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Over the last few weeks following our celebration of Jesus’ birth, we have been focusing on the manifestation of Jesus - on Jesus being revealed to the world as the Son of God. We have had heavenly pronouncements, visitors from far off lands, miracles, and earthly proclamations. We have heard that Jesus is a powerful teacher and healer whose fame is growing as he travels the region. We have seen his prophetic claim to be the Messiah, the one foretold by scripture to come from God and turn the world around. And in between the stories that we have read in worship, Jesus can be found healing those on the margins of society or arguing with the religious leaders about the best ways to follow scripture. And on at least one occasion he does both at the same time - healing a man on the Sabbath and then arguing with religious leaders about whether or not that is appropriate.
But until today, we have not directly seen his teaching ourselves. It has been suggested in the stories we have heard, and we have been able to make some guesses based on what we have read. But it is in today’s text that we finally get to see what it is Jesus is teaching that was causing his fame to spread. And what we find is a message that is just as challenging to us today as it was to the people of his time.
In the portion of this story that we have today, Jesus has just been off praying on a mountain with his disciples. During this time he also appoints the twelve to be his apostles. Beyond simply following Jesus, they are chosen to be leaders in spreading the word on his behalf.
Luke then tells us that Jesus came down from the mountain and stood on level ground. This is slightly different from Matthew’s version of this teaching which has Jesus teaching from an elevated place. Matthew presents Jesus as a king above all others, while Luke highlights the servanthood of Jesus, one that stands with humanity to raise us all up to God.
And truly, the symbolism of both has its place. But Luke gives us a good compact summary of the entire Gospel here in his version - God, as Jesus, comes down from on high to live and love as a human alongside the rest of us. And in so doing, the people are healed and shown a better way to live in relationship to one another.
According to Luke, this is the heart of the message that Jesus lays out. And what a challenging message it is.
Now many of us are likely familiar with the idea of the Beatitudes. This is the name given to the list of blessings here and in Matthew’s version of this story. This is because in Latin each of these phrases begins with the Latin root beati-. Both the Latin and the original Greek words used here can be translated as Blessed or Happy. In Matthew, there is a list of eight of these Blessed statements. However, here in Luke, the gospel writer recounts a slightly different list. And it is this version in Luke that has a tendency to make us uncomfortable.
You see, Luke takes on four of the statements that are recounted in Matthew’s list, but then Luke follows these four Blessed statements with four Woes that mirror and reverse the blessings.
As mentioned earlier, it is good to use a different Bible translation here, one that contains neither the word blessed nor the word woe. Sometimes we have a preconceived notion of what it means to be Blessed. We see it on Facebook or Twitter or Instagram or whichever of the other social media sites or apps that are out there as #Blessed whenever something is going well or just because there was a shorter line than usual at the Starbucks. And how often do we use the word Woe? Oh, woe is me. But do we really have any sense in our contemporary world of what that actually means?
However, reading this in contemporary language makes clear two things. First, it is good to hear this with language we can easily understand and relate to. People today can understand happiness. People today can understand thinking of something as terrible. Even if we sometimes have a skewed sense of what each of these means, these concepts are more relatable to everyday life than “blessed” or “woe.”
And second, hearing the text this way makes it clear that Jesus is making a statement and not performing an action. Jesus is neither conferring blessing nor calamity in the midst of this teaching. Instead, he is making a statement about how things are, about the here and now. These statements that Jesus makes are about society and the lived life of the people around him and not spiritual statements about the state of anyone’s soul either now or in the future.
It is this second point that makes this teaching of Jesus so challenging. It is just as much a conviction of our present reality and a call to action on behalf of those on the margins, those that we would consider “others,” as it was to the people of Jesus’ time.
Jesus is bringing the kingdom of God into the world, and that kingdom looks vastly different from the earthly kingdoms we are familiar with. The kingdoms created by humanity value money and plenty and prestige, while God’s kingdom serves those who are in need.
In God’s kingdom, the poor inherit, the hungry are fed, the hurting find joy, and the rejected and marginalized are raised up. Their present happiness and satisfaction is in their reliance, faith, and trust in God. It is often easiest to trust in God when we have nothing else left to trust in. We are better able to see the source of our blessings when things do not come easily to us.
When he reverses each of these situations, Jesus is again making a statement about the present reality of both the world and the kingdom of God. Is the one who is rich able to recognize the gift that is God’s kingdom? Is the one that is well-fed and surrounded by plenty able to recognize the source of all that they have? Will those that value the prestige and recognition of others subject themselves to the leadership of God? When all live in God’s kingdom and all are equals, will those that have had much in the eyes of the world be able to recognize what is good about the new reality? Or, to think of it solely in terms of the present societal implications into which Jesus is speaking, will those that have already received blessings from God in the present recognize that those things are meant to be shared with others and are not simply for their own personal enjoyment?
This is what Jesus is saying in his teachings. He is neither offering a blessing to those in need nor cursing those with plenty. But he is speaking to the expectation to serve those in need as a part of the reality of the kingdom of God. He is speaking to the need to give up our notions of riches as the world defines it in order to live as equals in the kingdom of God.
And if we look back in our texts to the song that Mary sang during her pregnancy after she was visited by the angel, this is exactly what she said then (see Luke 1:46-55). The lowly are lifted up and the powerful brought low. The hungry are filled with good things and the rich are sent away empty-handed. The kingdom of God is not modeled after human institutions, so our notions of what makes one rich or poor no longer apply. Those who are powerful by earthly standards miss out by refusing to submit to God. Those who are rich by earthly standards go away empty-handed because they are unable to recognize the value in what God offers.
As I worked through this text this week, I was reminded of Willy Wonka. Whether you have read the book or watched one or both of the movies, you may recall that Willy Wonka created a contest for five lucky people to come visit his factory, which had been closed to the public for a number of years. Five Golden Tickets have been hidden in bars of chocolate scattered around the country. We are perhaps unsurprised by the first four winners to be identified. There is no outside force involved in their quest for a Golden Ticket; they receive their tickets based purely on their own actions and efforts.
But Charlie is different. Be it destiny, luck, or whatever you want to call it, he gains entry to the factory almost as an afterthought. His family scrimped and saved to buy him a single bar of chocolate for his birthday. With our expectations high, we are let down when we learn that it does not contain a winning ticket. Then he happens across enough money to buy a second bar, and it is that second bar that contains the winning ticket.
As the children come to the factory, it is this boy - the child from the poor family that barely made it there - who shows any sense of gratitude or joy at being there. All of the other children thought it was completely their right to be there, but Charlie was grateful.
In the end, we learn that Willy Wonka was searching for the right person to come to his factory to join him and take over from him as head of the chocolate factory. He wanted someone that could appreciate chocolate for what it is - a treat that brings a certain sense of enjoyment, something that serves no other purpose than joy. And he found that quality not in the ones that assumed it was simply their right to be there, not in those the world might judge as rich or esteemed. No, he found it in the poor boy who was fascinated and overjoyed with seeing the workings of the factory.
In doing so, Willy Wonka flips our expectations of who will inherit his kingdom. The last is first and the first comes last.
It is with this same sense of flipping the expectations of the world that we hear Jesus teaching us in today’s story. When it comes to the kingdom of God, those who are rich and esteemed in our world have far more to overcome to find joy in the kingdom of God than those who do not now have enough. Those who take what God has already given them without recognizing both the source and purpose of those blessings have already received their reward. It is not that being rich itself is the problem. It is the failure to understand the purpose of those gifts that God has granted.
Jesus teaches us that the kingdom of God is unlike our earthly kingdoms. It is no wonder that the people in the countryside were flocking to him. He heals with the power of God and teaches a new world that flips our expectations about who should be happy. And it is no wonder that the religious authorities and other privileged peoples of his time were less thrilled to hear him. Jesus points out how their assumptions often run contrary to God’s kingdom.
As you think about this challenge that Jesus gives us, remember the story of Charlie and Willy Wonka. In the end, Charlie inherits the chocolate factory, but he finds his sense of joy both in what he receives and in what he is able to provide for others. He dreams up new candies meant to delight others and not himself alone. As well, he never loses sight of where he has come from and how grateful he is for what he has received.
It is this same sense of gratitude for all we have received, this same sense of compassion for others in need, that Jesus is pointing us to today. God offers blessings and gifts to all people. And then Jesus comes along and flips our expectations of what those gifts are for. The gifts we receive from God are not for us alone, but are meant to be shared with all.
Are we able to receive with joy what God has offered? Are we able to use all that God has given us for the betterment of all in our community?
Or are we more concerned with holding on to what we have, with protecting those things we see as ours alone?
Jesus shows us today that one path leads to joy while the other leads to sorrow. Which path will we follow?
Over the last few weeks following our celebration of Jesus’ birth, we have been focusing on the manifestation of Jesus - on Jesus being revealed to the world as the Son of God. We have had heavenly pronouncements, visitors from far off lands, miracles, and earthly proclamations. We have heard that Jesus is a powerful teacher and healer whose fame is growing as he travels the region. We have seen his prophetic claim to be the Messiah, the one foretold by scripture to come from God and turn the world around. And in between the stories that we have read in worship, Jesus can be found healing those on the margins of society or arguing with the religious leaders about the best ways to follow scripture. And on at least one occasion he does both at the same time - healing a man on the Sabbath and then arguing with religious leaders about whether or not that is appropriate.
But until today, we have not directly seen his teaching ourselves. It has been suggested in the stories we have heard, and we have been able to make some guesses based on what we have read. But it is in today’s text that we finally get to see what it is Jesus is teaching that was causing his fame to spread. And what we find is a message that is just as challenging to us today as it was to the people of his time.
In the portion of this story that we have today, Jesus has just been off praying on a mountain with his disciples. During this time he also appoints the twelve to be his apostles. Beyond simply following Jesus, they are chosen to be leaders in spreading the word on his behalf.
Luke then tells us that Jesus came down from the mountain and stood on level ground. This is slightly different from Matthew’s version of this teaching which has Jesus teaching from an elevated place. Matthew presents Jesus as a king above all others, while Luke highlights the servanthood of Jesus, one that stands with humanity to raise us all up to God.
And truly, the symbolism of both has its place. But Luke gives us a good compact summary of the entire Gospel here in his version - God, as Jesus, comes down from on high to live and love as a human alongside the rest of us. And in so doing, the people are healed and shown a better way to live in relationship to one another.
According to Luke, this is the heart of the message that Jesus lays out. And what a challenging message it is.
Now many of us are likely familiar with the idea of the Beatitudes. This is the name given to the list of blessings here and in Matthew’s version of this story. This is because in Latin each of these phrases begins with the Latin root beati-. Both the Latin and the original Greek words used here can be translated as Blessed or Happy. In Matthew, there is a list of eight of these Blessed statements. However, here in Luke, the gospel writer recounts a slightly different list. And it is this version in Luke that has a tendency to make us uncomfortable.
You see, Luke takes on four of the statements that are recounted in Matthew’s list, but then Luke follows these four Blessed statements with four Woes that mirror and reverse the blessings.
As mentioned earlier, it is good to use a different Bible translation here, one that contains neither the word blessed nor the word woe. Sometimes we have a preconceived notion of what it means to be Blessed. We see it on Facebook or Twitter or Instagram or whichever of the other social media sites or apps that are out there as #Blessed whenever something is going well or just because there was a shorter line than usual at the Starbucks. And how often do we use the word Woe? Oh, woe is me. But do we really have any sense in our contemporary world of what that actually means?
However, reading this in contemporary language makes clear two things. First, it is good to hear this with language we can easily understand and relate to. People today can understand happiness. People today can understand thinking of something as terrible. Even if we sometimes have a skewed sense of what each of these means, these concepts are more relatable to everyday life than “blessed” or “woe.”
And second, hearing the text this way makes it clear that Jesus is making a statement and not performing an action. Jesus is neither conferring blessing nor calamity in the midst of this teaching. Instead, he is making a statement about how things are, about the here and now. These statements that Jesus makes are about society and the lived life of the people around him and not spiritual statements about the state of anyone’s soul either now or in the future.
It is this second point that makes this teaching of Jesus so challenging. It is just as much a conviction of our present reality and a call to action on behalf of those on the margins, those that we would consider “others,” as it was to the people of Jesus’ time.
Jesus is bringing the kingdom of God into the world, and that kingdom looks vastly different from the earthly kingdoms we are familiar with. The kingdoms created by humanity value money and plenty and prestige, while God’s kingdom serves those who are in need.
In God’s kingdom, the poor inherit, the hungry are fed, the hurting find joy, and the rejected and marginalized are raised up. Their present happiness and satisfaction is in their reliance, faith, and trust in God. It is often easiest to trust in God when we have nothing else left to trust in. We are better able to see the source of our blessings when things do not come easily to us.
When he reverses each of these situations, Jesus is again making a statement about the present reality of both the world and the kingdom of God. Is the one who is rich able to recognize the gift that is God’s kingdom? Is the one that is well-fed and surrounded by plenty able to recognize the source of all that they have? Will those that value the prestige and recognition of others subject themselves to the leadership of God? When all live in God’s kingdom and all are equals, will those that have had much in the eyes of the world be able to recognize what is good about the new reality? Or, to think of it solely in terms of the present societal implications into which Jesus is speaking, will those that have already received blessings from God in the present recognize that those things are meant to be shared with others and are not simply for their own personal enjoyment?
This is what Jesus is saying in his teachings. He is neither offering a blessing to those in need nor cursing those with plenty. But he is speaking to the expectation to serve those in need as a part of the reality of the kingdom of God. He is speaking to the need to give up our notions of riches as the world defines it in order to live as equals in the kingdom of God.
And if we look back in our texts to the song that Mary sang during her pregnancy after she was visited by the angel, this is exactly what she said then (see Luke 1:46-55). The lowly are lifted up and the powerful brought low. The hungry are filled with good things and the rich are sent away empty-handed. The kingdom of God is not modeled after human institutions, so our notions of what makes one rich or poor no longer apply. Those who are powerful by earthly standards miss out by refusing to submit to God. Those who are rich by earthly standards go away empty-handed because they are unable to recognize the value in what God offers.
As I worked through this text this week, I was reminded of Willy Wonka. Whether you have read the book or watched one or both of the movies, you may recall that Willy Wonka created a contest for five lucky people to come visit his factory, which had been closed to the public for a number of years. Five Golden Tickets have been hidden in bars of chocolate scattered around the country. We are perhaps unsurprised by the first four winners to be identified. There is no outside force involved in their quest for a Golden Ticket; they receive their tickets based purely on their own actions and efforts.
But Charlie is different. Be it destiny, luck, or whatever you want to call it, he gains entry to the factory almost as an afterthought. His family scrimped and saved to buy him a single bar of chocolate for his birthday. With our expectations high, we are let down when we learn that it does not contain a winning ticket. Then he happens across enough money to buy a second bar, and it is that second bar that contains the winning ticket.
As the children come to the factory, it is this boy - the child from the poor family that barely made it there - who shows any sense of gratitude or joy at being there. All of the other children thought it was completely their right to be there, but Charlie was grateful.
In the end, we learn that Willy Wonka was searching for the right person to come to his factory to join him and take over from him as head of the chocolate factory. He wanted someone that could appreciate chocolate for what it is - a treat that brings a certain sense of enjoyment, something that serves no other purpose than joy. And he found that quality not in the ones that assumed it was simply their right to be there, not in those the world might judge as rich or esteemed. No, he found it in the poor boy who was fascinated and overjoyed with seeing the workings of the factory.
In doing so, Willy Wonka flips our expectations of who will inherit his kingdom. The last is first and the first comes last.
It is with this same sense of flipping the expectations of the world that we hear Jesus teaching us in today’s story. When it comes to the kingdom of God, those who are rich and esteemed in our world have far more to overcome to find joy in the kingdom of God than those who do not now have enough. Those who take what God has already given them without recognizing both the source and purpose of those blessings have already received their reward. It is not that being rich itself is the problem. It is the failure to understand the purpose of those gifts that God has granted.
Jesus teaches us that the kingdom of God is unlike our earthly kingdoms. It is no wonder that the people in the countryside were flocking to him. He heals with the power of God and teaches a new world that flips our expectations about who should be happy. And it is no wonder that the religious authorities and other privileged peoples of his time were less thrilled to hear him. Jesus points out how their assumptions often run contrary to God’s kingdom.
As you think about this challenge that Jesus gives us, remember the story of Charlie and Willy Wonka. In the end, Charlie inherits the chocolate factory, but he finds his sense of joy both in what he receives and in what he is able to provide for others. He dreams up new candies meant to delight others and not himself alone. As well, he never loses sight of where he has come from and how grateful he is for what he has received.
It is this same sense of gratitude for all we have received, this same sense of compassion for others in need, that Jesus is pointing us to today. God offers blessings and gifts to all people. And then Jesus comes along and flips our expectations of what those gifts are for. The gifts we receive from God are not for us alone, but are meant to be shared with all.
Are we able to receive with joy what God has offered? Are we able to use all that God has given us for the betterment of all in our community?
Or are we more concerned with holding on to what we have, with protecting those things we see as ours alone?
Jesus shows us today that one path leads to joy while the other leads to sorrow. Which path will we follow?
Jesus calls us down the path of gratitude and compassion, a path characterized by love for all of God’s children. May we hear that call not as condemnation of where we are now, but as an invitation into a greater life, a life lived in deeper relationship with God as known to us in Jesus the Christ.