What does blessed mean?

It’s all up and down here in Luke’s Gospel. We have been in Nazareth, in the Synagogue, and then over to some towns across Galilee, now we are near to the northern base of Capernaum. In the mean time, Jesu has been healing people. drinking and eating – much to the consternation fo the Pharisees. Jesus has also been fishing…for disciples. He has chosen 12 disciples or apostles (meaning sent). The list includes Judas who, literally hands Jesus over. If they are blessed, what does blessed mean?

Sermon on the ‘Plain’?

In our passage for this week, Luke 6:17-26, we are not up a mountain, as per Matthew’s Gospel, but on a plain. What we will soon ponder upon is the Sermon on the Plain. Yes Luke has Jesus up a mountain for choosing his disciples, as mountains were seen as a place of divine inspiration,Jesus was often noted to pop up a mountain – 7 times in Matthew’s Gospel, but rarely do they occur in Luke’s account.

If you do have many people all gathered around, it’s far easier to see them all, allow them to hear your message, if they are all around you. Jesus had the twelve disciples, the inner sanctum, and other disciples, and many from Tyre and Sidon (Luke 6: 17). These last two places are noted as terrible, deserving destruction. Some are there to listen to the teaching, others are there to be healed, restored. Even as some touch Jesus, they are healed. Are they the blessed: what does blessed mean?

Imagine that scene, so many people, and Jesus has just confirmed his Cabinet, that group of people who have just been chosen – even without interview – and will accompany Jesus to his death and beyond. What might you expect Jesus to say? Jesus lifts his eyes up to the disciples and says…

“Blessed are the poor…”

Possibly the ‘spin manager’ is quickly wheeling to Jesus’ side and offering some pearls of wisdom about some upbeat message, these folk have travelled a long way and need more than a blessing and confirmation that they are poor. Were they poor?

The disciples weren’t exactly all poor. Four of them had boats and one of them was a tax collector.

Their families might have rued the day they went off with Jesus, as their income – now lost – would have been much appreciated. The intended reader of this Gospel, stated in Luke 1:1 as Theophilus, was not a poor person either. So is it about being poor?

In Matthew’s Gospel it is definitely about being poor in spirit, whereas Luke seems to favour the understanding of economic hardship – but not for the individual, but for society. Other than the first Beatitude, which refers to the situation ‘now’, all of the others refer to a reversal of the present situation towards the Kin_dom of God.

The Disciples

The disciples must have been looking nervously to each other as they heard these words. What had they signed up to, agreeing to be Jesus’ disciples?

Their prior livelihoods had insured some prosperity, and now they were surrounded by the rural farmers of Galilee. Many, many people desperate for a change in the way that society looked upon them. For them food wasn’t a guarantee from one year to the next; therefore, income was a constant worry. Jesus wasn’t offering them a bonus sum, a tax reduction but a blessing.

Blessed

In the Greek blessed comes from the word Markarios, meaning ‘good for you’ or ‘congratulations’. To an Australian, it would be ‘good on you’.

When Jesus says Blessed are the poor, he is not saying that it is ok to be poor. Jesus relates to those who are poor and is offering that hope that his way, The Way, may bring hope for the future.

Different Currency

When we see progress in terms of £ or $, when we see change through what we can donate, we offer a way of categorising our way of living with others. We can create a league table of generosity. Being blessed doesn’t register in such a table.

Jesus is suggesting a complete radical reversal of the norms of society, of caring for the poor, showing equality – this will only lead to hatred from those in charge; hence, in verse 22, the followers of Jesus may expect similar treatment as he might expect.

When we pray that something good will happen, that is suggestive that God is a fruit machine: play it often enough and good fortune will be yours. Jesus is saying that we need a reversal of the way we look after each other, from the bottom up. Using a different currency.

What might it mean for us today?

Nadia Bolz Weber spoke of one interpretation of the Beatitudes, which she has put into modern language:

Blessed are the agnostics.

Blessed are they who doubt. Those who aren’t sure, who can still be surprised.

Blessed are they who are spiritually impoverished and therefore not so certain about everything that they no longer take in new information.

Blessed are those who have nothing to offer. ..

You are of heaven and Jesus blesses you.

Blessed are they who have buried their loved ones, for whom tears could fill an ocean. Blessed are they who have loved enough to know what loss feels like.

Blessed are the mothers of the miscarried.

Blessed are they who don’t have the luxury of taking things for granted anymore.

Blessed are they who can’t fall apart because they have to keep it together for everyone else.

Blessed are those who “still aren’t over it yet.” 

Blessed are those who mourn…

You are of heaven and Jesus blesses you.

Blessed are the wrongly accused, the ones who never catch a break, the ones for whom life is hard, for Jesus chose to surround himself with people like them.

Blessed are foster kids and every other kid who just wants to feel safe and loved.

Blessed are those who make terrible business decisions for the sake of people.

Blessed are the burned-out social workers and the overworked teachers and the pro bono case takers.

You are of heaven and Jesus blesses you.

Blessed are the kids who step between the bullies and the weak. Blessed are they who hear that they are forgiven.

Blessed is everyone who has ever forgiven others when they didn’t deserve it.

Blessed are the merciful, for they totally get it.

You are of heaven and Jesus blesses you.

Maybe that resonates with you? Is that what blessed means? The message of the Good News isn’t for the rich but to those who seek change. The message of Christ is for those where society screws down hard, but God is there for them.