At the end of the book of Deuteronomy, we find God’s people gathered on the plains of Moab. Before them is the Jordan River, and beyond it lies the Promised Land, the land sworn to their fathers, the land they grew up hearing stories about as they wandered for forty years in the wilderness. This was four decades of learning to live on God’s promises, learning to trust in His provision when all else seemed contrary. He had not failed them. He cared for and protected them, fed them, and guided them, and now, finally, their longed-for hope was right before their eyes. Throughout the book of Deuteronomy, Moses recounted the commands and blessings of God. And with the anticipation of a whole generation of waiting, he says, “I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore, choose life, that you and your offspring may live, loving the Lord your God…” (Deut. 30:19-20).

Life and death, a blessing and a curse, the story of Israel is a narrative of struggling to live as God’s chosen people, to live as His children in the midst of a world that does not and will not understand. The battle is how life is made up of innumerable choices, choices regarding how you conduct yourself and how you understand joy, success, and fulfillment in this life, and the stakes for the Israelites could not have been higher. One choice is the choice of death, and one leads to life, one is to bring a curse, the other a blessing. All people faced with such a decision would certainly choose the blessing and life, but this choice, it turns out, is not always as easy to make as one first thinks. Like most endeavors, it may begin with great clarity and ease, but as the rhythms of life and the trials of our day-to-day existence pile up, we can get turned around and unsure of the right choice, uncertain of who we even are.

Today, we are also considering the beatitudes in Luke’s Gospel. These are not the ones we are used to hearing; those come from Matthew’s account of the Sermon on the Mount. This is a different moment, and it comes with some powerful challenges for the disciples of our Lord. Now, right before this text, Jesus has recently called His disciples and gathered the twelve who would journey with Him, bear witness to His miracles, and listen to His teachings. Along with them come others who are intrigued by what He is doing. So, our Lord, like Moses long ago for the Israelites, sets before them the path. It is a way that deals with the choices we make as we struggle to believe we are who He has said we are.

Luke’s telling of the Beatitudes includes not just blessings, not simply the proclamation of who you are before this world as followers of Christ, but he accompanies it with woes. They are woes to those who have sought another way, a way outside of the Kingdom of God. To say, “This is the way to live,” means those who choose another path, those who reject Christ, are opting for the pathway to death. We should note how those who have come out to our Lord in this text have come to Him “to hear Him and to be healed of their diseases.” His blessings are the blessings of healing, of being made whole.

Jesus looks out at the crowd, eagerly clamoring to be near Him, and says, “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the Kingdom of God. Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you shall be satisfied. Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh.” There is tension and challenge in these words. You can feel it, can you not? You who are poor are blessed, for yours is the Kingdom of God. Just as you are blessed right now, so the Kingdom is yours right now, despite how it might look. Then, it shifts a bit. Blessed are those who are hungry now; blessed are those who weep now, for they will be satisfied and laugh. It is the anticipation of something greater to come. This is our life. We are the children of God under His rule and reign, but we long for the full consummation of His gift, the day beyond the suffering and tears of this age.

Quite often, it does not seem like we are all that blessed. As we await the return of our King, we can easily doubt we remain part of His Kingdom. The temporal issues of our day can wear us down. Financial burdens, family trials, failed attempts at love, the loss of friends, and fears about the future pile up on us. Who are you in all of this? Are you the blessed children of God? Are you among the saints of the Holy One? Or do you feel forgotten, overlooked, an outcast with nothing to show for your commitment, nothing you would hold up as an example of the blessings of your God?

The final beatitude in Luke’s list is quite profound. He says, “Blessed are you when people hate you and when they exclude you, revile you, and spurn your name as evil, on account of the Son of Man! Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in Heaven; for so their fathers did to the prophets.” In the midst of hatred and opposition, you remain blessed. In the midst of the struggles of our day, you remain blessed. In the midst of people who would reject your name, and this is not just any name, this is the name given in the waters of your baptism, the very name of Christ, you remain blessed. You have cause to rejoice and leap for joy. The gifts of Christ anchor you in the realities of the new Heaven and the new Earth. This age, with the temporal praise of men and the image of success, is but a passing shadow compared to the eternal gifts of God.

Those who choose to chase such things and long to find blessing only in the now, only in the praise of man, find themselves under our Lord’s list of woes. Woe to you who are rich. Woe to you who are full now. Woe to you who laugh now. Woe to you when all people speak well of you. Yet, our world would have you choose such a way. It makes sense! Get what you can when you can. Do it now while there is still time. But such a way is to forget who you are. It is to find your worth and identity in the “stuff” of this age. This is the self-righteousness which permeates the very air we breathe. There is no healing here, no blessing.

This is not who you are. You are baptized. You are those clothed with the garments of Jesus Christ. You bear His name and have received eternal blessings. You are on the way of life, the way of blessing that is not bound by the concerns of this world. You gather here around the altar to receive the presence of your King for the forgiveness of your sins. Even now, healing and life flow from Christ to you. This is the life of faith. This is what it is to be blessed by God.