Luke 6:17-26
Earlier in the service I played the video that I made during the week about blessings. I was quite intentional about the statement that I asked people to complete. “I feel blessed when …” There were some really great answers including: being with family and friends; helping one another out; learning and experiencing joy at Grow; being in nature; making sense of the jigsaw of life; being part of this church community; and the list goes on.
When we bring the ideas that people shared into conversation with Jesus’ words from Luke 6 it is notable to see what's missing from the answers that I gathered. No one said, ‘I feel blessed when I am poor’. No one said, ‘I feel blessed when I am hungry’. No one said, ‘I feel blessed when I am mourning or weeping’. And certainly, no one said, ‘I feel blessed when people are hating me, excluding me, or reviling me.’
Of course, I wasn't surprised by this, and I am not trying to say that the things that were named aren’t blessings. Rather what I am encouraging us to think about is the complex relationship between the blessing of God that is shared with all people through the incarnation of Jesus and the sending of the Holy Spirit and our experience of life. We have a tendency as human beings to incorrectly interpret a person’s situation in life with the idea that God is blessing or cursing them. The challenge that Jesus was giving to his listeners 2000 years ago was not to make such assumptions and challenge remains just as relevant to us today.
Given the complexity of the imagery of the reading and the depths to which we might plunge I decided that we might take a different approach with the sermon today. Put your hand up if you have ever read a choose your own story book. Well today's sermon is a bit like that. As a congregation you will be given a choice as to which topics you believe that God is leading you to hear about. And more than that, you will be given the option as to how long the sermon goes. I have 8 topics to choose from you are allowed to vote for 2 of the topics only. By voting you will determine the highest priority down to the lowest priority. Once we have the 8 topics in order I will tackle them in that order.
At the end of each point, you as a whole congregation will be given the chance to continue or to end the sermon. This is dangerous because I'm not keen to speak about all 8 topics as that will mean that we are still here after 10 o'clock. However, I will follow your lead. Be reassured that for those of you who really want to know about one of the topics, if I don't speak about it, I will be putting all the prepared topics onto my blog. So, you can go and read it later. Some of you may hear that as an invitation to only want to hear one topic so we can be out of here quicker, that is also a choice that you can make.
1. Blessed are the cheesemakers
Some of you may remember the movie made by Monty Python called Life of Brian. Early in the movie there is a scene with Jesus’ preaching what is recognisable as the sermon on the mount described in Matthew’s Gospel. Matthew’s story parallel’s Luke’s sermon on the plain.
For those of you who don’t know the scene the crowd is huge. Jesus is preaching on a distant hill while Brian is standing with his mum alongside a group of others who are straining to hear what Jesus is saying.
Brian’s mother complains about not being able to hear which makes it more difficult for others around them. As they bicker among themselves one of bystanders asks the people in front, “what is he saying now.” The response comes back, “I think it was blessed are the cheesemakers.”
One of the women listening asks “What’s so special about the cheesemakers?” Her husband replies, “Well obviously it's not meant to be taken literally. It refers to any manufacturer of dairy products.”
For those of you who are old enough to remember this movie it was controversial when it was released. It was even banned in some places. I find this a bit sad given the clever critique or religion and lessons that are in the movie. For example, in this opening scene the behaviour of the people at the fringe of the crowd and their misunderstanding and misinterpretation of Jesus’ teaching remains a powerful metaphor for the transition of Jesus’ teaching through history and our tendency to get distracted by our own lives and our personal agendas.
I put this theory about the transferring of messages to the test in one congregation when I preached on this passage. I did this by starting a game of whispers. I had asked a person in the congregation to start the whispering with the words “Blessed are the cheesemakers.” The message passed from person to person around the whole congregation and by the time it came back to me the words that came back were, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.” Somewhere through the handing on of the message the message was not only changed but expanded upon!
Just as the opening scene of Life of Brian has important lessons for us to reflect upon so too does the final scene does as well. As Brian is being crucified one of the criminals being crucified be side breaks out into the now famous refrain, “always look at the bright side of life”. In this moment of intense suffering which will lead to death the criminal cheerfully sings as the crowd whistles along,
For life is quite absurd
And death's the final word
You must always face the curtain with a bow
Forget about your sin
Give the audience a grin
Enjoy it, it's your last chance anyhow
So always look on the bright side of death
Just before you draw your terminal breath
This refrain takes the film full circle back to the beatitudes. At the heart of the teaching is the promise that no matter what is occurring for us, no matter our experience in life, God is with us and that we are blessed by God’s presence. As Brian and his companions sing even when it comes for the time to draw our terminal breath, we can look on the bright side of life. Why? Because God is with us, and we are blessed.
2. Through the eyes of a teenager
For any of us who live in the western world, a part of the beatitudes that we should find quite confronting are these words, “But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation.” Whilst there is poverty in Australia most of our population would be counted amongst the wealthiest people in the world. Have we received our consolation?
If we were to read on in Matthew’s gospel, we would find the story of the rich young man who comes to Jesus in Chapter 19. Despite his piety Jesus says to him “If you want to be complete, go and sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.” Most of us know that the young man goes away disappointed. And I doubt any of us here have sold everything that we have and given it to the poor.
This part of the beatitudes combined with the concept that the poor are blessed took on new meaning for me when a teenager that I know went on an overseas trip with his school with a company called Antipodeans. This was prior to the pandemic. Sadly, the closures of international borders caused the company to collapse. Back in 2018 this teenager travelled into Vietnam where the young people were involved with meeting locals and engaging with projects to help the people that they were visiting.
On returning to Australia, he had a conversation with his parents about the experience. He shared how the trip had challenged him to see things differently. He talked about how little the people he met had. By any Australian standard the people that he had interacted with would be considered as living in extreme poverty. But the thing that struck him was that they were happy and that they were welcoming and they generous to him with what little they had. Maybe some of you who have travelled have experienced something similar.
He then went on to reflect with his parents about how unhappy and stressed that he felt so much of the time despite his wealth. Possibly for the first time in his life he was coming to terms with his wealth compared to the poverty of other people. He was also grappling with the idea that being among the rich does not necessarily translate to being happy or blessed.
This tension between wealth and poverty and how it is related to happiness is picked up by Darrin McMahon in his book The Pursuit of Happiness when he relays a story told by St. Augustine in his Confessions. St Augustine wrote:
As I walked along one of the streets in Milan, I notice the poor beggar who must, I suppose, have had his fill of food and drink, since he was laughing and joking. Sadly, I turned to my companions and spoke to them of all the pain and trouble which is caused by our own folly. My ambitions had placed a load of misery on my shoulders and the further I carried it the heavier it became, but the only purpose of all the efforts we make was to reach the goal of peaceful happiness. This beggar had already reached it ahead of us, and perhaps we should never reach it at all. For by all my laborious contriving and intricate manoeuvres I was hoping to win the joy of worldly happiness, the very thing which this man had already secured at the cost of the few pence which he had begged.
McMahon goes on took knowledge that state of the drunken beggar may have been illusionary or short lived, but Augustine still regarded this poor person as the happier man.
Just as my teenage friend grappled with the burden of wealth and the knowledge that it was not bringing him happiness so too Saint Augustine recognised the happiness in the beggar. As each one of us grapples with the meaning of being blessed, or happy, Jesus’ beatitudes challenge our assumptions about the need for wealth as part of the formula. And, more importantly that we connect a person’s wealth as a pathway to being happy or a sign of being blessed.
3. What’s in a word?
The beatitudes have been translated in a variety of ways over time. In the translation that we read today the key word that begins the phrases was translated as “blessed”. Another common translation is “happy”. It can be argued that there is a clear link between the word “happy” in Psalm 1 and the concept of being “blessed” in Luke 6. I have also come across the word translated as “fortunate” or “satisfied”.
If we go to the original language of the New Testament the word that we find there is makarios and however we translate it numerous Biblical scholars suggest that the word implies something about being in a right relationship with God. There is a link between makarios and another Greek word eudaimonia which is generally translated as happiness. Philosophically the word eudaimonia is associated with a flourishing or favoured life and the pursuit of happiness. Subconsciously many of us buy into this idea of happiness as our core philosophy by regularly asking the question of people, “Are you happy?” When we ask this we can subconsciously be saying that happiness is our chief end in life.
However, whichever English word we use the Greek term makarios suggests that Jesus’ teaching is about finding a sense of being connected to God in a right relationship. It is that connection with God that generates a sense of peace, or happiness, or wellbeing, or flourishing in this life.
The connection of these concepts of makarios and eudaimonia is explored in Gilbert Meilaender’s book The Way that Leads There. Meilander reminds his readers of Aristotle’s argument that “all people desire happiness (eudaimonia), even though they disagree about where such happiness may be found.” (p.6) He critiques the quest for happiness as the chief purpose or end in life because it can become human centred and self-centred in a way which disregards others and God.
Draws deeply on the wisdom of the fourth century bishop of Milan St Augustine Meilaender unpacks what it is we might pursue in life. In his Confessions Augustine wrote, “You have made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you.” (p.4) Meilaender connects this concept of resting in God with what Augustine writes later in his Confessions. “And this is the happy life – to rejoice in you and to you and because of you. This is the happy life; there is no other.” (p.5)
Meilaender takes care in his nuanced reflections reminding his readers that “Augustine does not seek God in order that he may thereby live a happy life; he seeks God in order to delight in his presence.” (p.11) This is an important point to make because it is about what is the centre of the quest. Seeking God is not about turning God into another object to fulfil our desire for happiness. Rather in our pursuit of God we discover a sense of blessing in life because we come to know that God is present with us through all things.
4. Joy in adversity
Jesus’ teaching on the beatitudes and what it means to be blessed have an edge to them that is easy for us to overlook. Historically, in the first centuries of the church believing in Jesus and following the way of Christ meant a lot more that a bit of social embarrassment. It was a matter of life and death.
“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.”
Travelling back in time to the 3rd century we encounter stories of the early martyrs which exhibit an approach to faith that gives Jesus’ sermon a much different feel to our contemporary lives.
I am retelling the story of the martyr Perpetua as it is found in Darrin McMahon’s book The Pursuit of Happiness.
In the springtime of the year 203, a young north African woman was taken into custody by Roman soldiers in the city of Carthage, in what is now contemporary Tunisia. Twenty-two, of good family, well educated, married, and nursing a child, Vibia Perpetua was charged with violating a decree issued the previous year by the Roman emperor Septimus Severus outlaw ring conversion to Christianity. Still only a catechumen, as yet unbaptized, she and a small group of companions, including her personal slave, Felicitas, hastened to have themselves ritually cleanse in custody, entering the church in full below courting violent death which they were promptly rewarded. On what is now remembered as March 7, and what was then the birthday feast of severances son, Geta, the group was fed to wild animals, mauled, and slain by the sword before jeering spectators in a small Carthage arena. (p.75)
McMahon explores the martyrdom of Perpetua at length. He notes that those who had gathered to watch the events had unlikely seen anything like this before. Citing witnesses from the time, McMahon records the following scene:
Perpetua and her companions “Marched from the prison to the Amphitheatre joyfully, as though they were going to be in heaven, with calm faces, trembling if at all, with joy rather than fear.” When they were scourge and taunted, “they rejoiced at this that they had obtained a share in the Lord's suffering.” And when they were persecuted and reviled, they were manifestly glad. Embracing their ordeal with an eagerness that seemed to delight in pain, they greeted death with open arms. By all accounts, the onlooking crowd was uncomprehending. They did not know it, but their response was fitting. For what these men and women were witnessing in the blood and dust of an African spring was nothing less than a radical new vision of human happiness." (p.76)
The stories of early Christian martyrs may have us puzzling about what Jesus’ words meant. Is rejoicing at your own torture and death part of being blessed? Some people in the early church believed sharing in a death like Jesus’ death was an expected part of the faith. Whilst I think such an understanding is questionable what is clear from the story is that those early martyrs believed that what was occurring to them did not signify God turning away from. In fact, it would appear they believe was entirely the opposite that through their suffering God was embracing them – they were being blessed!
5. Look out
The word “woe” which is used by Jesus in Luke's version of the beatitudes might be heard by some of us in different ways. For those of you who were here last week we heard the words from the prophet Isaiah, “Woe is me for I am a man of unclean lips and I live among a people of unclean lips.” The sense of the word woe in that case carries a sense of lament and distress. But in Luke’s gospel I'm not sure that that's what Jesus is going for.
The Lutheran pastor Matt Skinner on the Working Preacher Website Provides a helpful reflection on how we might hear the word woe. Skinner says this:
In this context, “woe” functions as a sharp contrast to “blessed,” yet the Greek word ouai does not mean “cursed” or “unhappy.” Certainly not “damned.” Like the English word yikes, it is more of an attention-getter and emotion-setter than a clear characterization or pronouncement.
Jesus therefore promises relief to some groups, to those people who travel rough roads through life. To others, to folks who find existence rather enjoyable or easy, he cries, “Look out!”
I think that was Skinner suggests is helpful. When I hear the phrase “Look out!” I think it challenges us to take closer notice of the world around us, our relationship with God, and our place within the global community. But as Skinner says to people preparing to preach on this passage:
The big question for the preacher to consider is why those comfortable people should look out. What’s wrong with health, wealth, and merriment?
It could be argued that health, wealth, and merriment enable us to have a sense of blessedness and happiness in life. I've had more than one of my friends say to me, “We are here for a good time not a long time.” These words are an echo of the teacher Qoheleth in the book of Ecclesiastes, “So I commend enjoyment, for there is nothing better for people under the sun than to eat and drink and enjoy themselves, for this will go with them in their toil through the days of life that God gives them under the sun.” (Eccl 8:15)
If life boils down to my personal happiness without consideration of others around me and the consequences it might have for them, there are justice issues involved. Some of you may be aware of the website which through a survey process measures your slavery footprint. All of us living in wealthy cultures are beneficiaries of people in other parts of the world who prop up our lifestyles - our needs, our wants, and our desires - at the expense of their lives.
When Skinner says that Jesus is saying, “Look out”, I hear a direct challenge for me to take notice of how I come to have such wealth. In Jesus’ saying, “Look out” there is a warning about equating my personal “health, wealth, and merriment” with any idea that I am righteous or that these things may lead to any deep sense of happiness and peace in the world.
Skinner goes on to say this in his commentary about the woes:
Jesus urges his hearers to reassess their lives in light of God’s unfolding reign. It seems to me that Jesus’ woe statements are revealing something—that the things we assume are advantages are actually illusory. What if money, food, comfort, self-won security, respectability, and the like are things that kill our souls—not just in some far-off afterlife but right here, right now?
The phrase that these things may “kill our souls” causes us to reflect on what it means to be a soulless person. A person who through their lack of looking out and taking notice reaps the benefits of life at the expense of others. Most of us understand that having and owning things does not make us happier or better people. But we live in a culture that is saturated with consumerism that suggests precisely this – the more we own the happier that we will be. As followers of Jesus, we constantly need to “look out” for how this illusion is developing in our lives and our decisions to own more are impacting people who produce the objects that we want to own.
6. That’s not a blessing, this is a blessing
Jesus’ teaching often challenged older teachings found in the law or Torah, what we call the Old Testament. This is true of the beatitudes as well. Luke 6:20–26 can be directly contrasted with Deuteronomy 28, where the blessed were prosperous and being cursed meant destitution. In Jesus’ teaching in the sermon on the plain there is a contrast between blessings and woes which has echoes of the Deuteronomy passage. There is a presentation in both of a binary or dichotomous view of the world, black is black and white is white, good is this and bad is that.
But the idea that Jesus is simply presenting such a dichotomous view of the world is unhelpful. Whilst he presents his ideas as couplets these ideas need to be contrasted with the Old Testament passage which he is not only critiquing but reversing.
Julia Van den Brink explores the nature of blessings and curses at some length in an article entitled “Luke's beatitudes and woes: are they covenant blessings and curses?” She makes a direct link between Deuteronomy 28 and Luke 6. Within the Old Testament passage the implication is clear, when people keep the covenant they will be prosperous and when they do not they will suffer the consequences. She says, “Chapter 28 contains some of the most compelling reasons for obedience [to the covenant] – prosperity and honour come from covenant obedience while destitution and shame are the results of disobedience. Deuteronomy 28 contains sixty-eight verses divided between covenant blessings and curses.” (p.13)
Van den Brink summarises the intention of the passage in Deuteronomy, saying, “Blessing appears as prosperous life, filled with abundance and relative ease. Curse is the exact opposite, entailing an existence of fruitless labour, suffering, destitution and despair.” (p.14) As we contrast the passage from Deuteronomy with Jesus’ teaching in Luke what becomes clear very quickly is that Jesus reverses the understanding found in Deuteronomy. He upsets any assumptions that people might make about the blessing or cursing of others based on what is occurring for them in their life.
Whilst our focus is on the teaching of Jesus, it is pertinent to note that the Old Testament critiques its own views at different points. The wisdom books are books which constantly do this. For example, the story of Job does a very similar thing to what Jesus is doing in his sermon. Job is understood to be a righteous man, but he encounters great suffering. The book of Job questions all of assumptions that were being made around who is righteous and who is not and how that relates to their prosperity or their poverty.
We may think that we understand the salient point made by Jesus but sometimes our language and what we say can suggest that we're still buying into this Old Testament view of blessings and curses. When we see another person suffering in any way and say, “there but for the grace of God go I” the inference might be my that somehow, we deserve God’s grace, but the other person doesn’t. Or, when we experience or see the prosperity of another and acknowledge it as a blessing from God, we can run the risk of implying that we or they somehow deserved that blessing whilst another person did not.
By making the connection between the Old Testament passage from Deuteronomy and the New Testament passage from Luke as people who take this Bible seriously, we should hear Jesus’ words as a challenge. There are times that we need to step back and consider more deeply whether we are prepared to read the words of our holy book with the same critical lens that Jesus did as he unpacked who is blessed and who will be subject to woe.
7. Experts in exclusion
One of the difficulties that Jesus was dealing with in his sermon was the tendency that we have as people to include or exclude others within al communities. Of course, there can be very good reason for including or excluding people in communities. This is because as we build community, we aim to make the community that we're part of a safe place for people to be. Nevertheless, what Jesus is doing is challenging any notion grounded religious approaches that might suggest that some people are not blessed by God and some people are not.
For example, as modern Christians there can be a tendency for us to make assumptions about Jesus’ disagreements with the Pharisees and scribes and the Jewish religion. However, much of Jesus’ behaviour in entering vigorous debate with other teachers is completely consistent with the culture of debate amongst the Pharisees. Each argued for a position which they believed reflected God's law most closely. Jesus’ behaviour was consistent with other Jewish scholars and as a Jewish teacher himself Jesus engaged in appropriate debate. My point is that as modern Christians we can assume things about the Jewish people of Jesus’ time which suggests a conflict that may not have been there in the way that we think.
It is precisely this kind of divisive behaviour that Jesus was critiquing. There was a tradition within the Jewish leadership and the Jewish community that were emphasising the importance of recognising who were insiders and who were outsiders. And, by implication, who was blessed and who was not. Jesus was breaking down these barriers and assumptions.
Listening to the sermon on the plain 2000 years later we should reflect on it in our own context. The existence of different churches, congregations, denominations, cliques within congregations and denominations all point to the reality that we are still experts in excluding others. As people we do it in all sorts of subtle and not so subtle ways. Saying who is in and who is out, who is welcome and who is not, has been part of every community that I had been involved with.
Human beings do this all the time. One of the advantages of my commute is I'm now listening to more podcasts. During the week I listened to an interesting podcast from the ABC show Conversations. The conversation was with the Australian comedian Nazim Hussein. He has Sri Lankin Islamic heritage. In the conversation Hussein detailed his experience of racism iand exclusion in Australia. He spoke about his experiences growing up and how his family was treated.
One story stood out from his childhood when his sister was being bullied in a racist way. Overlooked and ignored by both the teacher and the principal of the school Hussein’s mother went to her local member to express her concern about the racism. Her local member at the time just happened to be the then premier of Victoria Jeff Kennett. The outcome of the interaction was it the Premier turned up at the primary school with Hussein’s mother to speak with the principal. The situation was addressed and the racism stopped. But the behaviour of exclusion and racism should never have occurred, and it certainly should not have been ignored. But sadly, we as human beings are experts in exclusion.
Think about some of the tribalism and inclusion and exclusion that you may have set up – consciously or subconsciously.
Which side of the Brisbane River do you live on? Which suburb do you live in? Which side of Waterworks Rd do you live on? Are you from Queensland or from NSW originally? Which political party do you vote for? Were you born in Australia? Do you have First Nations heritage? Which football, soccer, cricket, or netball team, do you support?
Where did you go to school? Was it a private school or a public school? What kind of church do you go to? Uniting, Roman Catholic, Lutheran, Anglican, Baptist, Pentecostal? Which decade were you born in? And the list goes on and on of reasons we include and exclude other people in our communities?
Part of what Jesus is doing is naming this behaviour of excluding others and the problem of associating it with any notion that the exclusive groups that we set up, the people we see is insiders, are somehow blessed while others are not. The sermon that Jesus’ preaches goes to the heart of what it means for us to share in a common humanity and recognise that all people are created in the image of God.
The Uniting Church at its eleventh Assembly declared its commitment and therefore ours to respect this. In the statement “Dignity of Humanity it said, “the Uniting Church believes that every person is precious and entitled to live with dignity because they are God’s children, and that each person’s life and rights need to be protected, or the human community (and its reflection of God) and all people are diminished.” As we read the beatitudes what we should hears is that every person is blessed!
8. Justice or Just Us?
The beatitudes are often understood as an ethical framework which should drive followers of Jesus to become advocates and champions of those who suffer in the world. Matthew's version of the beatitudes does point us more strongly in that direction. In his version Jesus says, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for justice: they shall have their fill.” And “Blessed are those who endure persecution for the sake of justice, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Whilst not quite as explicit as this we can hear in Jesus’ words from Luke’s version an injunction to engage in the work of caring for us and taking notice of those around us.
The commentator from the Ignatian Solidarity Network Kelly Swan issues the challenge that we read the beatitudes through an ethical framework asking “And is this not our call? Not to read the Beatitudes as a path to pitying the suffering and offering weak platitudes. But to hear the call in Jesus’ words to put solidarity into action—to enter into the full story of another and then walk alongside them in pursuit of the justice they, and we all, seek.”
When we read the beatitudes from this kind of angle our own thoughts about our pursuit of blessedness or happiness takes a significant detour. It is a detour that challenges us to contemplate more seriously Paul’s words in Philippians 2, verses 4 and 5. “Let each of you look not to your own interests but to the interests of others. Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus.”
In his book The Way that Leads There Gilbert Meilaender writes about the idea of locating our happiness in our desire for God. He goes on to say, “Placing our happiness in God will require that we relinquish the desire for happiness on our own terms and cultivate instead the patience to wait for God.” (p18) As lifelong disciples of Christ we are constantly called beyond ourselves and towards others, to live a life of self-sacrifice. Meilaender says this about self-sacrifice. “The point of self sacrificial love is not to persuade ourselves that we are being sacrificial; On the contrary, the focus of attention is the loved one.” (P.20)
The call to follow Jesus, the seeking of God by serving others, is in the end not about our happiness or blessedness. It is about those who we are serving. Contemporary research in wellbeing teaches us that giving to others can help us to nurture a positive sense of self and wellbeing. However, if our purpose in serving others becomes our own happiness or wellbeing rather than those we are serving we are treating others as objects to achieve our ends, regardless of how nice we think we are being.
There is a whole area of research around this issue called pathological altruism. The serving of others for our own benefit. Other people who have problems are not put in our path to help us feel good about ourselves or do good deeds to earn our way into God’s good books. No to be called to act in solidarity and compassion is to recognise that those we are reaching out to are already blessed by God, and might be a blessing to us as well.
Concluding Comments
Understanding what it means to blessed or happy is no easy thing. The temptation that I believe that Jesus is addressing in his reflection on the plain is not meant to inspire us to pursue blessedness or happiness, rather what I think he's doing is dispelling our human tendency to compartmentalise people into those who we believe are blessed those who are not and thereby exclude them
The good news of Jesus, revealed in his life death and resurrection, is that there are no barriers between who is blessed and who is not. God's love is unconditional. This means as followers of Christ our starting point with any other person should be one of assuming that they are already blessed and loved by God. Sharing in our common humanity we share each other's burdens, and we rejoice with one another when we experience the joy of a flourishing life. Maybe this is what it means to be blessed.
