Voiceover Voice:
Is it good to be poor? Is it good to be mourning?

Helena Martin:
This is Chapter, Verse, and Season: a lectionary podcast from Yale Bible Study. I’m Helena Martin, Yale Divinity School student and Episcopal priest. Welcome back!

Every Monday, we put you in the room with two of our faculty from Yale Divinity School and let you listen in while they discuss a text from the coming Sunday’s Revised Common Lectionary.

This episode, we have Felicity Harley-McGowan, Research Associate and Lecturer, and Bruce Gordon, Titus Street Professor of Ecclesiastical History. They’re discussing Luke 6:17-26 which is appointed for Sunday, February 13, the Sixth Sunday after the Epiphany.

The text is read for you by student Julian Sieber.

Julian Sieber:
Luke 6:17-26.

Jesus came down with them and stood on a level place, with a great crowd of his disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea, Jerusalem, and the coast of Tyre and Sidon. They had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases; and those who were troubled with unclean spirits were cured. And all in the crowd were trying to touch him, for power came out from him and healed all of them.

Then he looked up at his disciples and said:
“Blessed are you who are poor,
for yours is the kingdom of God.
“Blessed are you who are hungry now,
for you will be filled.
“Blessed are you who weep now,
for you will laugh.
“Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you on account of the Son of Man. Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, for surely your reward is great in heaven; for that is what their ancestors did to the prophets.
“But 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 what their ancestors did to the false prophets.”

Bruce Gordon:
I find this a fascinating scene from Luke, in that we get a different perspective on Jesus. It opens with this Jesus who’s moving along. We think of the Jesus who is wise and humble, compassionate, and at times rebuking people.

But here we seem to see Jesus, the star, who has attracted so many people. They’re coming to see him. They want to touch him. They know there’s something remarkable about him, But we’re not hearing him speak. We’re getting this description of him sort of making his way along. And it talks about him radiating power. And that’s not an image that we think of so much in Jesus, as this person who is so humble and, as he will say in the Beatitudes, blesses those who are humble and lowly and the poor—and certainly not the rich. But yet we see a kind of Jesus of radiating healing, and people are attracted to him and they want to be with him.

And we don’t hear him, actually. There’s no dialogue here. We don’t hear him saying—or how he’s responding. We don’t know what’s happening as these people are crowding around him and trying to put their hands on him, or touch his clothes, or whatever it is they’re trying to do. We don’t know what his reaction is until he moves into these Beatitudes, which somehow must be connected to the fact that he’s been doing all this healing.

Felicity Harley-McGowan:
It’s interesting. I wonder often if there are certain passages or sections of texts that we have a more difficult time connecting with, because they are actually challenging for us to visualize. The beginning of this passage reminds me of those images of Jesus you often see in Italy of the sacred heart, with different colors sort of emanating out of it, as though… with his hand held up in blessing, as though somehow, Jesus is this figure that just radiates power in a kind of superhuman fashion.

And yet of course this leads directly into very concrete statements that the early ones, of course, we are familiar with and quite comfortable with. And yet again, we’re lulled into this passage where there’s almost an internal rhythm in our minds. We’ve heard it so many times. We can recite it like a mantra: “Blessed is this,” we can’t actually remember the specifics.

And suddenly we’re broken into this new realm of: “But woe unto you…” There’s this striking contrast that somehow connects back for me to the early part of the passage where Jesus is moving around. As you said, we don’t have a sense of what he’s thinking or saying, but this virtue is coming out of him.

And then suddenly, there’s this new element that comes out that’s quite confronting. And, again, one of these sections that perhaps receives less attention because it’s easy to deal with the blessings, that we’re comfortable with. Less easy to think that blessing comes in the form of hunger and that those of us that are full are in a place of danger. It’s a compelling and quite… disturbing might not be the right word, but it’s, it’s pushing us in directions that are uncomfortable.

Bruce Gordon:
There’s a wonderful drama in the story, which I think speaks to what you’re saying there.

He’s come from healing, and here again, we have this language of driving out what the King James calls “unclean spirits.” So he’s not just healing what we might think of as diseases, but unclean spirits. And that always can be a difficult idea to deal with, because what exactly are unclean spirits? Because we might now think of them in terms of psychological, emotional issues that people struggle with enormously. And there’s still a language for some people that this is sin or demonic or whatever, but he’s doing that. But then we get this amazing moment where he suddenly raises his eyes to look at the disciples.

So what that tells us is that he was standing with his eyes to the ground, as these people were seeking the healing. And then, when he has something he wants to say, he raises his eyes and looks at them.

And when I imagine that: what must it be like to be standing in front of Jesus and have him raise his eyes and look at you as he’s about to speak? I’ve often thought about this with when Pontius Pilate is alone with Jesus. He’s one of the very few people who ever existed who was alone in a room with Jesus Christ. And you think what must’ve that have been like?

So at the same thing here, you know, what must it have been like to have him raise his eyes from the ground, look at you, and then say the things that, you know, you were talking about: these Beatitudes that we tend to associate with kind of a certain beauty (is in the name), but it’s got a real sting in the tail.

Felicity Harley-McGowan:
This also reminds me of the woman with the issue of blood who touches the hem of Jesus’ robe, and he feels power go out from him. And so often, in very early representations in art of this episode, he’s shown turning around and looking down to her. I often wonder, and in some of these cases, it’s this beautiful image that you’ve given us there, of him raising his eyes also makes me wonder: for those who have been brave enough to approach him and touch him for healing—whether those eyes that, in a downward gaze, are looking upon people who would not normally be seen in day-to-day life as well.

Bruce Gordon:
Yeah there’s this enormous drama coming up to: and then he speaks. And I’m sure, when he spoke, it was not at all what they thought he was going to say. And there must have been enormous surprise when he says this.

But just as in other passages, even the parts that are familiar to us are very challenging. He talks about, “Blessed are you that hunger. Blessed are the poor; theirs will be the kingdom. Blessed are those who mourn.”

And that’s a challenge for us because is it good to be poor? Is it good to be mourning? What does it, what does it mean to be “blessed” in this? Is it the idea that your reward will be in the next world? Is it that these things are to be desired? And that’s something that, you know, in our conversations are very difficult.

I teach a course on mysticism in the West, where a lot of the mystics in the medieval period in early modern period, extol suffering as an essential, desirable spiritual state. And the students really struggle with this. You know, they say: Is this license to punish people? Are we talking about a God who, for our own good, punishes us, or is punitive in other ways, and that that suffering is redemptive?

And what does that mean for oppressed and marginalized communities today? Are we to say, “Well, you’re in that position, and it’s spiritually good for you,” and we can just stay where we are because that’s the way it is? And, you know, “Good for you that you’re suffering because your reward…”

So the language—we can see the, you know, the condemnation of the rich that comes later. We can see that argument, but even the parts that we traditionally associate as being so beautiful pose a lot of questions for us.

Helena Martin:
Thanks for listening! For more information about the podcast and more Bible study resources, visit YaleBibleStudy.org. And remember to follow us on Twitter: @BibleYale.

Chapter, Verse, and Season is produced by Joel Baden, Kelly Morrissey, and me, Helena Martin. Production help by Crichelle Brice, and our theme music is by Calvin Linderman. Thanks to the Center for Continuing Education at Yale Divinity School. And thank you to Professors Harley-McGowan and Gordon for joining us again this week.

We’ll be back with another conversation from Chapter, Verse, and Season.