the reality of what was going on around him. He wasn't blind or stupid about the trails and suffering the people who followed him experienced. But his encouragement was realistic too. You may never 'succeed' in this life financially or with your reputation, but stop worrying so much about that. You hold to your course of following me and you will receieve your reward a thousand times over. God is not blind to what you're going through, but he will choose how you are rewarded. Don't believe the lies this world tells you - that you have to make in in this life in order to make it at all. You're already blessed by God. Yes, you, you're blessed by God, in spite of your rags, in spite of your growling stomach, and in spite of the abuse you have to endure. You're blessed!

Such a good reminder for this crazy, stuff-obsessed culture. It's something I forget more often than I remember. I am blessed. By choosing life, by choosing Christ, I am blessed.

Blessed are you who are poor...

Blessed are you who are hungry...

Blessed are you who are persecuted...

How are you blessed today?