Luke 6:17-26
6th
Sunday in Ordinary Time
by Melanie Patterson
This week’s Gospel passage comes from Luke 6. It is situated towards the beginning of Jesus public ministry, shortly after he chooses the Twelve. Just before he begins to teach Jesus has been curing the sick and casting out evil spirits. In Lukes Gospel we have been told that Jesus taught the crowds, but this is the first time that Luke tells us at length what Jesus taught.
‘Blessed are you who are poor…’ This week I would like to explore what Jesus means by blessing those who are poor. In Luke 6, this is definitely portrayed as a blessing, ‘Jesus lifted up his eyes on his disciples and said, ‘Blessed are you who are poor’. He does not seem to be exhorting them to be poor, but rather is looking at them, claiming that they are blessed and challenging them to re-interpret their poverty. This would be considered quite strange today, and probably was 2000 years ago as well. After all everyone wants to be rich! So, can we think of anything good about poverty? It should be noted that the disciples of Jesus are poor, not destitute.
Well, here are some personal thoughts. First, accepting poverty as a blessing frees me from the need to be successful and to have an important job: it frees me from a lot of anxiety and stress. Second, accepting poverty as a blessing just saves a lot of time: I don’t usually need to spend a lot of time looking after my possessions or going shopping to acquire a lot more possessions. Having just bought a house, I have discovered how much time and energy this takes up: fortunately it is a small house. But I am already less free than I was when I rented. Third, I think that there is more joy and appreciation of life when we don’t have too much. I can’t really prove this, but it is my experience. Fourth, the accumulation of possessions and money is very much a competitive and imitative thing: choosing poverty means that I choose not to compete in a race which only a few can win. Somehow losing is not humiliating if it is deliberately chosen!
I recently read a piece on Substack called ‘The curse of excess money’ by Hadden Turner. He writes about Steinbecks short novel ‘The Pearl’ and how the discovery of a hugely valuable pearl destroys the life of the man who finds it. It’s a story, but it rings true.
When we don’t have a lot of wealth, we need each other more. Actually, no matter how wealthy we are, we are all interdependent, but somehow wealth gives the illusion of being in control. But we are all dependent on the farmers who grow our food, the workers who produce electricity, who keep sewage works going, who mend roads, who work in supermarkets. None of us can do everything, and contemporary life is a huge web of interdependence.
This is not to sentimentalise poverty, just to try to balance out the tendency of our society to sentimentalise wealth.
On top of all this, we have the problem of the destruction of the natural world which is being rapidly brought about by capitalism and the industrialised nations.
So is poverty a blessing? Yes, on this one I agree with Jesus. I’m not so sure about being hungry, weeping and being hated… But even so, when I read this passage, I feel that it puts me in touch with a more genuine value system, a more blessed way of being human, a truly happier life.
Questions
- What are your first impressions?How do you feel about poverty? If you made a list of ‘Blesseds’ what would they be? There are a lot of other things in this passage which I haven’t commented on. Would you like to comment on something different? What do you think the kingdom of heaven is?