What Jesus Did NOT Say (All Saints Sunday)

Sermon Reflections

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The Beatitudes are perhaps some of the best-known things that Jesus said.  Even folks who aren’t Christian have heard them, and they often give us nice, warm fuzzy feelings that people who are poor, downtrodden or oppressed will be blest.

Both Luke and Matthew record these words of Jesus, and each has recorded them in a slightly different way.  Perhaps most striking is that Luke includes Jesus listing a bunch of “woes” after the “blests”, as perhaps a reminder to those who are inflicting pain and agony upon others.

But because these words of Jesus are so well known, we may tend to simply listen to them as nice, pious words – and perhaps today especially – remember those we loved who have gone before us and perhaps suffered on behalf of others to share God’s love with us and with the world around us.

And that’s perfectly appropriate.  But whenever I read the beatitudes, I think it’s also important to remember what Jesus did NOT say, either in Luke or Matthew.

For example, Jesus does not say “blessed are the poor, the hungry and the excluded” because:

  • “I know that if you just work smarter or harder, you’ll be able to get yourself out of this mess.” Surely, there were a lot of people in Jesus’ day who thought that.  Pharisees, for example, routinely believed that suffering was the result of not living righteously enough, and so poverty and exclusion were often thought to be the result of moral failures, which you could solve by working harder at it;
  • “All of your problems will go away if you organize yourselves to defeat the Romans!”  Also, there were lots of people in Jesus’ day whose Messianic expectations were that God would send a mighty warrior who would defeat the folks who were oppressing Israel, and then a new golden age would begin;
  • “Human progress is inevitably moving towards greater and greater justice and equality.”  It’s true that the prophets always called people to justice and righteousness, but none of those prophets ever believed that people could do it on their own.  Yet there were still lots of people who believed they could. And Jesus doesn’t say that the prophets were wrong about this;

And so it’s sort of amazing that the beatitudes are remembered, because they didn’t tell many people what they wanted to hear.  Many of those folks didn’t want to have a reward in heaven.  They wanted it right now. Many of those folks wanted to take matters into their own hands.  And many assumed that with maybe just a little help from God, they could make this world into the kingdom of God on earth.

But the beatitudes are finally not about us or our hard work or our righteousness.  They’re about radically trusting God even and especially when things are falling apart around us.  They’re about faithfully doing the things God calls us to do even when it gets us mocked, and especially when it doesn’t seem to be doing any good.  And the beatitudes are finally about focusing on God’s promises instead of on our own abilities to make things better.

And so it’s also important for us – not just ancient folks – to remember what Jesus did NOT say in these beatitudes.  To us, also, Jesus does not say “blest are you because”:

  • “I’m sure if you work smarter or harder you can fix these things” – it’s true that in our modern age, we’ve used the gifts God has given us to do remarkable things that were never dreamed of even a hundred years ago.  And yet, sometimes that sows the seeds of believing that we can fix everything if we just work harder or smarter.  Sometimes, it’s even part of fundraising, where we’re told that we can “end world hunger” or “achieve world peace” if we just give or try a little harder.  And of course, we should try and we should give (often more than we do!), but the promise of the beatitudes is that God can and will fix the things we can’t.  And living in that promise can give you hope and strength to keep on working for peace and justice, even when others would give up…
  • “If you organize yourselves well enough, all your problems will go away if you defeat the ‘Romans’ in the next election!” – whoever the ‘Romans’ are depending upon your political persuasion! Especially as we soon move into a mid-term election year, we’re going to hear both sides tell us that the Apocalypse will happen if ‘our side’ doesn’t keep or win-back some office.  And of course, elections matter.  But when we start to believe that our politics will save us or condemn us – and are the most important thing in our lives – then we end up in the same place as some of those folks who could only see God’s messiah if it involved a revolt against the Romans.  Apocalypse, by the way, in the New Testament, is about God’s victory over evil and death, not about one group of people destroying another…
  • “Human progress is inevitably moving towards utopia” – but we’d love to think that. Star Trek told us that by the 23rd century at the latest there would be no more hunger, poverty, racism or disease!  It would be great!  But that’s science fiction, not the beatitudes.  Rather, Jesus calls us to be people who live as God’s children precisely because human progress isn’t doing it for us!  And so in the end, Jesus calls us to so trust in God’s redemption of our lives that we’re willing to “bless those who curse us” and “pray for those who abuse us.”  It’s a radically different “algorithm” for looking at others than the ones we experience online which prompt us towards outrage and hate… (in one sense, the beatitudes are about a different “algorithm” for seeing others, especially those we may not be inclined to like…)

In the end, the beatitudes don’t tell most people what they want to hear.  And honestly, thinking that you’re blest if you’re poor or hungry or beaten up is completely ridiculous – except that these words were spoken by the One who died and rose again.

Jesus didn’t just say the beatitudes, he lived them.  He loved those who hated him.  He prayed for and forgave those who crucified him.  And he rose from the dead to show us that God’s seemingly impossible blessings are true and that not even death can take them away from us.

And that’s why the beatitudes are important for us.  They’re important because they’re about God’s love and grace no matter what’s happening now in our lives.  They’re about so trusting in that love and grace that we can go on even when things are horrible around us.  And they’re about following Jesus in ways that allow us to give up on ourselves so that we can live more fully into the kingdom of God right now.

Amen.