Blessed Are You

---

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. “But I say to you who are listening: Love your enemies; do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also, and from anyone who takes away your coat do not withhold even your shirt. Give to everyone who begs from you, and if anyone takes away your goods, do not ask for them again. Do to others as you would have them do to you.” 
​Luke 6:20–31 NRSVUE

Picture this: You're standing on a hillside, dust on your sandals, sun beating down, and Jesus looks directly at you—not past you, not through you, but at you. Then he begins to speak. What he says next will turn everything you thought you knew about success, happiness, and the good life completely upside down."Blessed are you who are poor." Wait, what? Blessed are the poor? That's not what we've been taught. We've been told that blessing looks like a full bank account, a comfortable retirement, and security for our children. But Jesus says, "Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God."This is the upside-down kingdom and Jesus wastes no time inviting us in.Jesus doesn't ease us into this teaching. He doesn't offer a gentle introduction or a carefully worded disclaimer. He simply looks at his disciples, people who had left everything to follow him, people who knew what it meant to be hungry, excluded, and reviled and he tells them the truth about God's kingdom."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 exclude you."These aren't hypothetical situations. Jesus is speaking to real people who are experiencing real pain, real hunger, and real rejection. And he's telling them that their current suffering doesn't disqualify them from God's blessing; it positions them to receive it.But here's what we need to understand: Jesus isn't romanticizing poverty or suffering. He's not saying, "Stay poor! Stay hungry! Keep weeping!" He's revealing a fundamental truth about the kingdom of God: it belongs to those who know they need it.The poor know they need provision. The hungry know they need sustenance. Those who weep know they need comfort. They're not pretending to have it all together. They're not building kingdoms of their own that compete with God's kingdom. They're empty-handed and open-hearted, and that's exactly the posture required to receive what God offers.Now, here's the hard part words we might want to ignore in our comfortable, well-fed, air-conditioned sanctuaries."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."These words make us squirm, don't they? Because if we're honest, most of us sitting here today are rich by global standards. We're full. We're comfortable. We have more than we need.Jesus isn't condemning wealth itself, he's warning against the false security it provides. When we're rich, we think we don't need God's kingdom because we've built our own. When we're full, we forget what it means to hunger for righteousness. When everything is going well, we stop looking for God's comfort because we've found comfort in our circumstances.The danger isn't in having resources. The danger is in believing those resources make us self-sufficient. The danger is in thinking we've arrived, that we've made it, that we no longer need what God offers because we've got everything under control."Woe to you when all speak well of you, for that is what their ancestors did to the false prophets."Ouch. This one cuts deep. Because we want to be liked, don't we? We want approval. We want everyone to speak well of us. But Jesus reminds us that the false prophets were popular because they told people what they wanted to hear. The true prophets? They were hated, excluded, reviled, and defamed just like Jesus said his followers would be.Just when we think Jesus can't possibly ask more of us, he does."Love your enemies. Do good to those who hate you. Bless those who curse you. Pray for those who abuse you."This isn't advice on how to get along with difficult coworkers or annoying neighbors. Jesus is talking about enemies people who actively hate you, curse you, abuse you, take from you. And his command is clear: love them anyway."If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also."This isn't about being a doormat or enabling abuse. It's about refusing to let violence and hatred dictate your response. It's about breaking the cycle of retaliation. It's about embodying a different kind of power the power of sacrificial love that absorbs evil rather than returning it."Give to everyone who begs from you, and if anyone takes away your goods, do not ask for them again."Jesus is calling us to radical generosity, the kind that doesn't calculate or keep score. The kind that gives without expecting a return. The kind that trusts God's provision more than our own ability to protect what we have.Then he gives us the golden rule, but not in the sanitized version we learned in Sunday school: "Do to others as you would have them do to you."This isn't just about being nice. It's about actively, intentionally, sacrificially treating others with the dignity, respect, generosity, and love that we ourselves desire meven when they don't deserve it, even when they won't reciprocate, even when it costs us everything.So what do we do with this? How do we live in this upside-down kingdom while still existing in a right-side-up world?First, we acknowledge our poverty. Not just financial poverty, but spiritual poverty. We admit that we need God's kingdom more than we need our comfort, our security, or our reputation. We come empty-handed, recognizing that everything we have is a gift, not an achievement.Second, we examine our consolations. What are we trusting in besides God? Where have we found false security? What would it look like to hold our resources, our comfort, our success with open hands, ready to release them if God calls us to something different?Third, we practice enemy love in the small moments. We start with the person who cut us off in traffic, the family member who always pushes our buttons, the coworker who takes credit for our work. We bless instead of curse. We pray instead of gossip. We give instead of withholding.Here's the truth: this upside-down kingdom isn't just about the future. It's about right now. It's about how we live today, in this moment, in this world that desperately needs to see what the kingdom of God looks like in flesh and blood.Jesus looked at his disciples on that hillside and told them the truth: following him would cost them everything. They would be poor, hungry, weeping, hated, excluded, reviled, and defamed. They would have to love their enemies, give to those who took from them, and refuse to retaliate when struck.You know what? They did it. Those first disciples turned the world upside down or maybe they turned it right-side up by living out this impossible teaching. They loved their enemies. They blessed those who cursed them. They gave generously. They absorbed violence without returning it. And the world noticed.The question for us today is simple: Will we do the same?Will we trust that God's kingdom is worth more than our comfort? Will we believe that blessing comes not from what we accumulate but from what we surrender? Will we love our enemies, not because it's easy or because they deserve it, but because that's what citizens of the upside-down kingdom do?Jesus is still looking at his disciples at us and inviting us into this radical way of life. The kingdom of God is still available to the poor in spirit, the hungry for righteousness, those who weep over the brokenness of the world.The question is: Are we ready to turn our world upside down?Amen.