Jeremiah 17: 5-10 (New Jerusalem Bible)

Luke 6: 17-26 (New Revised Standard Version, Updated Edition)

In this gospel reading, Jesus has something to say about being blessed. The lesson begins with Jesus surrounded by a large crowd of people. Maybe it was because many of them were sick, crippled, injured and wanted Jesus to heal them. Perhaps some of them had a troubled mind and they heard that Jesus was able to cast out evil spirits. The gospels say that people could be healed by the very touch of Jesus.

Notice that Jesus never said, Blessed are those who are wealthy or Blessed are those who have plenty to eat. What he did say was, When you follow me your blessings will come.

Jesus’ teachings were radical. They were a window into God’s values and priorities. He blessed those who were poor, who hunger, and those who were excluded from society. Jesus warned those who were rich and made the poor more miserable, would be judged harshly by God.

The rules for living that Jesus gives us are revolutionary. His teachings tell us we must live in order to fulfill Jesus’ mission, which is also our mission today. Without these teachings there is no alternative to our modern society.

The word “blessed” does not mean happiness. Being blessed means you’re in a close relationship with God. Those who have nothing and those who weep are God’s priority and will receive God’s favor and blessing.

To be blessed means we have God’s attention. We are valued and needed when Jesus’ teachings become a physical reality. God stands with the poor and condemns those who exploit them. This is a reversal of our usual world view. The world blesses the rich and looks down on the poor. God came in the form of a human being named Jesus to live among the poor and announce the Good News to them.

In Luke’s gospel, it is clear that only God can align our lives to make us whole, healthy and to give us an existence worth living. God’s Kingdom is the direct opposite of man-made kingdoms. In God’s Kingdom on earth, the poor are free to redefine the meaning of power, and change the ideas of what it really means to be life affirming and valuable.

The hungry will be blessed because their needs will be filled. Many of Jesus’ teachings are about how change can take place now in the present. It includes sharing food and resources and beyond that, challenging the systematic system that causes poverty in our society.

The poor and the hungry are in a better position to receive and respond to the Kingdom of God than those who already have security in wealth. But the poor are those who are blessed because they are more open to spiritual matters and not hindered by material prosperity or social status.

Jesus is placing a choice before us. Will we choose to live according to the Beatitudes of Jesus, or instead to the world’s standards of wealth, popularity and power? Today, America faces a choice. Will Americans be seduced by the glamor of wealth and power or will God open their hearts and conscience to do the correct thing? The world’s values are worthless in the end and will not give eternal life.

Jeremiah the prophet preached to Israel around the year 600 BC. His mission was during some of that nation’s most turbulent years. It included the destruction of Jerusalem, its Temple and exile to Babylon by the Babylonian armies. 

During Jeremiah’s era, the people of Israel depended on deals, alliances and schemes with foreign nations to survive. This gave them a false sense of security. These were all man-made alliances in which the Jewish people put their trust, instead of Yahweh their God. Jeremiah warned them this type of security was temporary and would not last.

Jeremiah told the people they need to be like a cottonwood tree that has a constant supply of water and it can withstand any force of nature against it. As long as its roots are watered and the soil is fertile, it will grow. This was a metaphor of a growing plant to illustrate what happens when a relationship with God is nurtured. But the Israelites trusted foreign nations as their support instead of turning to God. Jeremiah told them their constant “let’s make a deal” with allies would not save them. They were being misled and putting their faith in practices that would not work. Eventually what Jeremiah predicted had come true. The Assyrian army conquered the northern kingdom of Israel and exiled thousands of its citizens never to return again to their homeland.

Jeremiah was preaching to anyone who would listen to his warnings. He became hated because of his negative prophecy of doom. Jeremiah was so unpopular he was thrown into a well. But that is the cost of being a true prophet from God. We can see that now, how many political figures in America dismiss the danger of global warming as fake news. Like the ancient Israelites many Americans seem to reject anything positive that can possibly disrupt their status-quo. Some of us might remember during the early 1960s that Medicare was viewed by some Americans as a communist plot!

Jeremiah is asking us to be real to ourselves and not a superhuman. When we attempt to create our own water-system over a shaky root system, we are setting ourselves for failure. With God as your root, there will be no failure. Blessed are those who trust in the Lord. 

AMEN.