Details in a topsy turvy world

When I first started back to school after being out for 20 years, it was like entering a new world.  One where there was seemingly one cardinal rule:  DON’T PLAGERIZE.  I had to sign one blanket form for the school’s ethics department that explained what plagiarism was, and a promise that I wouldn’t do it.  Then, with every professor, in every class, they have their specific cover sheets they want stapled to the assignments, with again, my signature attesting to my knowledge of plagiarism and my attestation that this work is indeed my original work.  And it terrifies me.  The first few papers I wrote contained references to nearly every sentence I wrote.  At one point I was even afraid I was plagiarizing myself. 

With the authors of our four gospels, I’m pretty sure John got the importance of plagiarism…but I don’t think his peers – Matthew, Mark and Luke – took it as serious.  Their gospels are very, very close in content, but just enough different at the same time….

This is one of those times that the difference is just enough.  This is Luke’s version of what you and I refer to as the “Sermon on the Mount”.  But, throw out the familiarity of that story…or you’ll be tempted to get caught up in the comparison between the two stories, and miss the point Luke is trying to make with his recollection.

From last week’s Gospel to this week’s, Jesus has selected and recruited his Apostles (his disciples), performed some miracles, healed some people, and made some religious leaders angry.  We find him today on flat ground, with the disciples and a crowd of people who have gathered to be healed from sickness or rid of unclean spirits.  The crowd were all grasping to touch Christ, because they knew the power that could heal them emanated from him, being God in the flesh.

Then he began to speak:  Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God; blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be filled; blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh”.  Quite an upside-down picture from what we would expect.  For the most part, our society equates success, and riches, and things with being blessed; why do I think that?  Go to your favorite social media site and look up the hashtag “blessed”, and let me know what you find.  Pictures of expensive cars and large houses and things and status symbols.  No one posts pictures of their bank accounts with a balance of $3.82 with #blessed.  No one posts pictures of their bowl of cabbage soup with #blessed.  No one takes pictures of their worn out shoes with #blessed.  No one says you’re blessed when you’re in mourning from loss, or disappointment.  No one posts their past due light bill and is thankful, grateful, and blessed because of it.  Because, to us, blessings are good fortune, given to those who must have done something to gain great favor with God, which means when we see people driving expensive cars and living in big houses and wearing the best clothes, or eating out all the time, or fortunate in health, they must be really good Christians because look how blessed they are!  No one leaps for joy because they’re alone and feel rejected.

Luke then gives us a list of “woes”.  Woe to you who are rich because you’ve received your consolation, woe to you who are full now because you will be hungry, woe to you who are laughing now because you will mourn and weep”.  Wow.  I don’t like any of these. 

I’m not rich.  I’m a humble servant; that being said, I have a roof over my head, clothes on my back, food in my cupboard, and I’m in a pretty good mood.  While most of these things are subjective, I gotta say…these woes scare me because I could fit in them!  I don’t think it’s fair that because I’m not homeless and starving and sad that I’ve gotten my share now and will suffer later for it! 

But, if we look close, we see that Jesus nowhere tells us to denounce our things, our food, or our happiness; we aren’t told here to sell all we own and give the money to those less fortunate than us (we see it other places, but not here).  We aren’t told to give a portion of our food to those who have none here.  We aren’t told that this is required for us (and notice that Luke’s entire discourse here is written in the second person) to attain the kingdom of God. 

There is no mention of reward, or punishment here.  We are just presented with a reversal, a mirror-image, that is simply a fact of life.  So why would Jesus bless the poor and pronounce woes on the rich?  We can really only offer tentative answers.

Perhaps it’s because the rich are tempted to trust in their wealth and the poor are more likely to trust in God; perhaps the rich use (as we so often see it) less than ethical means to attain their wealth.  Maybe they’re inclined to take advantage of more vulnerable people.  But I’d be remiss to say that we all know well-to-do people who live lives of honesty and generosity, and less-well-to-do people who don’t. 

So how did the crowd respond to this topsy-turvy mix-up of what we know?  That’s perhaps the biggest mix-up of all.  We are told plainly in the beginning of this lesson that Jesus looked up at his disciples and said the blessings and woes.  This wasn’t his sermon to the masses.  This wasn’t a call to justice.  This wasn’t framework for divine living.  This was a call to discipleship.  This was for his close followers, the chosen ones who worked closely with Christ.  And this had to be comforting, because these are people who did leave everything to follow Jesus.  They lived on the road, depending on the kindness and generosity of strangers for their next meal, for a pillow upon which to lay their head.  They followed a homeless itinerant preacher, and they sacrificed everything to do so. 

This was, as we see, a call to true discipleship, and not an attempt to summarize Christian theology in its entirety.  A detail perhaps overlooked.