Blessed are those

This week's verses are Luke 6:20-26:

Then he looked up at his disciples and said:

“Blessed are you who are poor, for the kingdom of God belongs to you.
“Blessed are you who hunger now, for you will be satisfied.
“Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh.
“Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you and insult you and reject you as evil on account of the Son of Man! Rejoice in that day, and jump for joy, because your reward is great in heaven. For their ancestors did the same things to the prophets.
“But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your comfort already.
“Woe to you who are well satisfied with food now, for you will be hungry.
“Woe to you who laugh now, for you will mourn and weep.
“Woe to you when all people speak well of you, for their ancestors did the same things to the false prophets.

 

Jesus is talking about the positive and negative paths our lives take from now till eternity. The poor will be made rich. The rich will eventually become poor. No condition lasts forever. We should look at our lives not just in terms of how pleasant our current situation is but also in terms of where it could take us.

Jesus is not saying that to give us hope that some day we may be rich. Instead, he is warning us: Those who are fat and comfortable and happy now will probably not develop the drive they need for eternity. But those who are suffering hardship now will likely develop the character that will serve them in eternity. Sugar is sweet but it is not your friend. The warm blanket we crawl under can smother us.

Jesus is famous for his "beatitudes," but do we take them to heart? When we are doing well and don't have a care in the world, do we have the sobriety to understand that it is not meant to last forever? And when we are having a hard time, do we have the excitement, and the sense of anticipation, that this trial is a prelude to glory? We need to be able to step back from the moment and look not just at how it makes us feel but what path we are on.

The same warning Jesus gives us about being too comfortable also holds true for popularity. If people are upset with you, is it really because you're on a bad path? Or could it be your path reminds others that they are on a bad path and they are resentful? Or, if everyone is happy with you, are you sure that it means you are a righteous person who delivers value? Could it also be that you are just enabling people to live and believe the way they want to live and believe, and they like not being challenged? You can't just look at your current situation without looking past it to what path you are on.

Instead of measuring your well-being by how pleased you are with your circumstances and how admired you are by others, you should instead ask yourself whether your circumstances and choices are leading you closer to God or farther away. Would you rather be rich for awhile now, or rich in the long term? Would you rather be comfortable and well-respected for the moment, or accepted and cherished by the one being whose love matters for eternity.

Jesus says woe to those who are well-loved in the present, well-fed, well-off, and happy in their "comfortable" lifestyle. What's scary is that even kings in his time didn't live as luxuriously as we do now. Should we be so proud of ourselves? Shouldn't we be even more horrified than the rich of Jesus' time were? If we honestly thought we had a reason to rejoice in eternity, why would we be so reluctant to die?

For their part, the poor and unloved have just as much reason to rejoice as they did when Jesus named their suffering two thousand years ago. People still starve to death and freeze to death. There are landmines, people suffering untreated otherwise-curable diseases, famines and wars and so on. All of the old ways of being tormented are still there, and new ones are being added every day.

 

Yet Jesus says we're the ones most needing pity, more than those who suffer now!

But we are blessed too. We still have time to live edgier lives, to follow Jesus' rough path to love the hopeless. We have time to put down the remote and pick up the cross and follow him where he leads.

But will we? Blessed are those who make use of the time they have left to decide.