Sermon
If you think you have had a hard week, let me tell you what Jesus has done in the past week, scripturally.
Last week we read about Jesus calling the first disciples from their work as fishermen to their new life following him.
Since then, Jesus has cleansed a leper, healed a paralytic, called a tax collector, healed a man with a withered hand, taught about fasting, taught about the sabbath, and he called the twelve disciples, or apostles.
So it's not surprising that Jesus went up to a mountain to pray. Get away from it all.
The lectionary has skipped right over all of that activity, and we pick up the story today as Jesus and the disciples come down from that mountain. It's important to recognize all of the people and events of those missed verses from Luke because they are part of our story for today. We don't see them on the page but they are in the minds of the crowds that were gathered at the foot of the mountain. The great multitude of people from all Judea, Jerusalem, and the coast of Tyre and Sidon have all seen and heard about those events. Remember when Jesus first taught in the temple, the religious authorities were excited to have him around at first because they had heard of the miracles he had been doing outside of Nazareth. In the same way the great multitude wanted from Jesus, those things that they had already witnessed. They all wanted to hear him and be healed. They wanted to receive the power of Jesus and they wanted to experience healing.
So Jesus healed them.
Jesus didn't set up a clinic, charge for services, have office hours, decide who would be treated and who wouldn't, worry about insurance, get his own malpractice insurance, and schedule important conferences. He healed all of them. Jesus came down from the mountain, saw them, knew what they wanted, didn't care who they were, which synagogue they came from, which rich patron they served, didn't ask for papers – he healed them.
That's the first piece of good news from today's text. The second piece of good news comes in the very next words, “Then he looked up at his disciples…”
We've talked in the past about how the gospel of Luke is written in such a way as to point out the humanity of Jesus, and to emphasize the relationships that Jesus has with those he encounters. One way that Luke does this is by using certain words. The gospel of Matthew and Luke both include the text from today, if in slightly different ways.
In Matthew, when Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain; and after he sat down, his disciples came to him. Then he began to speak, and taught them (Beatitudes). In Luke, 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. In Matthew, Jesus sees the crowds and goes away and teaches his disciples, the text is the Sermon on the Mount, and is 107 verses long, and only includes the blessings or the Beatitudes. In Luke, this is called the Sermon on the Plain, and is only 32 verses, Jesus is down from the mountain when he sees the crowd, and he heals them before the teaching. Also, the teaching includes blessings and woes.
These differences don't change the larger story, but it's in these differences that we can find the message for this particular scripture. Luke's more intimate Jesus speaks to the disciples and all of the others, Jesus heals, and instead of writing that Jesus began to teach them. Luke writes “Then he looked up at his disciples…” This raising of his eyes is, for Luke, the importance of Jesus being the one who sees us. In other places in scripture we are encouraged to see God, hear God, look for God. But for Luke in this passage, the people are there, and God sees. All of them. The second piece of good news from today's text: God is watchful.
Where is the good news in that? Well, if you're doing troubling things, and God is watching, you're busted. But if you're struggling and God is watching, then there is hope.
The largest difference between the Matthew version and the Lukan version of these texts is that the Matthew version, the Beatitudes, don't include the woe's. In order to understand what this difference means, we should first look at the English translations of the Greek words.
When the bible was first translated from the original Greek, it was translated into Latin. Our English word blessed comes from the Latin “beatitudo.” “In Latin this means a state of happiness, good fortune, or blessedness. The underlying Greek, though, offers a different understanding. It uses the word “makarios.” Makarios is a pre-Christian word that referred to the state of the gods. Pagans said that this state of the gods was manifested in certain ways: power, wealth, self-indulgence in food and entertainment. Greeks would refer to the dead in this way – being makarios or sharing in the life of the gods was what dead people were, just as we would say that those that die are in heaven. When we read Jesus' words “blessed” we need to take care that we are not understanding that blessed means being closer to or touched by God. Life is not better if you are poor, hungry or if you weep. In Greek, macarios refers not to a relationship between actions and emotions – there is no transaction. Being poor, hungry or weeping isn't the result of an action or activity – being poor wasn't the cause of blessedness or makarios.1 Jesus doesn't hand out the blessings, he doesn't give blessings to those who are poor, etc. He is declaring them to be a blessing. What Christ does in the beatitudes, then is new. He says if you want makarios – participation in the life of God – that life manifests itself in a different way than gaining power, wealth and being self-indulgent. Jesus' statements in Luke about blessed are promises. Jesus' statements are declarations to those who are suffering in this world that God still sees them, loves them, and is intent on their thriving.
Having looked at “blessed” we also need to look as “woe.” The Greek word there is Ouai, which is actually a primary expression of grief. It's more like “oh no!” or “look out.” It is not a curse, not a promise that life will be bad if…. Both blessed are you and woe to you are relational words, not transactional. Blessed is more like “satisfied” or “respectable” or “someone to be looked up to.” Woe is more like a warning about the path that you're on, or a warning about dangers that come with being rich, being full.”
If we remember that Luke's gospel is about humanity, about relationships, and not transactional, then we can read this whole text differently. Jesus prayed, came to the multitudes, saw them, healed them and taught them. Jesus' teaching did not include blessings and curses as portrayed in the Jeremiah text for today. Looking at the original Greek words helps us to see that they are not the same as the Hebrew words used in Jeremiah.
Luke's whole message is always about reorientation. It's a radical and startling piece of good news for people who tended to experience the world as against them if they were in need in any way. Not just poor, hungry and those weeping in the ancient middle eastern lands. The radical startling piece of good news is for those today who say, “I will never get help because I don't have enough money.” There are those who have no trouble getting doctor's appointments immediately, have a whole team of doctors available, and get their fears calmed and their questions answered quickly. And there are those who wait until the next available, wait for test results, wait in pain until some part of the system can meet their needs.
This is radical and startling good news for those who are unhoused who can't get into a shelter because there is no room or there are too many regulations or criteria, those who can't afford homes even when they get on a waiting list for “affordable” housing. There are those who can get mortgages and loans easily and those who need to jump through unnecessary hoops.
There are blacks who have been suffering ever since slavery to be counted and seen, acknowledged, recognized, affirmed, and celebrated. If we were to write the beatitudes today, just think how long the list would be. Blessed are those who are poor, hungry, who weep, who bleed, who are living with any kind of otherness – physical, racial, immigration status, religious, etc. What Jesus says to us from this text from Luke is that you, and you, and you, and you…are blessed. Are – not will be, not if…, not sometimes. Jesus doesn't hand out the blessing, doesn't cause the blessing, Jesus declares the blessing.
God is with those who are blessed. Sharing in the extension of God's grace is what it means to be blessed. Imagine how we would feel and how we would live our lives and what actions we would choose to take, if we could imagine God not waiting for us to arrive at some place or some conclusion in the future. What if we could turn that around and imagine that we are already there and God is with us. Rather than ask ourselves how can I get closer to God, we can ask ourselves what will God and I do next? We don't need to wait until we have more money, have more free time, know more important people, have lots more friends for God's grace to be at work in us. We are already sharing in the life of God. God's grace is already at work in us.
The epiphany question for us is “What has the revelation of God in Christ uncovered for us this year, at this time, in this place?” Given today's text, what would change for us, if we lived this out? What would change for Bethany? Where would we engage? In Jeremiah we read that those that trust the Lord, “They shall be like a tree planted by water, sending out its roots by the stream. It shall not fear when heat comes, and its leaves shall stay green; in the year of drought it is not anxious, and it does not cease to bear fruit.” Where will we plant our tree? Trusting in God, how will we bear fruit? In a few minutes we will be receiving our 2021 annual report that describes the year that we have just completed. Where will we go from there? We will also receive the budget approved by Session for 2022. How will our budget play a role in where God wants us to go next?
There are no requirements for following God. There are only opportunities. Because the blessing is already there. God's grace is the only reason our blessings produce any fruit. It's the only partnership worth pursuing.
Let us pray….
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1 https://amesorthodox.org/makarios-not-beatitudo/
Feasting on the Word series, Year C, Volume 1, pp.356-361
Working Preacher podcast commentary for Feb. 13, 2022.