Blessed Are You?

In Nomine Iesu
St. Luke 6:17-26
February 17, 2019
Epiphany 6C

Dear Saints of Our Savior~

Healing and hearing are on the menu for today. Jesus heals every disease and casts out every demon He encounters. And He also has words for His disciples—words of blessing and words of woe—words also intended for our hearing and our healing.

Today’s Gospel begins with Jesus coming down from a mountain where He had just appointed His inner circle of Twelve, His apostles. Jesus and the Twelve came down to a flat, level place where a great multitude met them. They came to hear Jesus and be healed; and Jesus did not disappoint. He healed everyone. Every disease—every demon was dealt with. St. Luke summarizes: Power came out from Him and healed them all.

Diseases and demons remind us that the whole creation has been corrupted by sin. The disruption created by sin is much more than just a spiritual problem. From the sicknesses that affect our bodies to the cruel extremes of our climate—the whole creation groans. The curse of sin infects every dimension of our lives until we all eventually land six feet under. The miracles of healing performed by Jesus are more than just attention-grabbing special effects. Those miracles of healing point us ahead to the ultimate healing that awaits all of us on the Day of Resurrection. As St. Paul reminded us this morning: Christ is the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.

The healings Jesus performed that day must have generated great joy; but I suspect that what Jesus preached that day garnered only mixed reviews. His sermon serves as a good reminder that, while Jesus often pleased the crowds, He was no crowd-pleaser. He wouldn’t have enjoyed much success as an after-dinner speaker. I mean, imagine it: Woe to you who are full now. Woe to you who laugh now. Woe to you when all people speak well of you. Provocative? Yes, but not entertaining. There’s nothing entertaining about the Kingdom of God. Satisfying? Yes! Life-giving? Yes! But entertaining? Nope. Jesus doesn’t come to entertain us or make us feel good.

He does come to bless us, right? I mean, we often thank the Lord for His blessings. We pray for His blessings. We sing about the blessing of His love and care for us. But what Jesus preaches today about being “blessed” ought to make us sit up and take notice. It’s a reminder to be careful what you pray for.

Jesus’ Sermon on the Plain employs a simple, two-part structure: Words of blessing followed by words of woe. Jesus’ words of blessing speak to what we don’t have—to what we lack—to our impoverishment—to the empty-handed poverty that puts us in a good position to receive everything as an undeserved gift. Jesus speaks woe to the fullness of our lives: our bursting bank accounts, our belching bellies, the compliments and admiration of those around us. When you’ve got all that going for you, you don’t really need God, do you? From that kind of fullness Jesus wants to rescue us.

Jesus said: Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Notice that this is different from His Sermon on the Mount where He blesses the “poor in spirit.” Today Jesus speaks about the pure poverty of an empty wallet—the blessing of a drained bank account—a total depletion of assets. The corresponding “woe” is to those who are rich—who have everything they want here and now (or just one click away on Amazon). The rich have nothing to look forward to because they’ve got it all now.

Most of the time we’ve got it wrong when we say we are “blessed.” We’ve got it backwards and upside down. We say those people are blessed who are financially comfortable, who can afford nice homes, who have rich food on their tables, who sleep securely at night. And we say “woe” to those who have little to nothing. They really screwed up somehow.

Jesus wants us to see how hard it is to look forward to His “kingdom” when you already live in a castle of your own creating. It’s hard to fall down on your knees and pray, “Lord, have mercy,” when you yourself are a Lord. Treasure in heaven really doesn’t hold that much appeal when you’re up to your eyeballs in earthly treasures. I would dare to say that this is probably one big reason why—in a place like Whitefish Bay—the number of people who regularly attend church is dropping like a rock. Unless you swung by Brueggers Bagels on your way here I doubt that you encountered much traffic at all this morning.

But make sure you’re hearing what Jesus is really saying. It’s not that the poor go to heaven because of their poverty, or that the rich go to hell because of their wealth. Not so! Jesus is telling His disciples, “Don’t count yourself blessed because you are rich; and don’t conclude that you are cursed because you are poor.” No, flip it around for a change. Consider your poverty a blessing in light of the heavenly kingdom you are inheriting through faith in Jesus. And view your wealth as a woe—a potential stumbling block to faith and a dangerous distraction from the life of the world to come.

Jesus also blesses His disciples in their hunger; and He pronounces woe on those who are full now. The hungry beggar is the image of faith before God. Hunger equals need and dependency. And the disciples of Jesus need and depend on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. Years ago I recall someone telling me about a visit they had made to an elderly relative in the former East Germany, behind the Iron Curtain in the days of Communism. What amazed the American guests was how their elderly German relative did not leave a single speck of food to remain on the plate after the meal. Her plate required no rinsing. Why? Because she had—years earlier—known hunger—real hunger—rib-revealing hunger bordering on starvation. And because of that, no calorie was ever taken for granted.

That kind of hunger is another picture of what it means to have faith. We should live for the next meal. The blessings our Lord serves up for us in the preaching of His Word and in the meal of His most holy body and blood—that’s a banquet of blessings for starving sinners like us. Faith just can’t get enough of God’s gifts. We need every calorie and every crumb of our Lord’s forgiveness. Every gram of grace. When bread from heaven is on the menu, we will be there—at the table, at mealtime, with a healthy appetite in tow.

And then there’s the matter of laughter and tears. Blessed are you who weep, for you shall laugh. . . . [But] Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall weep and mourn. Laughter regularly rings through the halls of this building. They say that laughter is good for you, and it is surely a gift from God. But the laughs of this life are temporary. Laughs are few and far between when we consider the reality of our sin and death. There’s nothing funny about our sinful condition. Jesus wants you to know that the purpose of this life is not to be happy. It is to be faithful. And to be faithful to Christ and His Word is sometimes—often—a recipe for grief and tears and sadness.

Finally, Jesus blesses His disciples in their persecution. Blessed are you when people hate you and when they exclude you and revile you and spurn your name as evil, on account of the Son of Man. Faithful prophets are never as popular as false prophets. False prophets know how to massage the lie to scratch the itching ears. They know what sells. And right now what “sells” in our culture is the supremacy of the self. Take a public stand that deviates from that, and watch your popularity plunge into persecution. And so it goes.

But take heart: There is some good news today. Jesus Himself is all the things He describes as blessed—poor, hungry, mourning, reviled and persecuted. Jesus was rich with the riches of heaven, but for our sake He became poor so that in Him we might become rich with the treasures of heaven. Jesus was filled with the good things of heaven at the right hand of His Father. But Jesus emptied Himself and made Himself nothing. Jesus knew the joys of heaven, but left it all behind to join us in the sorrow and suffering of this sin-filled world. He suffered pain and persecution as our sin-bearing substitute. He wept with us, endured pain with us. He came to seek and save the lost, and yet was rejected by all. Yet for the joy set before Him He endured the cross, scorning its shame. He became a curse on the tree of the cross, rejected by God and man so that we might be accepted by God—and loved by God—in spite of our sins.

Today our Lord reminds us that things are not as they seem. God works in unexpected ways—ways that seem upside down and backward. In heaven things will be right side up again. Until then, we wait, confident and full of hope. We trust the Word preached in Jesus’ name and we are filled and strengthened with His life-giving body and blood. Blessed are you.

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.