Andrew DeCort is a professor of Christian ethics… 

at what many would consider a fairly conservative theological college in the United States.

He was invited to the recent “National Prayer Breakfast” in Washington DC…

and to speak at the Middle East Dinner that evening.

He found the Prayer Breakfast frustrating…

where “Jesus” was mentioned infrequently…

and the event was infused with a “deeply nationalist American Christianity”.

So, he completely rewrote his speech for the dinner that evening…

“to talk about the Jesus we hadn’t heard about yet at this National Prayer gathering”.

Many of Middle Eastern origin who attended that dinner thanked him afterwards…

because his words had been like a “healing balm”.

But the next day he was approached by a white American who was angered by the address…

complaining that DeCort hadn’t spoken about Jesus…

or the significance of his death…

let along the Beatitudes.

And yet, DeCort had concluded his speech with this:

“It seems to me that many of us are addicted to the deep fake Jesus, the Jesus who dies for our sins and says, ‘Blessed are the peacemakers’ but leaves our nationalism, supremacist politics, and genocidal violence untouched…I believe we need Jesus now more than ever. But we need the Jesus we haven’t heard much about at this gathering. We need the integrated survivor of trauma, the lover of the dehumanized and genocided, the anti-nationalist prophet, the public critic of predatory power, the pioneer of nonviolence, and the executed criminal who incarnates the unkillable love of God for all people”.

 

As Andrew DeCort rightly points out…

he did, indeed, speak about Jesus…

his death…

and made use of the Beatitudes in doing so…

but the angry white American didn’t hear or recognise his words as such.

Perhaps more than at any other time in our lifetimes…

a battle is raging over how we define our values…

as a national community…

and as church…

namely, what do we consider important,

what do we admire,

what do we strive for,

what do we expect of each other,

what defines who we are, and who we want to be as a community.

And— 

as the church has long recognised— 

the words of Jesus that we know as the Beatitudes 

play a central role in defining our values as the People of God.

But we cannot really comprehend what they are…

or what they might be…

if we do not understand these words as they would have been heard by their intended hearers.

 

The first-century Mediterranean was a world where the gulf between the haves and have-nots was enormous;

a world where about two percent of the population controlled about ninety percent of the land and wealth;

a world where the average person farmed just a few acres of land…

hoping to produce enough to feed their families…

with the notion of making any real profit almost unimaginable.

In bad years, they would have to borrow from the “haves”…

with loan repayments adding a significant burden…

such that many defaulted…

lost their land…

became tenants or were forced to move to the city and ply a trade.

It was a world where there was no social security safety net at all—

and people relied upon their relatives to help them out if they were in trouble.

As a result, someone only became “poor” when they suffered severe misfortune—

when they lost their land or became incapacitated…

and they lacked an extended family network to rely upon…

making begging the only option.

Such a scenario left them utterly defenceless…

utterly powerless…

and utterly alone.

So, it made sense…

in such a context…

to think that being “poor” was a sign of being cursed—

as though you were being punished by God.

To be poor was to be without honour—

to lose face…

to be without standing or esteem in the community.

It placed you on the margins of society.

It made you the object of contempt and derision, not pity.

But that could also happen, for example, if you were disowned by your family;

if you were unable or unwilling to defend your honour from slights and challenges;

or, simply, if you didn’t fit in—

if you didn’t measure up to the community’s standards…

if you didn’t abide by the norms and expectations of their culture.

 

Into that context, that world, and that worldview…

the Historical Jesus spoke a word of hope.

In what is probably the more original form of his words—

compared to the better-known version from Matthew’s Gospel—

the author of Luke’s Gospel has Jesus declare:

“Blessed are you who are poor…blessed are you who are hungry…blessed are you who weep…blessed are you when people hate and when they exclude you…on my account”.

The author presents Jesus inverting the normal cultural expectations—

about what was right and proper;

about what was to be valued and admired.

He was inverting the way that they had been brought up to view other people and their world.

He presents a Jesus who proclaims that those who are despised and denigrated…

those who are feared and ridiculed…

those who are oppressed and excluded by their society…

are, in fact, valued, welcomed, and favoured by God;

they belong to God’s family.

In other words, the author presents Jesus staking a claim to a very different way of understanding society…

and a very different way of understanding God.

He was asserting that God doesn’t judge or value people according to our culture-bound expectations.

Rather, God sees people differently;

and God has a very different set of values.

And he was inviting us to change… 

radically… 

in the way that we see, and think, and value…

and, thus, in the way that we shape community.

Jesus—

and the author of Luke’s Gospel— 

proclaimed that God values those whom our society devalues;

that God welcomes those whom our society shuns;

that God embraces those whom our society excludes.

And that is as true now as it was then.

 

So today…

in a society that stereotypes and denigrates people of certain ethnic backgrounds…

God says:

“Blessed are those of every culture…

who enrich our lives and teach us to be tolerant,

you belong to God’s family.

In a society that pillories those forced to rely upon welfare…

or treats asylum seekers…

Indigenous peoples…

and those with disabilities…

as lesser humans…

God says:

“Blessed are those consigned to society’s scrap heap,

and made to feel worthless…

you are loved and valued by God”.

In a world that continues to treat LGBTQI+ people as deviants,

and denies them the same rights as straight people…

God says:

“Blessed are those who are queer…

you are made in God’s image and are precious in God’s sight”.

In a society that discriminates in favour of the young,

and shunts away the old and frail out of sight…

God says:

“Blessed are the elderly…

who have faithfully contributed to society for many years… 

you are honoured and respected by God”.

And, to a church, struggling to discover its relevance, 

in a society that seems to get along fine without it…

God says:

“Blessed are you who struggle with issues of faith in the modern world.

In valuing, welcoming, and loving as I do…

you will never be irrelevant”.