“God of the Marginalized”
Luke 6:17-26
Something VERY radical is taking place here in Luke Chapter 6.
Jesus is speaking to His disciples, His followers, His students and He is giving them their first lesson.
But it sounds VERY strange to our ears, does it not?
I mean, this isn’t the American dream.
This isn’t what we voted for.
Imagine a politician running on this message…
…he or she wouldn’t get one vote!
Would they be called names like: Socialist, Communist, Woke, perhaps liberal—or un-American?
Would their message be welcome in most American Christian Churches of today?
Or would they would be booed out?
Or kicked out?
But this is Jesus we are talking about here.
And these are His words.
“Blessed are you who are poor…
… and hungry…
…blessed are you who weep now…
…Blessed are you when people hate you, when they exclude you and insult you and reject your name as evil, because of [Me].”
“Rejoice!”
“Leap for joy!”
You mean we are to take it as a badge of honor when the world kicks us in the teeth?
That can’t be right.
There's a new executive order outlawing anti-Christian bias in our land!
Isn’t this why we should leap for joy?
Jesus isn’t sounding like a Christian Nationalist here.
Maybe these aren’t Jesus’s real words.
Perhaps Bible believing Christians should just ignore this bit.
I mean listen to this:
“Woe to you who are rich…
Woe to you who are well fed now…
Woe to you when everyone speaks well of you…”
Give me a break, Jesus!
This is supposed to be a Christian nation, after-all, and these aren’t American ideals.
I think we should just forget about these so-called words of Jesus.
After all, we know that the person who dies with the most stuff wins!
Nah, it’s blessed are you who are rich…and woe to you who are poor.
Jesus has it backwards!
…Or do we?
If, by chance, we are the ones who have it backwards it might do us well to try and figure out what Jesus IS talking about and why He is saying these things.
So, let’s look at the context.
Right before our Gospel Lesson for this morning we are told that Jesus “called his disciples to him and chose twelve of them, whom he also designated apostles…
…and then “He went down with them and stood on a level place…looking at his disciples He said the words we are talking about this morning.
Was He leveling with them?
Was He preparing them for what was ahead?
Was He saying we are in this together?
Was Jesus telling them that this is what they would get by following Him?
There is a famous story recorded by Matthew, Mark and Luke.
It’s about a rich young ruler who runs up to Jesus wanting to know how he can enter God’s Kingdom.
After some talk about the commandments Jesus tells him he lacks one thing: “Sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven.
Then come, follow me.”
This guy, though, decides that he can’t part with his riches, so he goes away sad.
And so, he’s sad.
But he’s rich.
Does that sound familiar?
Then Jesus says “It is easier a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.”
The disciples are shocked, having been taught for so long that riches are a sign of God’s blessing.
They ask Jesus, “Who then can be saved?”
Jesus says that with people it’s impossible, but with God all things are possible.
But this isn’t enough for Peter, he needs to remind Jesus of his credentials: “Lord, we have left everything to follow you!”
Jesus assures Him that he on the right path, but then says, “But whoever is last shall be first.”
The least shall be the greatest.
The most humble shall be lifted up.
This is the message of the Gospels.
This is the message of Jesus.
And Jesus lived it out.
Jesus lived it out by hanging with the tax collectors, prostitutes and other sinners.
Jesus lived it out by healing the masses.
Feeding the hungry.
Showing mercy and compassion for the marginalized, the outcastes, women, children, lepers, Jews and Gentiles alike—and putting Himself on a level place with all of them—with all of us.
The Apostle Paul described Jesus’ posture well in Philippians Chapter 2.
Jesus, he wrote “Who, being in the very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing…
…and being found in appearance as a human being, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross.”
This is what Jesus did for us.
He made the ultimate sacrifice for humankind, and we are to follow in Jesus’ footsteps.
The last Command Jesus gave His disciples before He was arrested was this: “Love each other.
As I have loved you so you must love each other.
By this people will know you are my disciples if you love each other.”
Are we Christians in America known by our love these days?
Are we known for showing mercy and being kind and walking humbly with God or are we known for something else?
In Matthew Chapter 7 Jesus says: “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.
Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’
Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you…”
“I never knew you…”
“I never knew you…”
How does Jesus get to know us and how do we get to know Him?
I believe we find the answer to this at the great judgement scene in Matthew Chapter 25.
Most of you know it well.
Jesus likens the judgement as being like a shepherd who separates the sheep from the goats.
To the sheep He says, “Come you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world.
For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me.
I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.”
These folks will say, “Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink?
When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you?
When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?”
In other words: “We’ve never even seen You before!!!”
And Jesus will say, “Sure you have! You’ve seen me over and over and over again.
We are dear friends.
You know why?
“Whatever you did for one of the least of these, you did for me.”
Then, to those on His left He will say: “I never knew you…
…you never knew me…”
“For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.”
Jesus is in such solidarity with you and me and everyone else on the earth—that when we do something for another person, we do it for Him and when we don’t help another person we don’t help Him.
And so, how can we be rich and well fed with not a care in the world while Jesus our Lord is poor, hungry, weeping and excluded?
How can we laugh and make merry while Jesus is being rounded up like an animal and being torn away from His children?
How can we feel good about what’s going on in our country when, as Bishop Budde so aptly put it in her sermon at the Washington Cathedral: “gay, lesbian and transgender children in Democratic, Republican, and Independent families across the country fear for their lives?”
Or how can we be self-satisfied when experts tell us that global hunger can actually be eradicated by 2030 if we put $200 Billion dollars toward the effort in the next five years but we aren’t doing it?
That’s a lot of money, but the richest person in the world is worth twice that much and in the United States alone, in the last year, the billionaires’ combined net worth increased by $1 trillion dollars.
It can be done.
We just don’t have enough love and mercy—we don’t have enough Jesus in us to do it.
So, Jesus says: “Woe to you who are rich, well-fed and laughing while millions upon millions of human beings just like you are poor, starving to death, and weeping and you are doing nothing to help them!”
It makes sense.
It’s the Gospel.
And it’s beautiful that God loves us this much.
We might throw up our hands, though, in anguish and say “We are doomed!
We don’t have enough resources.
We don’t have enough Jesus followers to feed all these people; to alleviate this much suffering.
“Why, it’s easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for us to put our faith into action and end world hunger, end discrimination, end hatred, end the unfair treatment of the marginalized and it goes on and on and on.”
And Jesus answers: “With humankind it IS impossible, but with God all things are possible.”
Will you pray with me?
Lord of love,
Have mercy on us.
Break our hearts of stone and give us hearts for You and others alone.
In Jesus’ name and for His sake we pray.
Amen.
