Luke 6:17-26, Matthew 5:1-11

Elon Musk posted a meme this week on X in which he referred to the poor as “a parasite class.”  According to Bruce Wilson,  who writes on authoritarianism and Christianity, Musk’s philosophical guru, Curtis Yarvin, has “joked” that the poor should be melted down into biodiesel.^[1]  Jesus, on the other hand, says that the poor are blessed and the kingdom of God is theirs.

The late Tony Campolo, one of my spiritual heroes said, “If we were to set out to establish a religion in polar opposition to the Beatitudes Jesus taught, it would look strikingly similar to the pop Christianity that has taken over North America today.”  I find myself returning to his words over and over again lately as I try to maintain my own sense of direction and purpose in these early days of an administration that seems intent on dismantling and destroying so much that is good and helpful and life-sustaining in our country and in the world—systems and programs that so many people, especially the economically disadvantaged, rely on just to exist in a world where the price of mere subsistence keeps going up.

The Beatitudes of Jesus are a good diagnostic tool for measuring our spiritual health, both collectively and individually.  Looking at how we understand these core teachings of Jesus and apply them, or how much we ignore them, can tell us a lot about what kind of Christians we really are.  

In his book, A Man Without a Country, Kurt Vonnegut said, “For some reason, the most vocal Christians among us never mention the Beatitudes. But, often with tears in their eyes, they demand that the Ten Commandments be posted in public buildings. And of course, that’s Moses, not Jesus. I haven’t heard one of them demand that the Sermon on the Mount, the Beatitudes, be posted anywhere. ‘Blessed are the merciful’ in a courtroom? ‘Blessed are the peacemakers’ in the Pentagon? Give me a break!”

As Vonnegut pointed out, the Beatitudes of Jesus are mostly conspicuous by their absence in our culture.  Now more than ever.

Jesus preaches the Beatitudes in both Matthew and Luke.  Matthew’s version is longer and more poetic and spiritual.  Luke’s version is shorter, pithier and more pointed.  But in both versions Jesus was proclaiming a vision of the kingdom of God that completely subverts the common understanding of who God favors and how the world works.  

The disciples and crowd listening to Jesus were living in a world where it was generally accepted that the wealthy and powerful and forceful people of the world were the blessed ones, the ones God favored.  A lot of people still believe that today, whether they admit it or not.  But no, Jesus told them, you who are poor, youare the blessed ones.  The kingdom of God is for you.  You who are hungry, you are the blessed ones.  You will eat your fill.  You who are brokenhearted and weeping, you are the blessed ones.  Life will turn around and you will laugh.  

In Luke, Jesus goes on to say that all those who are commonly thought of as blessed are actually just a breath away from trouble and disappointment.  Woe to you who are rich.  You already ate your piece of the pie.  Woe to you who are full.  Tomorrow you’ll be hungry.  Woe to you who are laughing.  You’re not immune to tragedy.  You will mourn and weep.

The Jewish crowd listening to Jesus was very familiar with the language and meaning of blessing.  It was an important part of their life and culture.  In Judaism, a blessing was a proclamation intended to bring more of God’s presence and goodness into the life of the one being blessed.  It could be used to give vision, guidance and confidence.  Parents pronounced blessings on their children.  The people in the crowd were all familiar with blessings, but no one had ever blessed them the way Jesus was blessing them.

When he preached about the kingdom of God, Jesus was helping the people imagine a new world of compassion, justice, integrity and peace.  He started by helping them to reimagine themselves, to see themselves as blessed.  I wonder sometimes how much of the divisiveness, anger, greed and general dysfunction we are experiencing today arises from the fact that we have forgotten how to bless each other—how to imagine and pronounce a positive vision and future for each other.  What might happen if we learned to give that gift to each other and the world?  That would be gospel.  That would be Good News.

In Red Letter Christian, Tony Campolo said, “Perhaps because our culture and politics have gone so off course, with values so contrary to those of Jesus, more and more people intuitively recognize that his vision of God’s kingdom—a  new world of compassion, justice, integrity and peace—is the Good News they’ve been searching and waiting for.”  

When is the last time someone blessed you?  I don’t mean the hasty “bless you” that we say when someone sneezes or the “well bless your heart” people sometimes say in a way that sounds like what they’re really saying is “well aren’t you a curious little specimen.”

When is the last time that anyone spoke a real blessing to you?

When is the last time you felt like someone had spoken a powerful and prophetic word to tell you that you matter and that you live in the heart of goodness… 

When is the last time that someone told you 

that you are consecrated…  

that your life is sacred…  

that you are holy?

When is the last time someone told you that God sees you and loves you even when you’re not feeling it?  Especially when you’re not feeling it?

When is the last time you spoke that kind of blessing for someone else?

When Jesus looked at his rag-tag disciples, when he looked out over the crowd, he could see them in the deepest and most meaningful way.  He knew them.  He knew who they were and what they were.

He saw how life had broken them.  He saw their longing to be made whole again.  He saw their yearning to be told that their lives mattered, that their struggles mattered, that their pain mattered.  He wasn’t recruiting followers, he was just meeting people in the everyday reality of their lives and telling them the truth about themselves.  Just like he does for us.  

He told them who they were.  But he also told them who they could be.  His words were not just descriptive, they were transformative.  Just like they are for us.

He looked out at them and told them they were blessed.  Just like he tells us.  Just like we should tell others.

Blessed are the poor and the poor in spirit.  Blessed are those who doubt.  Blessed are those who struggle with believing.  Blessed are those who wonder if they have enough faith.  Blessed are those who feel spiritually malnourished and spiritually drained.  Blessed are those who are running on empty.  Blessed are those who feel like they have nothing to give.  Blessed are those who are far from certain about who God is and what God does and how it all works.  Blessed are those who find all the old answers unsatisfactory or troubling.  Blessed are those whose minds and hearts are open to new information, new ways of seeing and new ways of thinking.  Blessed are those who sometimes feel lost in the mystery of it all.  Blessed are the poor, the kingdom is theirs.  Blessed are the poor in spirit.  They shall see things others do not see.  They will ask questions others do not dare to ask.  They will use their imaginations in ways that others find daunting.  Blessed are the poor.  God sees them.  God walks with them.  Even when they can’t see it or feel it, heaven is all around them and within them.  And they are blessed.

Blessed are those who mourn.  Blessed are those for whom grief is an inescapable prison.  Blessed are those whose lives have been hollowed out by loss.  Blessed are those who live in the shadow  of death.  Blessed are those who weep.  Blessed are those whose tears have dried up but whose pain has not.  Blessed are those who have learned the hard way that grief is love persevering.  Blessed are the brokenhearted.  Blessed are those who are crumbling inside but hold themselves together to keep everyone around them from falling apart.  Blessed are those who mourn.  Their tears are sacred.  God carries their pain and draws close to them.  Blessed are those who weep.  Someday they will laugh.

Blessed are the gentle, the meek, the nonviolent.  Blessed are those who look for ways to compromise and cooperate instead of making life a contest or a competition.  Blessed are the strong who restrain themselves. Blessed are those who do not fight back, those who would rather take it than dish it out. Blessed are those who go unnoticed, the ones who sit alone at lunch, the unimpressive, the unemployed.  Blessed are the janitors and sanitation workers and fast food workers.  Blessed are those who struggle with the rent.  Blessed are the people on the street whom we fail to see because we pretend they are invisible.  Blessed are the meek.  God sees them.  God loves them.  The earth is theirs.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.  Blessed are those who were born with an acute sense of what is fair and what is not, what is right and what is not.  Blessed are those who have a passion for justice.  Blessed are those who work to overcome even when the injustice has nothing to do with them or their lives.  Blessed are those who are wrongly accused.  Blessed are the undocumented.   Blessed are those who stand against the bullies.  Blessed are those who confront racism and work to dismantle it.  Blessed are those who march in the streets and speak truth to power.  Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.  God sees them.  God loves them.  God will nourish them with justice and their cup will be filled.

Blessed are the merciful.  Blessed are those who fill the world around them with kindness.  Blessed are those who are generous with forgiveness.  Blessed are those who are just plain generous.  Blessed are those who are slow to judge and condemn because they understand how much they have been forgiven.  Blessed are the merciful.  God sees them.  God loves them.  They will receive mercy.

Blessed are the pure in heart.  Blessed are those who have retained their innocence and are just plain good.  Blessed are those who have recovered their innocence and cling to it.  Blessed are the honest.  Blessed are the truthful.  Blessed are those who love with no agenda.  Blessed are those who are in recovery, who are living out the twelve steps, who are cleansing their bodies and their souls and making amends. Blessed are those who refuse to be cynical.  Blessed are the pure in heart.  God loves them.  God sees them.  And they shall see God.

Blessed are the peacemakers.  Blessed are those who bring food to those who are starving.  Blessed are those who bring medical attention to those who are in peril.  Blessed are those who work to disarm a weaponized world.  Blessed are those who encourage us to seek common ground.  Blessed are those who care for the planet and work to heal the earth.  Blessed are the peacemakers.  God embraces them as God’s own children.

Blessed are those who are persecuted for doing the right thing.  Blessed are those who are disrespected and taunted for being compassionate.  Blessed are the woke.  Blessed are those who are scorned because they speak out for a better world and work for the shalom of God.  Blessed those who are battered or imprisoned because they protest against all the things that dehumanize people and oppress people.  Blessed are those who are persecuted for doing the right thing.  The commonwealth of God’s justice and mercy is theirs.

Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and say all kinds of untrue and evil things against you because you have embraced the Way, the Truth and the Life.  Blessed are you when people spread lies about you because your integrity exposes their duplicity.  Blessed are you when people criticize you for being awake to the pain and injustice around you.  If you only knew how great your reward is in heaven, you would be dancing with joy.  God sees you.  God loves you.  And remember, they persecuted the prophets in the same way, so you are in good company.

You are blessed.  

You are consecrated.  

You are holy.

You are set apart to bring a blessing and to be a blessing in a world that thinks it is cursed.

You are consecrated to help others see the beauty and sacredness of our life together in this amazing God-made world.

With all your faults—and God knows them better than you know them yourself—you are loved by God more than you can begin to imagine so that you can spread the love of God to others.

God is blessing you.  God is loving you.  God is transforming you.    

You live in the heart of goodness.

Blessed are you.

In Jesus’ name.

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^[1] Reported in The Cottage by Diana Butler Bass, 02/15/2025