“Blessed!”

Sunday, April 26, 2020

A careful reading of all four Gospels reveals that a period of at least weeks separated Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness of Judea, from his preaching to great crowds in Galilee.  In between, he acquired his first several disciples, traveled back home to Nazareth, attended a wedding, moved with his family to Capernaum, attended the Passover festivities in Jerusalem, performed miracles, taught and baptized around the Judean countryside, preached the Gospel to Samaritans, and learned that John the Baptist had been thrown in prison (not all in that order).

Yet, Matthew’s Gospel mentions a couple of those events in passing and blitzes right past most of it, going from Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness to the Sermon on the Mount, with only a few verses in between.  He has a purpose for doing this, and it’s obvious that he wants to portray Jesus as coming out of his corner swinging, given that chapters 5-7 comprise the longest continuous sermon of Jesus that is recorded for us.  He wants to highlight that, from the beginning, Jesus knew what he was talking about, that there was no awkward, beginning phase full of errors and missteps—he was competent, coherent, and effective from the very start.

The point is well made, and Matthew’s extensive coverage of this particular sermon has led most of us to focus intently on this version of the sermon, nearly to the exclusion of the very similar one found in Luke 6.20-49, which may or may not be a shortened version of the same exact occasion.  That’s fine, especially since the contents of Luke’s version can almost universally be found either in Matthew’s version, or elsewhere in Jesus’ teachings throughout the Gospels.  Almost.

The major difference occurs in the intro, which is made up of a series of statements called The Beatitudes (because Latin).  While Matthew’s version focuses on spiritual things (par for the course with Jesus), Luke’s is decidedly more…fleshy.  Where Matthew says “poor in spirit” (Mt 5.3, my italics), Luke just has “poor” (Lk 6.20).  Where Matthew says “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness” (Mt 5.6, my italics), Luke says “Blessed are you who are hungry now” (Lk 6.21).  The difference isn’t as pronounced in the rest, but these two already show a pretty significant shift.

It’s natural that most of us have only paid significant attention to Matthew’s version—the spiritual, we are told throughout the New Testament, is more important than the physical.  The spiritual realm is where all the really significant stuff takes place, and even in the earthly rendition we read in Luke 6, Jesus has the spiritual in the background, slightly out of focus.  In addition to this, most of us have never tasted poverty and hunger of the level that was normal to most of Jesus’ audience.  Even when we’re pretty poor, in this day and age, and especially in this country, we are rich beyond the wildest imaginations of a rural day-laborer in Galilee in the 1^st century.  We take for granted luxuries that would have been mind-boggling to them—indoor plumbing, air conditioning, copious artificial light after sunset, cheap clothing and shoes, telecommunications, vast quantities of information at our back and call, a selection of affordable foods from all over the world that would’ve been impossible, and impossibly expensive, just a couple centuries ago, all ready to be kept in a magic box that keeps them frozen until we stick them in another magic box that warms them up just unevenly enough for us to complain that we might as well be living in the dark ages…the list goes on; we’re rather pampered.  I suppose it’s a little embarrassing, to me at least, when I read the simple, pared down, earth-focused beatitudes of Luke 6, because although at numerous points in my life I’ve been quite poor, at least in comparison to the people around me, even during those times I fit better in the next section:

“But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation.

“Woe to you who are full now, for you shall be hungry.

“Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep.

“Woe to you, when all people speak well of you, for so their fathers did to the false prophets.” (Lk 6.24-26)

This is a brutal reminder of the transience of earthly wealth and prosperity, and perhaps we’re getting the first taste of that reality, right now.

Woes

The economic news keeps getting worse and worse.  As I write this, the unemployment rate, so recently a stunningly good 3.5%, has crossed the threshold of 20%, which is the highest rate since the depths of the Great Depression.  In a word, this is no good.  Since my family has moved three times in the past seven months, and we’ve traveled all over the country, and I’ve changed jobs twice, my wife and I have adopted a saying, “every day is an eternity, but the weeks fly by” since we’ve lived in a constant state of flux for so long.  However, since the pandemic response has come into force around here, that’s been reversed, at least from my perspective: the days fly by, but every week is an eternity.  So little time has really passed, but we’re cooped up at home, we don’t get to spend time with many of the people we love, and it seems as if our whole lives must, for a time, revolve around the coronavirus.  We’re still, in some regard, in the early stages, and although I hope the easing of restrictions and the alleviation of threats will not only come soon but also usher in a period of great resurgence and growth in this country, we ought to consider the possibility that it’s not going to get better.

No one but God knows how this will play out.  Thought I hope not, it’s possible that we’re a the beginning of a second Great Depression; about to become truly poor, hungry, and saddened, as the new normal.  Take some time, then, to consider Jesus’ words all together:

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

“Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you shall be satisfied.

“Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh.

“Blessed are you when people hate you and when they exclude you and revile you and spurn your name as evil, on account of the Son of Man! Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven; for so their fathers did to the prophets.

“But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation.

“Woe to you who are full now, for you shall be hungry.

“Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep.

“Woe to you, when all people speak well of you, for so their fathers did to the false prophets.” (Lk 6.20-26)

No matter what happens, no earthly disaster can compare with the heavenly gifts Christ has given.  However bad things get in this life, remember that the kingdom of God is open to you.  No matter how hungry or thirsty you may become, remember that Jesus is true food and drink.  No matter how saddened you are by the suffering and death around you, remember that through Christ you can be reconciled to your loved ones to live with him forever, where there is no more pain or sorrow.  No matter how much the world may vilify you as a Christian and blame you for the evil in this age, remember that Jesus’ approval means more than the whole world’s hate.

Perhaps, even if the tragedies keep compounding, bringing an economic collapse on top of a public health collapse, spiraling ever downward until the deaths from privation far outstrip the toll from the virus itself…spectacularly unlikely as that scenario may be, perhaps the silver lining for all of us would be learning to depend more heavily on our Savior, coming to more fully understand through grim experience why he calls the poor, hungry, weeping, and hated, “blessed.”

Jeremy Nettles

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