Over the next three Sundays we will listen to almost the whole of Luke’s Sermon on the Plain.
Luke has used Matthew’s Sermon on the Mount but changed and shortened it significantly. It is important to realise that both Sermons are more than only the Beatitudes which begin them.
In Luke, Jesus’ words are addressed to the disciples, not to the gathered crowd, so we might think of the sermon as a teaching about discipleship.
The whole of the Sermon is quite confronting and challenging, especially those verses which form today’s Gospel reading. The Sermon begins with four blessings and four woes.
At first glance it is very odd to call people who are poor, hungry, weeping and hated blessed, fortunate or happy. But we have to hear the words of Jesus in the context of the religious teaching and general thinking which belonged to his time. Then, it was generally thought that those who suffered these things were experiencing the effects of either their own personal sinfulness or that of an ancestor. Similarly, those with wealth, plenty of food and high status were considered blessed and rewarded by God.
In the beatitudes Jesus reverses this way of thinking and effectively says that the opposite is true: God is, in fact, on the side of the poor and suffering. They experience suffering through no fault of their own (e.g., sin), it is simply the situation in which they find themselves. As the woes (‘Alas for you…’) make clear, the rich have a great deal to lose. The poor and suffering are fortunate in Jesus’ view because they have a need which the overflowing generosity of God can fill.
They are in situations which attract God’s impulse to save. The Kingdom of God is already among them.
All things being equal, being wealthy, well-fed, happy and enjoying a good reputation are perfectly desirable. But in Jesus’ view all things are not equal. Often the poor are poor precisely because the rich are rich. The powerless suffer at the hands of those who have power and influence. ‘The rich get richer, and the poor get poorer’ is a saying that endures even to this day.
Throughout his Gospel, Luke has Jesus insist repeatedly on the need for his followers to embrace poverty and to be under no illusions about the danger of wealth. Those who remain possessed by their possessions and the privileges they bring are unable to receive the gift of salvation, but even they can join the blessed through their care of the poor.