Definitions Uncovered

Blessed, Even When We’re Not Better

2.13.22 [Luke 6:17-28] River of Life (6th Sunday after Epiphany)

You can do better. For a while, this used to be the way you’d tell someone the person they were dating wasn’t up to par. But you can do better has diversified and found its way outside the dating world. You can do better has become the theme song of our culture. You can do better. You can get a better job or live in a better home. You can do better. You can be stronger and healthier. You can do better. You can be smarter and more successful. You can do better. You can be richer and wiser. You can do better. You can do better if you better yourself. And if you better yourself, you will be happier.

Maybe you’re thinking this is merely a modern phenomenon. We only feel this pressure to do better because of Madison Avenue’s Powerful Marketing Firms (TM) or social media’s unrealistic standards. I suppose you could make a case that they’ve amplified this song. Maybe they generated the remix. But they didn’t compose the original. The people of Jesus’ day did the you can do better song and dance, too.

That’s part of what Jesus is driving at in our Gospel reading from Luke 6. Luke sets the scene for us. Jesus is doing what he was famous for—healing & teaching. He’d developed such a reputation for both that (Lk. 6:17-18) a large crowd of his disciples were there and a great number of people from all over…had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases and demons.

A mass of Jews & Gentiles were drawn to Jesus because of his authority. He taught like none other. He healed like none other. But Jesus didn’t just posses different power, he had a different perspective on this world. You can’t miss it in these words. He encourages those who are downtrodden. He dashes the hopes of those who thought they were doing well.

(Lk. 6:20-22) Blessed are the poor, the hungry, the weeping, and the rejected. (Lk. 6:24-26) Woe to those whose purses and bellies are full now. Woe to those who are laughing or popular now.

Woah. This is a very different perspective than what is popular in our culture today. And Jesus’ day too. In fact, even after Jesus spoke these words to his disciples they still struggle to comprehend his message.

We see this later on in Luke’s Gospel. In Luke 18:18-27, a rich, young ruler came to Jesus in search of a better life. His life was good, to be sure. He was successful and respected. The kind of guy who gets featured on Fortune magazine’s 40 under 40. He came to Jesus and (Mk. 10:17) fell on his knees and asked (Lk. 18:18; Mt. 19:16) Good teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life?

Jesus’ response was basically: (Lk. 18:20) Have you lived up to the law of Moses? And the young man was sure he had. (Lk 18:21) I’ve been doing all this stuff since I was a boy. (Mk. 10:21) Jesus looked at him and loved him. “One thing you lack…Go, sell everything you have. Give it to the poor, follow me, and you’ll have treasure in heaven. But the rich young man couldn’t do it. He couldn’t give up the good life, even if Jesus told him how he’d have a better one.

And despite everything Jesus said about the rich and the poor, the smiling and the sad, the well-liked and the loathed here, Jesus’ disciples were absolutely floored. (Mt. 19:25) Greatly astonished. Here was this good guy, this successful guy, the upstanding individual coming to Jesus looking for guidance and he goes away gloomy. (Lk. 18:26) If he can’t inherit eternal life, who will? they wondered.

Jesus’ response is remarkable. (Lk. 18:27) What is impossible with man is possible with God. Let these words guide you. It is impossible for sinful man to be poor and feel blessed. It is impossible for sinful man to be hungry and feel blessed. It is impossible for sinful man to be weeping and feel blessed. It is impossible for sinful man to be hated, excluded, insulted, and rejected and feel blessed. When we feel worthless, hungry, sad, and excluded we feel dejected not delightful, we feel like complaining not celebrating, we feel like interrogating God not giving thanks. When we are in need, weak, down-in-the-dumps, and defamed, it feels dishonest or delusional to describe ourselves as blessed.

When you’re poor, when you’re hungry, when you’re sad, when you’ve been rejected it’s human nature to focus on what you don’t have, to define yourself based on your deficiencies.

This happens in our midst, despite all our economic advantages and modern conveniences. The young person might say: I don’t have experience, wealth, or know the right people. The senior says: I don’t have the energy, the health, and all my friends are sick or dying. The stay-at-home mom says: I don’t have a career. The working woman says: I don’t have a family.

Do you ever find yourself feeling anxious, worried, or sad because of what you lack or who you’ve lost? Do you ever find yourself thinking about all that you’re missing? Do you ever entertain the idea of suggesting to God: You can do better?

With man it is impossible to be without and be blessed. But with God, all things, even this is possible. Jesus taught this and lived this for us, so that our heavenly reward would be great. God also blesses us with the faith to not only know this, but to trust this, and to live this way, too.

Jesus taught and lived blessed are the poor, the hungry, the sad, and the despised. Again and again during his earthly ministry, Jesus made time for those who were in great need. Remember what made you poor or a beggar in those days: physical handicaps like being blind or deaf; shriveled hands and palsied legs. Throughout the Gospels, we see Jesus healing people of diseases like these and many more. Jesus fed thousands who were hungry. He went to those who were weeping. He welcomed those who had been excluded: lepers, tax collectors, and prostitutes. The Blessed One of God came to people who were sick and suffering, people who were sad and lonely and ostracized. Blessed are those who have come to know Jesus as their Lord and Savior.

Jesus taught and lived woe to those who are rich, well fed, laughing, and popular. (Mt. 6:24) Jesus warned those who were rich that you cannot serve both God and money. (Mt. 6:25) He warned those who were well-fed that life is more than food and the body more than clothes. (Mk. 2:10) He warned those who scoffed that he had the ability to forgive sins and heal that the Son of Man has (Mt. 28:18) all authority in heaven and on earth. (Mt. 23:27-28) He warned those who were popular and influential that on the inside they were full of hypocrisy and wickedness.

Jesus lived (Lk. 6:27) love your enemies. Do good to those who hate you. Bless those who curse you. Pray for those who mistreat you.

When Jesus was arrested, he healed the severed ear of Malchus, the servant of the high priest. When Jesus was being crucified he prayed (Lk. 23:34) Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing. As he was dying between two criminals who had earlier joined the crowd in jeering him, he blessed the one who had once cursed him by saying (Lk. 23:43) Today you will be with me in paradise. Though he was hated without reason, rejected as blasphemous, he died for the sins of the rich and the poor, the well-fed and the hungry, the laughing and the weeping, the popular and the reviled. He shed his holy, precious blood so that we might be cured. (Is 53:5) He was wounded so that we might be healed. He was cursed so that we might be blessed. He died to sin so that we might live with him and for him. Jesus did it all so that you might be blessed by God. Jesus made satisfaction for all our sins, so that we can laugh at the devils’ accusations and the empty threats of death. Jesus made himself poor so that we might inherit the riches of his righteousness. Jesus was hated, excluded, insulted and rejected so that we might be loved, welcomed, blessed, and glorified.

Being certain of how our great reward has been secured, we can be certain that in all things we are always blessed—loved by God. And you are blessed by God, no matter what you may be lacking in this life. That was the assurance that God gave the Apostle Paul. Paul was given an unspecified (2 Cor 12:7) thorn in the flesh. It tormented him. It must have made him feel deficient for his work as an Apostle because he pleaded with God three times to remove it. But God said: (2 Cor 12:9) My grace is sufficient for you. My power is made perfect in weakness. (2 Cor 12:7) Christ’s power rests upon his people precisely in the places and times when they feel weak. God’s people discover Christ’s power precisely in the places they feel most deficient.

The young person has been blessed and positioned by God to learn to lean on God’s wisdom in his Word and not on their own understanding, to trust in him to provide daily bread. The senior sees in their physical weakness a reason to delight in Christ’s power. Even when our bodies are weak, our prayers are powerful and effective. Sick friends and neighbors are a ripe mission field, eager to hear about the hope we have in Christ.

The stay-at-home mom may not have an impressive title, but she has the special opportunity (Dt. 6:7) to impress upon her children the Word of God. The working woman may not have a family, but she has the chance to let her light shine in a world driven by selfishness. By working hard even when it won’t be appreciated, by being honest even when it may prove costly, by being humble even when it may seem out of place, she is boasting about the sufficiency of God’s grace. And both have been blessed with the impossibly powerful gift of forgiveness. Is there any more powerful witness to the love of God than forgiveness? It blows the minds of little children and big wigs alike!

That is our calling, dear Christians. Consider how God can use our deficiencies and our weaknesses to demonstrate his sufficiency, his power, & his grace. The next time you find yourself fixating on what you’re lacking ask yourself: How can God bless me and make me a blessing through my poverty, my sadness, or even my loneliness? How can he grow my faith? How can he develop and mature me? How might he be deploying me so that others who are in the same boat can learn of his love for them?

We live in a world that is constantly saying: You can do better. It’s a popular but hopeless theme song. Because even when we do better, it doesn’t last. (Ecc. 3:14) Everything God does will endure forever Let us show them how, even in hardships, even in difficulties, even in times of weakness, we are blessed, even when we don’t seem to be better off. We’re blessed because of what Jesus has done for us. We have a great reward in heaven. We have a reason to rejoice, right here and now. Amen.