Jesu Juva
St. Luke 6:17-26
February 13, 2022
Epiphany
6C
Dear saints of our Savior~
Today’s Holy Gospel reminds us that while Jesus often pleased the crowds, He was no crowd-pleaser. He wasn’t very good at back-slapping and glad-handing. He doesn’t seem to know the proper techniques for winning friends and stroking egos. Jesus probably wouldn’t have been a very appealing after-dinner speaker either. Imagine it: Woe to you who are full now, for you shall be hungry. Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep. Jesus was certainly provocative, but He wasn’t very entertaining. For there’s really nothing entertaining about the kingdom of God. Satisfying? Yes. Life-giving? Yes. But entertaining? No. Jesus didn’t come to entertain us or make us feel good. He did not come to make us happy.
Are you happy? And what does it mean to be happy? As Americans, we take happiness very seriously. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all people are endowed by their Creator with the unalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of . . . happiness. We have the right to chase around after happiness; and no one can take that away from us. Notice we have the right to pursue happiness, but not necessarily to be happy.
People chase after happiness in lots of different ways—in buying and accumulating stuff, only to find there’s never enough to make us happy. Some people pursue happiness in their career, in achievement and accomplishment, in their school work. I was one of those “A” students, but that was a long time ago. Past accomplishment is no guarantee of future happiness. Some people pursue happiness in relationships or hobbies or sports. Others look for happiness in religion. If you’re happy and you know it clap your hands, I used to sing in Sunday school. But what if you’re not happy and you know it? Can you still clap your hands and shout “amen?”
Think about the amazing men of faith, like Martin Luther. Do you think he was happy? He’s certainly not depicted that way in books and movies, where he’s cursing the devil, slinging ink wells at him, and becoming ever more distressed over the condition of the church. And then there was St. Paul. I don’t think he was especially happy either. Yes, he often writes about his joy; but that joy was always mixed with a lot of frustration and hardship.
In today’s epistle St. Paul makes an indirect point about happiness. He wrote that if it’s only for this present life that we have hoped in Christ, then we are the most pitiful bunch of people on the face of the earth. In other words, if the pursuit of happiness in this earthly life is as good as it gets—if this is all there is—then prepare to be pitied.
But the good news—the hard fact of history—is that Christ has been raised
Jesus was on a roll that day when He preached the words of this morning’s Holy Gospel. He was healing the sick, casting out demons. All kinds of good things were happening. St. Luke reports that divine power was just pouring out of Jesus that day. And you can be sure that there were lots of very happy people that day—people who found relief and recovery and hope and peace. And Jesus could have used that opportunity to preach a Gospel of happiness—to announce Himself as the secret to happiness—the quick fix to all the trouble and turmoil you face. That’s the kind of thing you often hear from TV preachers—who promise prosperity and success and happiness all around.
But Jesus—He didn’t come to preach happiness. Instead, He lifted up His eyes, locked them on His disciples, and said: Blessed are you who are poor. . . . Blessed are you who are hungry—you who weep—you who are hated on account of the Son of Man. Poverty? Hunger? Tears and hatred? I don’t think that’s what the founding fathers had in mind when they risked their sacred honor and took up arms to defend the right to the pursuit of happiness.
But listen carefully to Jesus. Who are these blessed, happy people? What is it about their poverty, their hunger, their tears and rejection that makes them so blessed? Jesus tells them that what they don’t have now—what they lack now—they will have in abundance. He tells the poor that the kingdom of God is already theirs! He tells the hungry that they will be satisfied—tells those who are weeping that they will laugh out loud—tells those who are hated here on earth that they have a great reward awaiting them in heaven.
All of this, of course, requires faith. Faith is key. Faith is the key to both blessedness and to happiness. You are most blessed and most happy when you believe that Jesus is at work in, with, and under every circumstance in your life—good and bad, pain and pleasure, riches and poverty, laughter and sorrow. To have faith is to believe this: Jesus Christ is not the way around suffering and sorrow. But He is the only way through suffering and sorrow to eternal life and a great reward in heaven. That is happiness, Jesus-style. That’s happiness stamped with the cross of Christ.
You may be poor today; but blessed are you because the kingdom of heaven is yours (present tense). You may be hungry today; but blessed are you as one who is fed with the body and blood of Jesus in His Holy Supper—a foretaste of the heavenly feast where you will lack nothing. You may be weeping today, mourning your sin and its wages; but blessed are you as one whose tears will turn to joy on the day when your Savior welcomes you to paradise. Today you may be hated. Tomorrow you may be labeled as a disinformation-spouting, extremist. But Jesus? He says: Blessed are you—you poor, hungry, teary-eyed, despised disciples.
But do you know who you look like? You look like Jesus! You look like Jesus who was rich, but who became poor for your sake, so that you might be rich in the grace of God. You look like Jesus who hungered and fasted for forty days, so that you might be fed with the bread of life forever. You look like Jesus who wept—a man of sorrows and familiar with suffering. He was despised. He was beaten and rejected by the religious and the powerful. He was crucified. And this Jesus—the poor, hungry, weeping, despised man on the center cross—HE is your acceptance. He is your justification—your righteousness—your salvation—your substitute—your brother. Blessed are you.
But we can’t ignore Jesus’ words of woe, either. Woe to you who are rich and well-fed and who are living only for a good laugh. Your riches can’t save you. Food fills you temporarily; but you’ll be hungry again, soon enough. Laughter is short-lived in this world. But the real punch line will come on the Last Day, when Christ appears to judge the living and the dead—when the real laugh of genuine happiness is that your sins are forgiven and forgotten in His death—and that your death is undone in His resurrection.
If today you happen to have riches or food and drink or laughter and popularity, be thankful. But don’t forget, these are not the keys to pursuing and finding happiness and blessedness. If we look for happiness in these things, then these things become our idols. We will pursue them until we die, and never come close to realizing the happiness that Jesus has in store for those who trust in Him.
Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is in the Lord. He is like a tree planted by water. Happy is he whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Happy is the man whose sin the Lord does not count against him and in whose spirit is no deceit (Ps. 32). Now that’s a happiness worth pursuing. Of course, you can’t pursue this happiness. It pursues you. It tracks you down. It finds you . . . through faith in Jesus, our Savior.
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment