In the name of God, Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier. Amen.
On this, one of my favorite feast days in the liturgical year, our lectionary features the Beatitudes. This teaching from Jesus is rich with history, symbolism, and current application, but it helps to study it deeply. First, a little context…
Our reading begins at verse 20. In verse 12, Jesus went out to pray on a mountain. ‘Going up a mountain,’ as you may remember, is Bible-talk for ‘going to be with God.’
Luke says Jesus prayed on the mountain all through the night. Night and darkness symbolize the state of unknowing from which we are enlightened by God.
When it was day, that is, when divine inspiration had come, Jesus called his 12 disciples to himself and led them down the mountain to a flat land, symbolizing the movement from divine to earthly experience.
There they encountered a great multitude of people from the surrounding Jewish and Gentile areas. These people came with spiritual torments and physical wounds. They came to hear Jesus and seek healing from him.
And Jesus healed them – all of them: Jews, Gentiles, maybe even some Romans. Jesus healed them all.
This is Jesus showing the disciples whom to serve: anyone and everyone; and how to serve them – by going where they are, entering into relationship by talking with them, and being a conduit of God’s healing love to them.
This is where our Gospel story picks up. Having healed the multitude of people from all that ailed or tormented them, Jesus looks at his disciples and, in the beautiful words of the Beatitudes, teaches them how to understand what they just saw - how to be his disciple - and this lesson applies just as much to us today as it did to them back then.
The saints, whom we honor and remember today, are exemplars of faithful discipleship for us.
Jesus begins with: “Blessed are you who are poor.” The word blessed does mean happy, but it also means exalted. You will be lifted up into the glory of God.
‘Poor’ refers to those who cower or hide themselves out of fear, like Adam did in the creation story in Genesis. The poor may hide from God out of guilt or fear, or they may hide from their earthly oppressor. Jesus teaches that what blesses the poor is that they know they need what they don’t have, whether that is a spiritual or a physical need. Blessed are you who know you need what you don’t have…
…for yours is the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God is where and when God’s presence, power, and glory are – which is everywhere, something we know when the eyes of our hearts are enlightened. Being exalted into the kingdom of God provides us with the power and protection of God, so we don’t need to cower or fear any longer.
Blessed are you who are hungry now, who long for relief from suffering or isolation, who desire closeness to God or another. God promises that, in the kingdom of God, you will be satisfied.
Blessed are you who grieve and shed tears. God promises that, in the kingdom of God, you will triumph in joy.
This is the joy Jesus promises. What we need is joy, but what we work to achieve is happiness, and it’s never enough.
Blessed are you, Jesus says, when you are hated, separated, excluded, or defamed on account of the Son of Man (referring to himself and his way of being in the world). Rejoice that day and frolic in joy because your reward is great and rests in the dwelling place of God (which is what heaven means).
This is not a promise of a future reward. Jesus is talking about a present reward, right now, while we are here on earth. Our joy is a result of living as the dwelling place of God. That is how heaven happens on earth. It’s us! We are the means by which “on earth as it is in heaven” happens.
Then come the woes… Jesus says, Woe to you who are rich. This isn’t a condemnation of people who have money. Jesus is grieving for those who don’t know what they don’t have – or don’t care. He’s grieving for those who aren’t humble or hungry because they don’t realize they’re trading divine joy for earthly happiness.
Let’s pause here and remember that Jesus is a Jewish rabbi who lived 2 millennia ago. In that time and in his religious context, “love” referred to loyalty, loyalty to relationship, as I mentioned in my sermon last week. This kind of love protects, respects, and cares for the other, even an enemy who seeks to harm us.
The disciples don’t know it yet, but just as Jesus was showing them whom to serve, he is now preparing them to understand the non-violent humility they will see Jesus model for them at his arrest and crucifixion, described 12 chapters hence.
Jesus sums up his teaching with what has come to be called The Golden Rule: “Do to others as you would have them do to you.” The Greek word translated as “do” also means “commit.” Rabbi Jesus is reminding us to commit to the other as a human being, created of God in the image of God, deserving of respect and dignity, just as we would want them to commit to us in the same way.
If we were suffering or hungry or broken, we’d be desperate for hope and healing. Jesus has given that to us by giving us himself. Now it’s our turn to do likewise.
The many saints we remembered today in our Litany are examples to us of how Jesus’ teaching can be lived in the world. The best part is that they too are committed to relationship with us. They remain just a prayer away, always ready to share the gift that shone so brightly in their lives, to light our way in our lives.
We are not alone. The saints are with us. God is with us.
God, who made us, loves us, and redeemed us, dwells with in us now. As we grow in our faith, we come to learn our shortcomings and failings, and we confess them together in our weekly worship.
Then, knowing ever more clearly what we don’t have, we humbly ask God to give it to us, so our lights can shine as brightly as the saints we remember today: “Almighty God… give us grace so to follow your blessed saints in all virtuous and godly living, that we may come to those ineffable joys that you have prepared for those who truly commit to you. Amen.
(All Saints icon purchased for use from Kelly Latimore Icons.)
