Luke 6:17-26
He came down with them and stood on a level place, with a great crowd of his disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea, Jerusalem, and the coast of Tyre and Sidon. They had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases; and those who were troubled with unclean spirits were cured. And all in the crowd were trying to touch him, for power came out from him and healed all of them.
Then he looked up at his disciples and said: ‘Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. ‘Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be filled. ‘Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh.
‘Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you on account of the Son of Man. Rejoice on that day and leap for joy, for surely your reward is great in heaven; for that is what their ancestors did to the prophets. ‘But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation. ‘Woe to you who are full now, for you will be hungry. ‘Woe to you who are laughing now, for you will mourn and weep.
‘Woe to you when all speak well of you, for that is what their ancestors did to the false prophets.
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When I look back at my life, I notice just how much of a goodie two shows I have been. This was especially the case in school. I was absolutely mortified when I got a detention or two for things that I believe were completely out of my control. I remember we once had a class detention because a few others were messing around. Again, I was mortified. Once I did something on the bus on the way home from school that I shouldn’t have done, and the very next day I ‘fessed up to my school head of year. I remember him applauding me for coming to him and telling him what I had done.
I was always taught, do the right thing, study hard, be diligent and you’ll get to where you think you want to be. And I believed that I truly believed it. I thought, do good things and good things will happen to you, do bad things and bad things happen to you. That is the story, the narrative if you like, I imbibed growing up.
But then the real world hit with the force of a train when I saw that it simply wasn’t the case that if you’re good, then good things happen to you a if you do bad things, bad things happen to you I found it very hard to cope with. The cognitive dissonance it created in my mind was so great that it actually made me ill for a time. I still find it endlessly frustrating.
I remember thinking, where is the justice? Why is it that I’m doing everything right, I’m behaving well and yet those who seem to spend their lives messing around get ‘further ahead’. There’s the adage isn’t there, crime doesn’t pay… well if that were actually true then people wouldn’t do it would they?
Now, this is a personal testimony that illustrates a much bigger problem, and that problem is this; why do bad things happen to good people? Why do good things happen to bad people. This is an age-old question. And it’s an age-old problem. Its especially an age old problem for the Christian because the Christian believes that God is a God of justice, not only is he a God of Justice, but he also brings justice in situations where it is lacking. There is also that narrative that I mentioned above, those who follow God’s ways will be blessed, those who don’t, well, you don’t want to be them. In our reading from Jeremiah this morning we saw this:
“Thus says the Lord:
Cursed are those who trust in mere mortals
and make mere flesh their strength,
whose hearts turn away from the Lord.
They shall be like a shrub in the desert,
and shall not see when relief comes.
They shall live in the parched places of the wilderness,
in an uninhabited salt land.”
In other words, do the wrong thing and bad things happen to you. Now the next few verses
“Blessed are those who trust in the Lord,
whose trust is the Lord.
They shall be like a tree planted by water,
sending out its roots by the stream.
It shall not fear when heat comes,
and its leaves shall stay green;
in the year of drought it is not anxious,
and it does not cease to bear fruit.’
Or in other words, follow God’s commands and good things will happen.
So with this in mind, let’s look at our Gospel reading, The sermon on the plain. It’s Luke’s version of the Sermon on the Mount which I have spoken about before. But unlike Matthew’s account, where there is a long list of ‘blessings’, here we have both ‘blessings’ and ‘woes’.
This though, is something that the Jewish people would have known well, for
the model of blessing and woes Jesus mentions here directly relate to the book of Deuteronomy. Deuteronomy is a account in the Old Testament of the exploits of the tribe of Israel, it’s the last of the ‘books of Moses’ In that book the tribe of Israel are in the wilderness; they are being led by Moses and they have received the law from God and he has made a covenant, a relationship with them. Obey God and keep his commandments and you are a part of his Covenant, disobey God and you are cast out of the covenant. Work hard and do good, and it will go well with you, the land you have will be blessed, crops will grow, your animals will give birth to healthy offspring etc. Do the opposite, and the opposite is the case. Do good, and good things will happen; do bad, and bad things happen. It sounds an awful lot like the narrative I had instilled into me when I was growing up doesn’t it.
But as I have said, when the real-world hits, we realise that it isn’t as simple as that, and it certainly isn’t true day to day we all know, that this isn’t true day to day. Those who lie and connive and steal, in many cases ‘get away with it’. Those who do good, sometimes continue to suffer with no let up. I get so frustrated sometimes at the cognitive dissonance that this creates. We are taught to do good and good things will happen, yet there Is so much evil. But Karma, isn’t a thing, it doesn’t exist. What goes around doesn’t come around. Elsewhere in the book of Jeremiah the oracle exclaims in frustration ‘why do the wicked prosper?’ Jeremiah can’t understand why people do such evil, and it seems that they are not brought to justice.
Justice is a key issue for the Christian. We follow a God of justice. We follow a God who, we are told, brings justice. But if that is the case, then why is there so much evil. This is such an important question. I have had conversations with quite a few people in the last few years for whom this is the sticking point, this is why they won’t believe that God exists.
It's a good question to ask; do we believe God exists when the proverbial hits the fan and life comes crashing down around us? Where is God’s justice in those situations. Is it possible to have faith in those situations? The scriptures are full of examples of people in despair at all the bad things are happening, the psalms in particular. Yet, the people, somehow keep the faith that there is a God, and he is working out his purposes of Justice and peace in the world.
So, point number one from today, don’t feel afraid to express frustration at God for the lack of justice in the world. That anger we feel, it’s a righteous anger. It’s an anger that says ‘this isn’t right and it needs to change.’ And hopefully with God’s grace, it will spur us to action to work for justice where there is none. Give it to God in prayer; he can take whatever anger and frustration we lay at his door.
That’s point one, what’s point two? Point two is this. Every question that we could ever ask God on these matters does a have an answer. But that answer isn’t in the form of a philosophy or an ideal or a concept or anything like that. It is in a person. It is in Jesus.
In Jesus’ famous Nazareth manifesto which you can read about at the beginning of Luke chapter four, the reads in the synagogue from the prophet Isaiah, who says this:
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favour.”
That is a passage that speaks about God’s justice coming to earth. And as I have said in a previous week, Jesus sees that good news fulfilled about brought to fruition in his own person. He is the literal embodiment of the ‘Good News’ that God has sought to bring to humanity. That the poor will be given the kingdom, the hungry will be filled, those who weep will laugh. Jesus came to a world at a time of vast inequality. Much as the world is now, he came to being God’s justice and God’s peace. Jesus says that when the world is acting the way that it is meant to
And there is a warning against complacency, for those who horde wealth for themselves, who laugh without a care for others, and whose bellies are full, for they failed in their task to work for God’s justice in the world. In the gospel passage Jesus is saying, blessed are those who are poor, who are hungry, not because it is virtuous to be that way, but because in his coming, there is the hope of a better tomorrow, a time when God’s justice and peace reigns on the whole earth.
This year the archbishop of Canterbury’s Lent book is called Embracing Justice, its by Isabelle Hamley. This book looks through the scriptures and draws out of them God’s heart for justice, of healing, of hope for all. and I commend it to you as something to read and think about and read and ponder during Lent. We all know, that God’s justice is in the shape of a cross, sacrificial and costly, what does that justice look like in this day and age?
Now, I’m sure that there are many situations in all of our lives where we need God to bring his justice, his mercy and his peace. And if there is a situation in your own lives that need’s God justice, I want to say, pray about it. Ask God for help, ask him to change the situation for the better. I promise that he listens, I promise that he cares, and I promise that he will help you be where you need to be. For in him is the hope of justice for the future. In him all of our hopes are fulfilled.
Amen.
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