When I was in 5th grade, I was a pretty goofy looking kid. It was my first year of having to wear glasses. I was one of the shortest kids in my class. And after having had the exact same haircut since I was in kindergarten, I decided that year to change it up a little. I was all kinds of awkward. And to top it all off, I’d just moved to a new town and didn’t really know anyone yet. It didn’t take me long though to figure out who the “popular kids” were and that I was definitely not one of them. I remember longing to be more like them, to have a group of friends to hang around with. To be looked up to by the awkward kids like me. To be able to pretty much say or do whatever I wanted with little or no consequence. And, perhaps best of all to my 10 year old mind, to be fawned over by all the best-looking girls. The “popular kid” life looked like heaven to me.

It wasn’t until 6th grade that I realized that most of the “popular kids” were not very nice. I realized that because I had very nearly become one of them. In order to do that, I’d begun swearing and ignoring some of my other friends, who were more on the awkward side of things. But it seemed to be working. The popular kids were talking to me more and picking on me less. The day that I realized I was almost IN with the popular kids was also that day I realized that I didn’t want to be like them. We were at recess and one of the more awkward kids kind of pushed me and I fell on my butt on the asphalt. Immediately, a group of popular boys showed up, helped me up, and asked me what happened. When I told them that the other kid had shoved me. They began to berate him and even threaten him. They pushed him around a bit, and I could see the fear on his face. In that moment, I realized that the clout and the power and even the pretty girls were enough for me to sacrifice my principles. I didn’t like being the reason someone else got bullied and scared and maybe eventually hurt.

In the passage we read this morning from the gospel of Luke, Jesus lists off for his disciples a number of characteristics of those who are blessed by God, and it is not what you might expect. Jesus says that you are blessed if you are poor, if you are hungry, if you are weeping, if you are hated. I wonder if his disciples were like, “You can’t be serious, right? Those are all of the things we don’t want to be. They are the opposite of what we want, actually.” Then Jesus lists the things that are looked down upon by God. He says woe to you who are rich, woe to you who are full, woe to you who are laughing, woe to you when people speak well of you. At this point, I wonder if the disciples were thinking, “But, Jesus, those are the things we most want. We want to be rich. We want to have an abundance of food to eat. We want to laugh and have people speak well of us.” Perhaps they are wondering if it is Opposite Day and no one told them.

And then Jesus says, what I think is perhaps the most controversial part of this teaching. He says, “I say to you that listen, 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.” And then Jesus ends with what has become one of the most quoted proverbs in the entire Bible, what we commonly refer to as the Golden Rule. “Do to others as you would have them do to you.” Looking at what Jesus said right before this, this verse hits a bit differently. It also feels a bit different when reading it in the original Greek. A more direct translation would read, “And as you would want another to do to you, do to them likewise.” If we think about this verse in the context of Jesus’ words just prior, I think it will definitely challenge the way we tend to use that verse.

Thinking about this led me to ask myself the question, “Who do I want to be?” Do I want to be like those Jesus called “blessed” or do I want to be like those that the world calls “blessed?” As Christians, we may think the answer to this is easy. We look at it, and of course we want to be blessed according to Jesus rather than the world. But do we really? Do we want all that comes with that? I’ve been wrestling with these truths all week, and given our current reality in this nation, it feels to me like there are very quickly going to be more poor, more hungry, more people weeping, more people on the end of someone else’s hate. And I began to think about what it would be like to be in that situation and hear someone say, “Blessed are you who are poor.” “Blessed are you who are hungry.” Blessed are you who weep.” “ Blessed are you when people hate you.” Would that be good news?

I don’t know about you, but I don’t think ‘blessed’ would be the first word I’d use to describe myself if I were hated or weeping or hungry or poor. I think I’d feel more negative about my situation. I would probably feel sad or angry or defeated or maybe even rejected by God.

Then I thought about that final phrase of Jesus, “Do to others as you would have them do to you,” and I began to ask, “How are those two things connected?” I started thinking about how I would feel in those situations. How would I want to be treated? I think that many times those who are poor or hungry are looked down on as less than. We’ve seen that a lot in recent weeks as we’ve watched the crisis with SNAP benefits unfold. I’ve seen comments on the internet and heard politicians and news anchors criticize the people relying on SNAP and other government assistance as being lazy or swindlers who are trying to defraud the government. Is that how we would want others to treat us if the situations were reversed? Right now, my dearest friends have taken it upon themselves to collect food at their store and give it out to anyone who comes in and asks for it. And many others are doing the same thing all around the nation. In my mind, those are the people who are doing to others as they would have others do to them.

Those popular kids back in high school were cool and generally good-looking and often very athletic. But a lot of times they were not very kind. After my choice to not pursue being part of that crowd, I became one of the recipients of that unkind behavior. I was pushed in a puddle and tackled into a bush, among other things. That’s not to mention the verbal abuse: being called names, made fun of, and belittled. The worst part is that so many others were treated even worse. And why? It wasn’t because that’s how they would have wanted to be treated. It was because they had power and could do those things without consequence (or at least with very little consequence). Isn’t that often how power works? Power corrupts and makes us feel like other people don’t matter as long as we get what we want.

I think that is what Jesus is getting at with his list of woes in our passage for this morning. Jesus says, “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 how their ancestors treated the false prophets.” The rich, the full, the laughing, the popular. Each of these are signs of power and abundance. The rich have an abundance of money, and wealth brings power because the wealthy can use their money for leverage to get what they want. That’s not to say that all wealthy people are that way, but over time wealth has a way of corrupting people so the danger is always there. And the wealthier we are, the more difficult it becomes to avoid being taken in by the allure of the power it commands. Those who are full now, those who are satisfied fully, they do not want for anything. They do not understand what hunger is like. I feel this in some ways for myself. I will often say that I am hungry, when really I’m just bored or craving something. It is never due to a lack of food in my cupboards. When we are full all the time, it becomes easy to take it for granted and forget that others aren’t so lucky.

The next woe talks about “those who are laughing now.” When I thought about this line, I thought about Jonah sitting under the tree and watching to see Ninevah destroyed. It was joyful for him to think about the destruction of his enemies. They deserved to die, he thought. And when God spared them, Jonah was furious. He couldn’t understand God’s compassion for these people who he thought were terrible. Are there people whose destruction you would laugh about? Laughing at another’s pain, no matter who that person is, is not the way of God. God showed compassion time and time again on the people who we deemed the worst of the worst. And here Jesus says, “Woe to those who are laughing now, for [they] will weep and mourn.”

And Jesus ends with, “Woe to you when all speak well of you, for that is how their ancestors treated the false prophets.” Those popular kids in middle and high school were looked up to. They were thought to be better than other people. And often, those who spoke badly about any of them paid a price for that and were then less likely to do it again in the future. Popularity, an abundance of adulation will give someone a big head and that confidence will often lead to selfishness and greed. It’s this confidence and greed that lead to the rise of false prophets. False prophets don’t care about truth or helping others or doing the right thing. They care about themselves, and they keep people around themselves who will feed their egos.

So what is the good news here? I believe that the good news is that God is working to rebalance things. God sent Jesus to the world to lift up the lowly: to care for the poor, to feed the hungry, to comfort the grieving, and to show us our true worth as children of God. The riches of this world don’t last. They may satisfy us in the moment, but they always leave us wanting more. God offers a more enduring hope, a love that is steadfast and true, and a reality where suffering is transformed into strength and joy. That is the good news of the gospel for us. And that is the good news that we are called to share with others through our words and our actions. Amen.