Scripture of the Day. February 13, 2022
Luke 6:17-26 The Message (New Revised
Standard Version)
There are two translations here. Without parentheses
is The Message and in parentheses is the New Revised
Standard Version of the Bible.
You’re Blessed
17-21 Coming down off the mountain with them, he
stood on a plain surrounded by disciples, and was
soon joined by a huge congregation from all over
Judea and Jerusalem, even from the seaside towns of
Tyre and Sidon. They had come both to hear him and
to be cured of their diseases. Those disturbed by
evil spirits were healed. Everyone was trying to
touch him—so much energy surging from him, so many
people healed! Then he spoke:
You’re blessed when you’ve lost it all. God’s
kingdom is there for the finding.
(“Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the
kingdom of God.)
You’re blessed when you’re ravenously hungry. Then
you’re ready for the Messianic meal.
(“Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will
be filled.)
You’re blessed when the tears flow freely. Joy comes
with the morning.
(“Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh.)
22-23 “Count yourself blessed every time someone
cuts you down or throws you out, every time someone
smears or blackens your name to discredit me. What
it means is that the truth is too close for comfort
and that that person is uncomfortable. You can be
glad when that happens—skip like a lamb, if you
like!—for even though they don’t like it, I do . . .
and all heaven applauds. And know that you are in
good company; my preachers and witnesses have always
been treated like this.”
(22 “Blessed are you when people hate you, and when
they exclude you, revile you, and defame you on
account of the Son of Man. 23 Rejoice in that day
and leap for joy, for surely your reward is great in
heaven; for that is what their ancestors did to the
prophets.)
Give Away Your Life
24
But it’s trouble ahead if you think you have it
made. What you have is all you’ll ever get.
(“But woe to you who are rich, for you have received
your consolation.)
25
And it’s trouble ahead if you’re satisfied with
yourself. Your self will not satisfy you for long.
(“Woe to you who are full now, for you will be
hungry.)
And it’s trouble ahead if you think life’s all fun
and games. There’s suffering to be met, and you’re
going to meet it.
(“Woe to you who are laughing now, for you will
mourn and weep.)
26 “There’s trouble ahead when you live only for the
approval of others, saying what flatters them, doing
what indulges them. Popularity contests are not
truth contests—look how many scoundrel preachers
were approved by your ancestors! Your task is to be
true, not popular.
(26 “Woe to you when all speak well of you, for that
is what their ancestors did to the false prophets.)
Most of this does not make sense. It’s not how we
were raised. Even if we were raised Christian, it
was Jesus — AFTER the crucifixion, AFTER the grave —
that was emphasized. JESUS VICTORIOUS!!! Jesus
winning the gold medal at the Olympics on Easter
morning — standing on the medal stand with the devil
below him, in second place. Jesus the hero, is who
we proclaim, not Jesus rejected by his own people,
Jesus the arrested criminal.
We call this passage for today Jesus’ Sermon on the
Plain. (Sermon on the Mount in Matthew because Jesus
is standing on a mountain.) Jesus names all these
“terrible” situations and calls them “blessed” — or
happy. What’s going on? He says we are blessed if
we’re poor, if we lose, if we fail, if people beat
us up, if we cry. “Blessed are you!” He says, “when
others hate you for doing the right thing, when you
do God’s will, when you march with Black Lives
Matter, when you march with Martin Luther King.
Blessed are you when you take the side of the
persecuted and oppressed and are punished for it.
Yes — you might not have much support here in this
world for standing with those who are wronged, but
in heaven you are rich.”
The Sermon on the Plain (or Mount) is about living
the religious life — which is built on a foundation
of suffering and the miraculous transformation of
that suffering into a heart of gold and a soul that
is becoming a living, open channel where God’s love
flows freely outward to others.
Jesus is the spiritual alchemist. Instead of turning
lead into gold, he transforms our suffering and pain
into empathy and compassion for all life.
I have a quote from a man, a Quaker, William Hubben,
who wrote in one of his books in 1952 (Dostoevsky,
Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, and Kafka — Four Prophets of
our Destiny), “Men and women evolve. They can never
be a Christian, but only attempt to become one.
Suffering is the element in which that which is
religious begins to breathe. Suffering is,
therefore, the beginning.”
We saw this happen to the Apostle Paul on the road
to Damascus, and after. He was Saul, a terrorist,
and through his suffering and many trials and God’s
grace, he became Paul, a messenger of God’s love.
When this conversion happens to us — when our anger
and impatience and selfishness are gradually
transformed, through our suffering and trials, into
the light of God’s love — Jesus says we are
“Blessed.”