Preaching Paths 16 February 2025, 6th Epiphany Yr C

Sally A. Brown, Professor Emerita, Princeton Theological Seminary

Today’s gospel reading (Luke 6:17-26), the opening scene of Jesus’ “Sermon on the Plain,” includes beatitudes similar to those that open Matthew’s “Sermon on the Mount” (Mt 5:1-11). Yet, these texts are markedly different. In Matthew, Jesus’ beatitudes are in the third person plural, addressed to his disciples, but also others. Luke’s Jesus uses the second person plural, focusing on his disciples.

Careful reading reveals other differences. First, in Luke, Jesus pronounces just four blessings as compared with Matthew’s nine. Second, the four of the blessings in Matthew that have a counterpart in Luke have been modified; they refer to material rather than spiritual conditions. Mt’s “poor in spirit” becomes simply “poor” in Luke (Mt 5:3, Lk 6 20b); Mt’s “hunger and thirst for righteousness” becomes “you who are hungry now” (Mt 5:6; Lk 6:21). Finally, and most strikingly, each of Luke’s four beatitudes is balanced by a corresponding warning that begins “Woe …” (derived from the vocalization of grief or despair, “ouai”). Luke’s Jesus offers no blessing to disciples who are already blessed: well-off, well-fed, cheerful, and well-regarded. To them, he offers warnings.

How a preacher approaches this week’s sermon will depend greatly on who shall be looking back at him or her from the pews. In parts of the world where Christians are an impoverished, at-risk minority, or where ethnicity or immigrant status leaves Christians struggling economically and politically for sheer survival, this text’s message is a healing balm and sustaining hope. But for Christian congregations in prosperous parts of North America, Europe, Asia, Africa and elsewhere, this text grates on the ear like an alarm bell shrieking on the far side of a wall. It disrupts the soothing soundtrack of prosperity, with its timely market updates and glamorous commercials for every imaginable luxury. It won’t do to spiritualize Jesus’ Lukan beatitudes; we cannot erase the line Jesus draws between those who live hand to mouth and those who go to church to thank God they don’t.

Is there any good news to be found here for the well-off? The honest answer is no, not immediately. Luke is counting on us to read further. Yes, we shall meet a rich man whose soul is “required of him” just as he is sketching blueprints for a larger barn (12:16-21), and a would-be disciple whose wealth prevents him from following (18:18-25). In Luke’s second volume, the Acts of the Apostles, we shall learn of Ananias and Sapphira, who pay dearly when they pretend to turn over the full value of a property sale to the common purse of the (largely poor) Christian community (Acts 5:1-11). But we shall also learn of prosperous women who support Jesus and his disciples (8:2-3), and we shall meet Zacchaeus of Jericho, converted to a life of generosity when he welcomes the reign of God (19:1-10).

Luke’s point is not that prosperity is bad, but that the eschatological renewal of all things—the age of “good news for the poor” that Jesus has announced (Lk 4:14-21)—has profound economic ramifications. Jesus may be seeking here to dislodge the blithe confidence of his more prosperous followers that wealth will somehow protect them in Israel’s increasingly unstable future. The good news is here, if they (and we) are willing to embrace it: we’re invited to forsake our anxious hoarding and join the poor on the level plain of the reign of God, where the prosperity of the few can become sufficiency for many. Markets quake, tyrants swagger; but we need not live in dread of what is to come, for ultimately, our future is in the best of hands—the trustworthy hands of a generous God.