planted along the riverbank,
bearing fruit each season.
Their leaves never fade or dry up,
and they prosper in all they do.
Psalm 1:3
Unidentified river between mountains image with CC0 license via px here.
• Gospel According to Saint Luke Overview
Luke 6:12-26
12 Now during those days Jesus went out to the mountain to pray; and he spent the night in prayer to God. 13 And when day came, he called his disciples and chose twelve of them, whom he also named apostles: 14 Simon, whom he named Peter, and his brother Andrew, and James, and John, and Philip, and Bartholomew, 15 and Matthew, and Thomas, and James son of Alphaeus, and Simon, who was called the Zealot, 16 and Judas son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor.
17 Jesus 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 all in the crowd were trying to touch him, for power came out from him and healed all of them.
20 Then Jesus 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 on account of the Son of Man. 23 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.
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 what their ancestors did to the false prophets."
Beatitudes
Comparing Matthew's Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:1-12) and Luke's Sermon on the Plain or a Level Place (pasture, meadow, savannah, farmland) is a classic move. Jesus' Blessed list often is called The Beatitudes. The Greek almost always translated as "Blessed" approximately means happy, well-off, content, fortunate, but not quite, because there's no exact English equivalent.
After Matthew's Jesus goes (trudges?) up the mountain, he proclaims a series of prophetic if/then possibilities. Matthew brings us Jesus of Nazareth as a new Moses. Moses went up Mount Sinai (or Horeb, same place, different name) to receive the Ten Words or Commandments.
Luke's Jesus and his disciples come down the mountain before Jesus gives this talk. That's also like Moses who came down Mount Sinai or Horeb to deliver the Ten Words/Decalogue he'd received from God.
In Matthew, these blessings are strongly spiritual. Luke's Jesus reports more earthbound benefits.
According to Luke
Consistent with Luke's focus on distributive (who gets what, when, where, how, and even "why") justice, common-wealth, and our neighbors' well-being, in Luke's gospel Jesus gives this talk from the same level or elevation as the listening people.
Earlier in Luke we've seen social and economic leveling in Mary's Magnificat as she celebrates news of God's arrival in our midst: Luke 1:39-55. In his first act of public ministry when he reads Torah in synagogue on the Sabbath recorded in Luke 4:14-24, Jesus picks up Mary's theme; he reads from Isaiah and promises jubilee good news (gospel) to the poor, liberty to imprisoned and oppressed, economic and social justice.
Luke parallels four blessings with four "woe" statements. Woes disrupt and disturb comfortable complacency, tell us to pay attention, to listen up, because if you have the information you can avoid the negative consequences of those dangers. These woes aren't about misery, pain, sorrow, or distress. Luke's Jesus doesn't line out blessings versus curses. These aren't Divine favor versus God's judgment. They're not realm of heaven versus depths of hell.
Which Version?
Over the years Jesus would have given many different versions of this homily in many different places, so there's no need to ask which is more accurate. The gospel writers recorded particular events from Jesus' ministry because news of significant actions and encounters constantly made rounds because they were such "gospeled" great news.
I especially love that Luke records the time Jesus offered these promises after he'd been praying with his disciples (taught people) and from a larger group chose twelve apostles (sent people). Notice that he spoke to many persons all told; just like us, each would have understood to a different degree and grasped a different perspective.
Where We Live
You may have heard "upside-down kingdom," though nothing about God's way of mercy, justice, and inclusion has people with privilege becoming financially impoverished and socially marginalized. Because of this, it's important not to interpret today's and other biblical passages as suggesting those who are well-off from a human perspective will become the opposite. Jesus' "woe" pronouncements caution people not to be apathetic and unobserving of others from their relatively high positions; the woes nudge them to divest of some cash and material belongings to help bring everyone to the same level. Level is an important concept in this scripture, throughout Luke's gospel, and in Luke's Volume II Acts of the Apostles. God desires everyone to have enough, not for anyone to have too much or too little.
Early on, Acts describes the nascent church:
Acts 2
42 They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. 43 Awe came upon everyone, because many wonders and signs were being done by the apostles. 44 All who believed were together and had all things in common; 45 they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need.
Where we Live: Blessings and Woes
No doubt Jesus' Beatitudes were very different from ways most political and religious leaders usually behaved; they subverted the status quo most regular people routinely experienced, too. What blessings and woes can we announce?
Blessed are those who realize every facet of existence intertwines. All of us need nutritious locally grown food and clean water. Everyone needs to know how to read, to write, to learn how government works for them and against them, to interpret signs of the times. We all need social opportunities. Each individual and every family needs shelter.
Woe to those who don't and won't acknowledge any social and/or economic move impacts a few hundred in its path.
What Blessings and Woes do you declare?
The world and those that dwell therein.
Psalm 24:1
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