Reading: Luke 6.20-31
Some years ago, when visiting my regular paper supplier, I noticed on the wall a "Rush-Job Calendar". This has several curious features - all designed for the needs of the "average business". The days of each week are counted backwards, which helps getting things done "yesterday". Each week has three Fridays - for all those jobs to be completed by "Friday". And there are three 31s - to help clear those things needing to be finished by the end of the month. Weekends are eliminated as a waste of time. Mondays are removed to cut out "Monday-itis". A "miracle day" is introduced each week, because most businesses seem to need one. A humorous business solution to the pressures of our instant world!
An earnest young man went to his pastor one day with a spiritual problem. "Please pray for me," he said. "Ask the Lord to give me more patience."
They knelt together to pray, and the pastor began praying, "Lord, send this young man tribulation in the morning. Send this young man tribulation in the afternoon…"
The young man interrupted, "No! no! Don't pray for tribulation! What I need is more patience!"
"Ah, my young friend," explained the pastor, "but 'tribulation worketh patience' (Rom. 5.3b KJV)!"
To take Paul's words in fuller context in the Good News Bible: "We also boast of our troubles, because we know that trouble produces endurance, endurance brings God's approval, and his approval creates hope. This hope does not disappoint us, for God has poured out his love into our hearts by means of the Holy Spirit, who is God's gift to us" (Rom. 5.3-5).
What sort of life would you choose for yourself? What kinds of experiences would make you a better person, a better Christian? I wonder how much agreement there is between our answers to these two questions!
Thomas Carlisle once said, "Adversity is hard on a man, but for every one who can handle prosperity, there are a hundred who can handle adversity."
"Wouldn't it be nice to win a million dollars?" Week by week the television keeps beaming the alluring question into our living rooms. The thought ticks over in our minds. Of course, there are many things we could do - some of them good, commendable things too - others plain selfish indulgence!
In Carlisle's opinion, however, there are very few people who can "handle" prosperity. Someone is said to have asked Rockefeller, "How much would it take to make you happy?" to which he replied, "Just a little more!"
On the occasion of what we call the "Sermon on the Plain", the words of Jesus stand in stark contrast with the prevailing views of happiness.
"Happy are you poor; the Kingdom of God is yours! Happy are you who are hungry now; you will be filled! Happy are you who weep now; you will laugh! Happy are you when people hate you, reject you, insult you, and say that you are evil, all because of the Son of Man! Be glad when that happens, and dance for joy, because a great reward is kept for you in heaven. For their ancestors did the very same things to the prophets" (Lk. 6.20-23).
Notice what Jesus is saying here. "The kingdom of God is yours" (already, in the present). "You will be filled… you will laugh… a great reward is kept for you in heaven" (all in the future). The Kingdom of God already belongs to them. The Rule of God is already operative in their lives.
Yet Jesus doesn't say that they will experience all the promises and powers of the Kingdom this side of eternity. In many ways our experience of the Kingdom in this life is but a foretaste. There may be real miracles of healing, but not all are healed and those who are healed end up dying of something else! Belonging to the Kingdom may involve leaving behind some present "fullness" for a life of hardship, poverty, hunger - and persecution.
Paul wrote, "To this very moment we go hungry and thirsty; we are clothed in rags; we are beaten; we wander from place to place; we wear ourselves out with hard work. When we are cursed, we bless; when we are persecuted, we endure; when we are insulted, we answer with kind words. We are no more than this world's refuse; we are the scum of the earth to this very moment!" (1 Cor. 4.11-13). In another letter he said, "… in everything we do we show that we are God's servants by patiently enduring troubles, hardships, and difficulties. We have been beaten, imprisoned, and mobbed; we have been overworked and have gone without sleep or food" (2 Cor. 6.4-5).
On one occasion a rich young man had hesitated to follow Jesus because he would have to give up his riches. Peter was quick to point out that they had given up everything to follow Jesus. To which Jesus replied, "I tell you that anyone who leaves home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and for the gospel, will receive much more in this present age. He will receive a hundred times more houses, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields-and persecutions as well; and in the age to come he will receive eternal life" (Mk 10.29-30). "And persecutions as well" - how the words stand out! But "in the age to come" he will receive eternal life.
The words of Jesus in Luke 6.20ff were directed to his disciples. He was not making a virtue out of poverty or suggesting an automatic divine blessing on all poor people - over against the rich. Generally, the common people heard him gladly, yet at the time of his trial it would appear that poor and wealthy alike were calling for his crucifixion. In the final count it is their suffering "all because of the Son of Man" - because of their trust in him, their loyalty to him, their work for him…
By contrast, Jesus says, "But how terrible for you who are rich now; you have had your easy life! How terrible for you who are full now; you will go hungry! How terrible for you who laugh now; you will mourn and weep! "How terrible when all people speak well of you; their ancestors said the very same things about the false prophets" (vv. 24-26).
In recent times the news medis have reported on some very rich people whose fortunes have indeed been reversed. But it is not always so - in this life. The poor have the Kingdom of God now, but the rich still seem to control much of the kingdom of this world!
Read Psalm 73 some time. It begins with a statement of how we think things ought to be: "God is indeed good to Israel, to those who have pure hearts." But the Psalmist goes on to say, "I had nearly lost confidence; my faith was almost gone because I was jealous of the proud when I saw that things go well for the wicked" (vv. 1-2). The whole Psalm reflects on what seem to be the plain realities of this present life, though concluding that, in the long term, it is best to trust in the Lord.
We should all be rightly concerned with the suffering and inequities in our world. But a simple reversal of roles would just lead to nouveaux riches who could end up every bit as selfish and uncaring as ever. The ultimate values aren't money, a full belly and lots of laughter. Paul wrote to the Romans that "God's Kingdom is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of the righteousness, peace, and joy which the Holy Spirit gives" (Rom. 14.17).
Troubled times aren't a matter of what in legal terms are called "acts of God" - circumstances beyond anybody's control or deliberate plan. Jesus is especially speaking about what they will suffer "because of the Son of Man."
They will not be seeking popularity but integrity of their faith and obedience toward him. As a result, they will face harsh opposition. How are Kingdom-people to react to ill-will, opposition and persecution?
"But I tell you who hear me: love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, and pray for those who ill-treat you. If anyone hits you on one cheek, let him hit the other one too; if someone takes your coat, let him have your shirt as well. Give to everyone who asks you for something, and when someone takes what is yours, do not ask for it back. Do for others just what you want them to do for you" (vv. 27-30).
At the end of her book, The Hiding Place, Corrie Ten Boom tells of her own struggle with loving and forgiving:
It was a church service in Munich that I saw him, the former S.S. man who had stood guard at the shower room door in the processing center at Ravensbruck. He was the first of our actual jailers that I had seen since that time. And suddenly it was all there - the roomful of mocking men, the heaps of clothing, Betsie's pain-blanched face.
He came up to me as the church was emptying, beaming and bowing. "How grateful I am for your message, Fraulein," he said. "To think that, as you say, He has washed my sins away!"
His hand was thrust out to shake mine. And I, who had preached so often to the people in Bloemendaal the need to forgive, kept my hand at my side.
Even as the angry, vengeful thoughts boiled through me, I saw the sin of them. Jesus Christ had died for this man; was I going to ask for more? Lord Jesus, I prayed, forgive me and help me to forgive him.
I tried to smile, I struggled to raise my hand. I could not. I felt nothing, not the slightest spark of warmth or charity. And so again I breathed a silent prayer. Jesus, I cannot forgive him. Give me Your forgiveness.
As I took his hand the most incredible thing happened. From my shoulder along my arm and through my hand a current seemed to pass from me to him, while into my heart sprang a love for this stranger that almost overwhelmed me.
And so I discovered that it is not on our forgiveness any more than on our goodness that the world's healing hinges, but on His. When He tells us to love our enemies, He gives, along with the command, the love itself. (pp. 220-221)
I would like to come back to the two questions I asked at the beginning: What sort of life would you choose for yourself? What kinds of experiences would make you a better person, a better Christian? I wonder how "soft" our choices would be, how "real" our expectations.
Living in the Kingdom, living under God's grace, we will even come through adversity "in one piece". I am not suggesting we will be "happy" with adversity, yet our confidence in God does give us a deep underlying joy in the midst of adverse circumstances. And his grace will enable us to love and to forgive - even our enemies!
"Forgive them, Father! They don't know what they are doing" (Lk. 23.34). These were the incredible words of Jesus on the cross. As Peter wrote, "Christ himself suffered for you and left you an example, so that you would follow in his steps. He committed no sin, and no one ever heard a lie come from his lips. When he was insulted, he did not answer back with an insult; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but placed his hopes in God, the righteous Judge. Christ himself carried our sins in his body to the cross, so that we might die to sin and live for righteousness. It is by his wounds that you have been healed" (1 Pet. 2.21-25).
Let us walk, not only in his steps, but by his grace.