The Sermon on the Level Place (4)

 So after Jesus introduces his sermon with the four blessing statements, he follows up with four parallel woe statements. His blessings, you may recall, were both counter-intuitive and foundational to understanding what it means to follow Jesus.

Before moving on to the woes, I want to emphasize that last point one more time. These "beatitudes" are not merely meant to be a collection of reassurances when you're feeling down, but the starting point of understanding what Jesus, with his arrival on the scene, was inaugurating: a new community of Jesus-followers, assured of their destiny despite appearances, and heedless of the world's disdain. [See Post 1, Post 2, Post 3]

The woe-statements, as I've mentioned, are parallels to the blessing-statements. So, whereas the poor are blessed, the rich have only woe to look forward to. Though the the hungry are blessed, the well-fed will one day hunger. And though the weeping are blessed, those who laugh will one day weep. Let's juxtapose these parallel statements so as to see their relationship.

• Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.
• Woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation.
• Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you shall be satisfied.
• Woe to you who are full now, for you shall be hungry.
• Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh.
• Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep.

And finally:

• Blessed are you when people hate you and when they exclude you and revile you and spurn your name as evil, on account of the Son of Man! Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven; for so their fathers did to the prophets.
• Woe to you, when all people speak well of you, for so their fathers did to the false prophets.

Remember, Jesus is a teacher, and he is setting out to teach those people who have come to him from far and wide. The healing that many of them received from the hand of Jesus is an indication of his power (and of his identity). He refers to himself in this passage as the "son of Man," a clear echo of Daniel 7:13-14.

. . . and behold, with the  clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days. . . . and to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom. . . .

For our purposes, we must keep in mind that Jesus has been preaching that a kind of new reality had arrived with his own arrival. He called this "the good news of the kingdom of God." [Luke 4:43]

This "kingdom" is at cross-purposes with the powers of this world. This world's poor, hungry, and weeping are those for whom the kingdom is "good news." For those, on the other hand, who have triumphed in this world, who are rich and well-fed and full of laughter, there is nothing more for them in the world to come, where God's reign is complete. They have no part in it. 

There are strong echoes of this message throughout the New Testament. It is a big part of what we call the Good News. At the start of Jesus' ministry he proclaimed this news (Luke 4:18-19), and here as the prelude to his first extended classroom session, he demonstrates its reality by miraculously healing many.

So this new thing, this kingdom, he teaches his followers, is good news for those whom this world's kingdoms have left behind, but it is bad news for those who are satisfied with this world's kingdoms. Those who don't even perceive their need for a cure will simply not receive it.

Jesus is not pulling his punches: if you follow me, he seems to say, you are blessed, and the kingdom of God is for you, but bear in mind that all the rival kingdoms of this world will see you as a traitor. Such was the fate of the prophets, and such may well be yours. If so, rejoice. The kingdom of God is yours.

But as for the comfortable in this world, the self-reliant and well-situated, the winners, the first-in-line, for these folk the good news is bad news. They will reject it, for by their lights, by their system of values, it rejects their status, it robs them of their hard-earned glory, and it makes nothing of all their supposed merit. Why should they take up with such losers?

But as for the needy ones who have followed Jesus this far, they are becoming something more than receivers of mercy and healing (as great as that must have been). Sitting at the feet of the Teacher, they are becoming disciples. They are learning the new way that Jesus in his ministry teaches so consistently. They will learn and internalize the teaching of Jesus, and begin in a sometimes halting and imperfect way to walk it out. There is no place in the Gospel account for those who only come for the healing miracle but do not stay for the teaching. Such a one would not truly be a follower of Jesus at all, and that in the end is the purpose of this sermon: to make disciples.