Blessings and Curses
Luke 6:17-26 2/11/01
Pastor Beth

Life is all about choices. Every day we are faced with hundreds of choices, though most of them we make with little or no thought: What do I want for lunch?, what will I wear?, will I work on schoolwork, a sermon, go visiting or take the day off? Some choices are more important than others: Will I have the surgery? Will I take the job? Should I marry Bob?

Some people make impressive choices. You may have heard of Miss Oseola McCarty, a black woman from Mississippi who made a small living by doing other people’s laundry. Miss McCarty scrimped and saved all her life to provide a scholarship of $300,00 to the local black college just because she wanted to help someone. That $300,00 wasn’t the largest gift ever given, but it represented a lifetime of decisions to get by on less so someone else could benefit.

Another impressive choice was made by a man named Aaron Reuerstein, the owner of the Malden Mills factory in Lowell, Massachusetts. The factory burned during the Christmas season of 1995, but Mr. Feuerstein was concerned about his employees, so he continued to pay their salaries and benefits while his new factory was being built, then put them back to work. It was the right choice, too, as evidenced by a 25% improvement in productivity and a 66% drop in quality defects!

Both of those choices were motivated by love, but Jesus said, “No greater love has man than to lay down his life for his friends.” On October 1, 2000, doctors at the University of Maryland Hospital removed one of Pastor Alvin Dickerson’s kidneys and transplanted it into his good friend, Carol Myers. Carol, a 60 year old speech teacher at a local high school was close to being put on dialysis before the operation, but now has a kidney that is functioning normally. And Pastor Dickerson, who is 36 years old, has a reminder of his faith in God and his love for his friend. Pastor Dickerson didn’t die for his friend, but he was willing to risk death to save her life.

As wonderful as these decisions were, they are not the most important decisions in life. The most important decision, of course, is whether or not to accept Jesus’ offer of life with God. This has been the most important decision a person will make since the creation of humanity. Before Moses died, he challenged the Israelites with these words, “Today I have given you the choice between life and death, between blessings and curses. I call on heaven and earth to witness the choice you make. Oh, that you would choose life, that you and your descendants might live.! Choose to love the Lord your God and to obey Him and commit yourself to Him, for He is your life.”

Shortly before Joshua died, he reminded the people all that God had done for them, then said, “So honor the Lord and serve Him wholeheartedly. Put away forever the idols your ancestors woshiped when they lived beyond the Euphrates River and in Egypt. Serve the Lord alone. But if you are unwilling to serve the Lord, then choose today whom you will serve. Would you prefer the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates? Or will it be the gods of the Amorites in whose land you now live? But as for me and my family, we will serve the Lord.”

One of the interesting things I noticed while studying this week is that we don’t choose whether or not God will love us. He already made that decision before He created us. He does love us and will always love us, no matter what we do, even if it includes turning our backs on Him, He still loves us.

We also don’t get to choose whether or not Jesus Christ will shed His blood on a cross to forgive us for our sins. It’s already been done. It’s a fact of history and can’t be undone. Even if we are one of the ultraliberal religious folk who say, “We don’t need the atonement. Blood dripping from a cross is unnecessary.” Jesus still died for us and it can’t be changed, no matter what we think about it.

What we do get to choose is whether or not we will receive the benefit of Jesus’ death into our own lives. Will we receive the forgiveness, the new life, the love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control, that God offers us through Jesus? That’s the choice each of us is faced with, and that’s sort of what Jesus is teaching about in our Scripture today. He’s not talking so much about making the choice as the results of the choices we have made.

Read Luke 6:17-26

Jesus has just come down from the heights of a mountain where He spent the night in prayer. At daybreak, He called together all those who claimed to be His disciples and chose twelve of them to be His apostles. Then they all went down the mountain to “a level place,” where there was a crowd of people waiting for Him. Jesus went to where the people were, and He met them right where they were, spiritually as well as physically.

So Jesus is surrounded by three types of people: His inner circle of twelve, others who have chosen to be His disciples, and people who have heard about Him but have not yet made a decision about Him. There may have been some Gentiles in the crowd, since the text says some came from the areas of Tyre and Sidon. There may have even been some Pharisees who were hostile to Jesus in the crowd. He had already had a run-in with some Pharisees who didn’t think Jesus should break off heads of grain to eat or heal on the Sabbath.

This was a very diverse group surrounding Jesus and they came for a diversity of reasons: some wanted to hear Him, some wanted to be healed, and others wanted to be delivered of evil spirits, but all wanted to touch Him.

Have you noticed how people want to touch someone famous? Whenever movie stars or famous musicians or politicians are out in public, they have to have bodyguards because everyone wants to touch them. It’s like the people think some of the other person’s qualities will rub off on them if they touch them. It’s almost like the ancient beliefs of the native Americans that eating the heart of an animal will give them the animal’s wisdom and strength.

People wanted to touch Jesus because they wanted what He had. And power went out from Him and healed them all. You can imagine a crowd of people who are sick and demon possessed would not be the quietest crowd around. There would have been coughing, crying, screaming, writhing, convulsions, fainting; all sorts of manifestations being exhibited. But once Jesus healed them, having relieved their distress and discomfort, He had an opportunity to teach.

I don’t know if His message was just for the disciples; all of His disciples, not just the 12; though the text says that He lifted up His eyes on His disciples as He began to talk. I think it was mainly for the disciples, but I think He wanted the rest of the crowd to eavesdrop on what He was saying because it was important for them to hear, too.

You know, one of the attributes of Jesus that Luke focuses on is His compassion. I think that’s what drew Luke to Jesus. Luke was a physician and physicians are usually characterized by compassion, at least initially. Sometimes they get hardened or burned out and are not so compassionate any more, but generally I think those who become doctors are motivated by compassion and a desire to help people. Luke saw that characteristic in Jesus, and He was drawn to it and intrigued by it and wanted other people to see it as well.

As Jesus looked at the multitude surrounding Him, I think He was filled with compassion for them; for all of them, the rich as well as the poor. At first glance, it sounds like He’s chastising the rich, but I think He is warning them from a heart of compassion; a heart that wants the best for them. So, He walks among them and, I imagine that He touches them gently and looks into their eyes as He says, “Bless you, you who are poor. …Bless you, as you hunger. …Bless you, as you weep. …Oh, bless you; you are hated and excluded and mocked and cursed because you identified with me. …Bless you. Let me reassure you; the Kingdom of God is for you, and you will be satisfied, and the time will come when you will laugh with joy! You’re not the first people who have been treated this way, and you won’t be the last, but a great reward is waiting for you in heaven, so rejoice! If you aren’t satisfied on earth, you will be in heaven, but you will surely receive your reward.”

I imagine that some of the crowd was laughing and scoffing as Jesus said these things. After all, they thought that wealth meant that God was blessing them and poverty meant God’s punishment. Who was this nut who was saying just the opposite of what they believed to be the truth?! Only the rich would have laughed at that, though; the poor would have received it like water after a walk in the desert. It would have been food for their souls and they would have received it eagerly.

The text doesn’t say so, but I imagine that Jesus turned to those in the crowd who had been laughing as He blessed the poor. And with the same compassion and love in His eyes, I believe He touched them as He said, “What sorrows await you who are rich, for you have your only happiness now. What sorrows await you who are satisfied and prosperous now, for a time of hunger is before you all. What sorrows await you who laugh carelessly, for your laughing will turn to mourning and sorrow. What sorrows await you who are praised by the crowds, for their ancestors also praised false prophets.”

Jesus wasn’t condemning the rich; the word translated “woe” is an expression of grief. He grieved over their status, so He was warning them, encouraging them to change before it was too late. And their being rich wasn’t the problem; it was their attitude; it was thinking that they had an “in” with God simply because they were rich. He wanted them to think differently; to think like God.

In the culture of Jesus’ day, it was thought that there was a limited supply of everything: grain, livestock, love, honor, friendship, reputation, power. Everything was distributed as God saw fit and if you didn’t have it, that was because God didn’t want you to have it, because you didn’t deserve it. He gave more to those who were worthy and less to those who weren’t. Therefore, you could see exactly where God’s favor rested by seeing who had more stuff.

Jesus wanted the people to realize that there was enough of everything for everybody. God has enough love for everybody, enough grace for everybody, enough compassion for everybody. And if the people who have more grain will share with those who have less, there will be enough. If those who have more power will share with those who have less, everyone will feel valued and have input into decisions made for the community.

I have heard it said many times that there is enough food in the world for everyone to have enough to eat, but there are people starving to death under our noses. What does this Scripture tell us about that? It tells us we should see those who don’t have enough, give to those who don’t have enough, love those who don’t have enough, heal the hurts of those who don’t have enough. That’s what Jesus would do.

Life is all about our choices…what choice will we make? What will we do?