The Upside Down Kingdom

Introduction

This morning, we are looking at the beginning of what is commonly called the Sermon on the Plain. Matthew’s version of this sermon in Matthew 5-7 is more well known and is known by most as the Sermon on the Mount. In Matthew, Jesus goes up the mountain to preach. In Luke, Jesus is coming down the mountain after a night of prayer. He finds a level place on the mountain and begins to teach the crowds who have gathered from Judea in the south, Sidon in the north, and everywhere in between.

Just before the sermon begins, Jesus names his 12 disciples. We should not miss the symbolism of this. If we were gathered out on a baseball field today and I called 9 of you up to join me, you would all think I was making a baseball team. If we were on a soccer field and I called up 11 people, you would all know I was making a soccer team. On a basketball court, I would call 5 people to make a team. In the first century Galilee, when a teacher claiming to be the Messiah calls 12 people to be his disciples everyone knows what is happening. He is making a new Israel. He is establishing a new kingdom on earth. As there were 12 sons of Israel, there are 12 disciples of Jesus.

Now, when you form a new team, one of the first things you do is start outlining the core values or practices of your team. You start with the basics. The great Coach Lombardi of the Packers started by reminding the Packers what a football was. Coach Wooden ofUCLA who won10 national championships in college basketball began each season teaching his players how to put on their socks to avoid blisters because details matter.

Today, Jesus lays out for his disciples the key practices or values of his kingdom. Our text is actually the inspiration for the title of this series because he describes a kingdom that seems upside down compared to how we know the world works.

Before we read scripture, let us pray for God’s blessing on the reading of his word.

Lord, our God, in the reading and proclamation of your Word, we pray you will illumine our minds and hearts so that we may hear and understand your Word, know and live according to your Word, and become living letters of your Word, equipped to follow Jesus in every part of our lives, by the power of the Holy Spirit, through Christ, our Lord, the living Word. Amen.

Text

Luke 6:17–26 NIV

He went down with them and stood on a level place. A large crowd of his disciples was there and a great number of people from all over Judea, from Jerusalem, and from the coastal region around Tyre and Sidon, who had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases. Those troubled by impure spirits were cured, and the people all tried to touch him, because power was coming from him and healing them all. Looking at his disciples, he said: “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you who hunger now, for you will be satisfied. Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh. Blessed are you when people hate you, when they exclude you and insult you and reject your name as evil, because of the Son of Man. “Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, because great is your reward in heaven. For that is how their ancestors treated the prophets. “But woe to you who are rich, for you have already received your comfort. Woe to you who are well fed now, for you will go hungry. Woe to you who laugh now, for you will mourn and weep. Woe to you when everyone speaks well of you, for that is how their ancestors treated the false prophets.

L: This is the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ!

P: Praise to you, O Christ!

Rich versus the Poor

The temptation in reading our passage for today is to spiritualize Jesus’ message, as Matthew presents the be-attitudes. Blessed are the poor in spirit, the metaphorically poor, but not the actual poor. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteous, who long for people to be holy, but not the actually hungry people. Blessed are those who mourn and grieve because of all the sin in the world, but not those who mourn because they have been wounded or have lost someone they love. And so on.

But Luke does not let us spiritualize these blessings. They curses make it obvious, Jesus is talking about literal wealth and poverty, literal hunger and gluttony, literal grief and mockery, literal persecution and favor currying. And if that wasn’t enough, just a little history can help us see how this would have been a live and passionate issue for the people.

100 years before, Pompey conquered the region and took over from the Hasmonean dynasty, which you can learn about in the books of Maccabees. Pompey, when we took over, redistributed the land to the people who supported him. So, Jewish people who supported Rome became very wealthy and every one else became much poorer. In a world where wealth was tied almost directly to owning land, 100 years later, the wealthy families were almost exclusively made up of those who were willing to compromise their faith to get along with Rome. And the poor were the ones who refused to compromise and tried to follow the Torah. Resentment of the wealthy ran deep for some good reasons.

The Right side Up Kingdom

Rather than starting with the blessings, lets look at the curses first because they perfectly illustrate the values of the right side up kingdom. Not because they are right, but because these are the values we naturally gravitate toward if left on our own.

First, who doesn’t want to be rich. If you have a choice between being poor or being rich, you would choose rich. So would I. And so would almost everyone else we can imagine. Having enough money to survive is always better than not having enough. Pretty much everyone chooses prosperity over poverty.

Second, if you have a choice between having enough to eat, more than enough even , enough that you can simply enjoy the pleasures of food. The different tastes and textures. Different foods from around the world. Experimenting with new recipes because you know if it doesn’t turn out there is always more food to eat. Everyone would choose that life over worrying about having enough. Making Mac and Cheese with water, making the milk last by adding water to each cup. And so on. Never risking a new food because you can’t risk wasting even a drop because there is never enough. We all would choose the abundance that allows us to enjoy the pleasure of eating and drinking.

Third, Jesus points to those who laugh, but the connotation is not simply those who are having a good time, but those who laugh at others. Those who look down on and deride other people. The mockers and scorners. We all now that these kinds of people are like and how they work to make us feel small and “less than” in their presence.

I remember 19 years ago now, when Rachel and I were trying to have our first child, we went to a fertility specialist in Denver who was a great doctor and made sure everyone knew it. He also thought Rachel and I were country bumpkins and not very cultured. He made us feel not worthy somehow. And then, one day, on a visit I noticed he had several Herman Miller picnic posters on his wall (apparently they are collectors items). I made a comment about how I remember that picnic and some of our Herman Miller furniture and suddenly his whole attitude toward us changed. We were now good enough for him.

Some people go through life always making sure they are the ones on top. They enjoy making others feel dumb or sheltered, they like to mock those who are different. The revel in their power.

And then Jesus turns to the popularity seekers. Those who will say and do whatever it takes to be accepted and loved by others. Those who choose their friends based on social mobility. And, who would choose popularity over ostracism?

Who wouldn’t choose prosperity, pleasure, power, and popularity if you had the option? The fact that even asking this question seems silly simply demonstrates these are the values of our world. This seems like the way the world naturally is supposed to be. It feels right side up.

It seems silly to even imagine that somehow these things are not good, but in just three verses Jesus curses those who possess each one. These are not the things valued in God’s kingdom.

The Upside Down Kingdom

The values of God’s upside down kingdom are seen in the four blessings.

God blesses those who are poor. And one thing we know abut poor people in our world is that they have no power, no influence. No one truly cares about them. But God longs to bless them and promises the kingdom to them,

He blesses those who are hungry. Those who work and struggle and barely scrape by. Those who go to bed with a grumbling stomach and an empty cupboard. Those are the ones God longs to satisfy.

He blesses those who weep. Those who grieve because they see or have experienced the oppression and violence of those on top in the kingdoms of this word. One day, they will be vindicated and will laugh again.

And we should not forget the blessing for those who are hated, rejected, kicked out and called evil because of Jesus.

And let’s pause here for just a moment. Notice, Jesus doesn’t say we are blessed simply because people hate or reject us, but if those things happen because we follow Jesus. If we are mean, judgmental, angry, and basically a jerk to other people that is not a reason to think we are someone being blessed.

I am reminded, Jesus harshest words were never directed toward irreligious people or those wounded by the religious or those trapped in terrible patterns or sin or even those who worshipped other gods. His harshest words were always directed toward the religious who were busy condemning, excluding, and calling other people evil.

Our interactions should probably be the same. Our default should be kindness and gentle to those who do not yet believe, who haven’t come to know the love and mercy of God. And a humble acknowledgement of all the ways we who follow Jesus have fallen short.

If you co-workers reject you because you keep condemning them in the name of Jesus, that is not what Jesus is talking about. But, if people mock or reject you because you hang out with the unpopular kid at school or love immigrants and refugees. Those are the people Jesus is blessing.

The center of this upside down kingdom is not with the wealthy, powerful, or popular, but with the poor, hungry, grieving outcasts.

The Hope and Call of the Gospel

So what does all of this mean for people like you and me living in the most powerful empire of the last 100 years? Experiencing more prosperity and abundance than almost any generation in history? Most of us living in the middle to upper middle class of that society?

First, if the kingdom of God values the people our world says are on the bottom, we should, too. As an outpost and ambassadors of this kingdom, as a community, as individuals, those who experience rejection and disdain in our world should find acceptance, support, and love among us.

This does not need to be through some sort of radical act, but happens in the ordinariness of life as we look for opportunities to love and care for people. Let me share just three quick examples I saw of this this very week. Monday afternoon, Connie sat with Aye Lwi to go ver the report cards for BahsoGay and Sophie. Aye doesn’t read English very well so Connie spent the time to help her understand how her kids are doing in school. In a world where many refugees experience judgment or rejection, Connie has adopted Aye and her family into hers. She is not “doing ministry,” she is simply loving the people she loves.

And then the next day, a member stopped by church with their friend who has some special needs. they spend a day together every week and have started volunteering at Threads together. Her friend also comes over for supper and watches football games with the family. They are not “doing ministry,” but simply loving someone they have chosen to include in their family. Someone others might be tempted to look right past and not see.

And, I already shared the really cool relationship Patti Grooter has made with a basketball player at Grandville. She and Bern have become the teams biggest cheerleaders because those girls matter and they want them to know it.

None of these relationships will change the geopolitical realities of our world, but all of them bring a bit of the love of the kingdom in our world.

Second, when we follow Jesus, we do not seek things like poverty, hunger, mourning or ostracism, but when they happen, we know God will be with us. We can be content and satisfied because we know our reward in the age to come will far surpass any reward this present age has to offer. So we do not need to make those who reject us pay. We do not need to strive for power in this world to protect our rights or force our way. We can trust in those difficult painful times our God is still with us. It give us strength to persevere even when following Jesus gets costly.

In fact, we should assume following Jesus will at least sometimes cause us to suffer. While some Christians teachers like to emphasize how following Jesus will make your life better and how God longs to cause you to prosper, Jesus tells his disciples to count the cost, to pick up their cross, to take on the position of the lowest of servants. There is a blessing for obedience, but God nowhere promises that blessing to be material in this world. God promises his love and faithfulness and even the power of the Holy Spirit to get us through those hard times. But, we should assume following Jesus will be hard sometimes.

Third, if following Jesus is hard and costly, we cannot do so on our own. We need the power of God in our lives to follow Jesus well. We should not miss what happens right before Jesus begins his sermon. The crowd gathers and “power was coming from him and healing them all.”

There is power in Jesus to give us eyes to see others as he does, to give us the courage to suffer for his kingdom, and the perseverance to endure the hard times that we might run the race all the way to the end.

A the writer of Hebrews says:

The New International Version Chapter 12

let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, 2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3 Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners

In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen.