Luke 6:17-26

Old Testament: Jeremiah 17:5-10

Rev. Stephen H. Wilkins

Georgetown Presbyterian Church

February 11, 2007

One day a man walked into a bookstore to return a purchase. "It’s a Bible," he said, handing it to the clerk at the cash register.

"Was it a gift?" asked the clerk. "No, I bought it for myself," he said, "and I made a mistake."

"Didn’t you like the translation? Or the format?" "Oh no," the man said, "the format was clear and the translation was fine. I made a mistake."

"Well," said the clerk, "I need to write down a reason for the return."

"In that case," said the man, "write down that there is a lot in that book that’s tough to swallow."

There are some passages in the Bible that are tough to swallow. This is one of them. The beatitudes of Jesus in the sixth chapter of the gospel of Luke are difficult to swallow, I think for two reasons: It is a tough teaching, and it’s hard for the modern mind to understand what Jesus was really saying.

It’s a tough teaching because Jesus takes the standards of the world, and turns them upside-down. You have to be careful how you say that, because the temptation is to believe that we have it right and Jesus has it wrong. Maybe it’s better to say that Jesus takes the upside-down priorities of the world, and he sets them right, the way they are meant to be, the way they are in the Kingdom of God. Whatever way you look at it, one thing is clear: the proclamation of Jesus is diametrically opposed to the proclamation of the world. It goes against everything we’re told by the world when Jesus tells us, "Blessed are the poor. . . Blessed are the hungry. . . Blessed are those who mourn. . . Blessed are those who are hated and persecuted. . ."

It’s a topsy-turvy world that Jesus preaches, one where the winners are losers and the losers are winners. How can it be? How can it be that the winners in the game of life are the ones that we spend our lives not wanting to be?

I think part of the problem is that we have lost the biblical meaning of the word, "blessed." Today we’re tempted to equate "blessed" with "happiness". In fact, there are some translations of the Bible that do just that – they use the word "happy" where we see in the NIV the word "blessed". But happiness is a mood, a subjective feeling; happiness is something we pursue as an end in itself – we have this inalienable right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Happiness becomes our purpose in life.

But Jesus doesn’t talk about happiness. He uses the word "blessed." Blessedness is not something we pursue, it’s not something we achieve as a goal. Blessedness is something that is given to us. It is a by-product of our relationship with God. To be blessed is to have found favor with God. To be blessed is to have a right relationship with God.

That’s why it’s possible to be blessed even when we aren’t happy. That’s why people can be blessed even when their life is full of deprivation. Because while happiness depends on being right with yourself and with the world, blessedness comes with being right with God.

The reading from Jeremiah says essentially the same thing: "Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who depends on flesh for his strength and whose heart turns away from the Lord... But blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him..."

Those who are blessed are those who trust in the Lord. They are like a tree planted by water, sending out its roots by the stream. These are the people who thrive even in the harshest of conditions, because they remain firmly connected to the Source of life. Those who trust in themselves, those who put all their trust in human institutions, are like the shrub in the desert, always teetering on the edge of existence.

In the IMPACT Sunday School class we are studying the life of the prophet Jeremiah. Our study guide is a book by Eugene Peterson. Peterson notes how Jeremiah is remarkable not for his wealth or his popularity or his influence among his contemporaries, but in the way that he lived out his faith in God. Through his life, Jeremiah shows us what it means to be fully human; and as you study Jeremiah’s life, you learn that there is no way that we can be fully human apart from God. In the midst of rejection and ridicule, Jeremiah was blessed, because Jeremiah was a man who depended on God with every fiber of his being.

Peterson reminds us that "The aim of the person of faith is not to be as comfortable as possible but to live as deeply and thoroughly as possible—to deal with the reality of life, to discover truth, create beauty, act out love…" And it is not possible to do that without a deep connection to the God who has called us into being.

Blessed are those who trust in the Lord, whose trust is in God alone.

That’s why Jesus can declare the poor, the hungry, the mournful, and the despised to be blessed. Because they have been stripped of all else, they are the ones who have nowhere else to turn but to God. Their relationship with God is all they have. The people that Jesus declares as blessed don’t have money to buy them comfort and luxury; the people that Jesus declares as blessed don’t have enough food to fill their stomachs, and they don’t have friends to hold them up. The people that Jesus declares as blessed don’t have the benefits of technology or modern medicine to keep them healthy and comfortable. The people that Jesus declares as blessed are blessed because they rely on God for their very existence.

They have to.

Have you ever noticed that it is the more primitive societies that are more religious? Have you ever noticed that one of the things that marks the technologically advanced societies of the world is the tendency to be religiously lethargic? Have you ever wondered why? Maybe it’s because the primitive societies don’t have all the trappings of comfort and technology to depend on. Maybe it’s because the primitive societies exist on the edge of life and death on a daily basis, and they realize that their continued existence on this earth is dependent on Something or Someone far greater than they. And so they are acutely aware of a God who sustains them, and they fear God and worship God with a zeal that we really can’t understand. Maybe all our advancement and sophistication has served to do is to widen the gap between us and God, because we tend to depend more on our own knowledge and our own abilities than we depend on God for life and meaning.

There’s an old saying that says that God helps those who help themselves. People usually make two false assumptions about that saying. First of all, they believe it’s scriptural, but in fact it’s not in the Bible. Secondly, it is patently false, because God is in the business of helping those who can’t help themselves. It’s those who can’t help themselves who are blessed, because in their brokenness they are forced to turn to God.

Helmut Thielicke was a preacher in Germany and later in the United States. He talks about why it is that the deprived ones that Jesus lifts up are truly blessed. He says that "it is precisely the empty hands that shall be blessed, because they have long since lost all human hopes and consolations. . . the worst sinners shall be comforted, because even the last shreds of any illusions. . .have been stripped away from them and now for the first time God has a chance to work in them. Now we have the assurance that those who come with nothing in their hands will learn, to their humiliation, that God is everything to them."

Maybe that’s why Jesus says, "Woe to you who are rich,... woe to you who are well fed,... woe to you who laugh,... woe to you when people speak well of you..." Because when we have the material comforts, and when our stomachs are full, and when we are happy and popular, why do we need God? It’s not that material comforts and the like are inherently bad, any more than being poor is inherently good. But you know and I know that our tendency is to make material wealth and privilege our ultimate concern, and when we do that then those things push God aside. And woe to any of us who put ourselves or our things in the place of God, for in the end we will be found desperately wanting.

When you turn to God, are you empty-handed, or is there something else you’re unwilling to let go of? Do you come to God declaring that God is everything to you?

Jesus said that the poor are blessed. And then he went on to die penniless. The Roman soldiers cast lots for his only possession – the garment off his back.

Jesus said that the hungry are blessed. It is likely that he had nothing to eat on the day he died. In fact, from the cross, he cried out, "I thirst."

Jesus said that those who mourn are blessed. And when he prayed in the garden of Gethsemane, we are told that he wept.

Jesus said that those who are despised and hated because of his name are blessed. On his last day he was mocked, beaten, spat upon, and the crowd would rather see a convicted terrorist freed than to let Jesus go free.

His last words were, "Father, into your hands I commend my spirit." And then he breathed his last.

You would think he was cursed.

But on the third day, he was raised in victory.

Do you commend your life into the hands of the living God? Have you emptied yourself of the things that keep you from turning to God?

When you turn to God, do you come with empty hands? Or is there something you’re holding onto that prevents you from fully depending on God?

Is God everything to you, or is there something else?

We could all do with a little bit of poverty in our lives. A little bit of hunger and sadness might just do us some good.

Blessed are those who trust in the Lord.

Are you blessed?