those puzzling beatitudes

Today we read in the One Year Bible from Matthew 5:1-26. We're reading the beatitudes, and they can cause you to scratch your head unless you've had enough life experience to make sense of them.

But when you look at young people growing up, you start to see what Jesus meant. Let's take some examples. If you're hoping that your kids are going to be well behaved, holy people who go to church regularly and take their faith seriously, have you noticed that it kind of turns things upside down from what you normally want for them? An example: it's often harder for the prettiest girls or the handsomest boys to be genuine in their faith, because they're so distracted by their interactions with the opposite sex. But the homely ones, or even the less attractive ones, don't often have that distraction, so they tend to have an advantage in spirituality. Of course these are broad generalizations, and there are tons of examples to the contrary on both sides. But that's true about the beatitudes, too. There are plenty of poor people who hate God, and there are lots of people who have terrible things said about them who don't end up in a good place. But in general, it tends to be true.

Another example is poverty. This one is from the beatitudes, and we see it in kids. Those who are born in modest homes and have to work all of their lives have a foot forward in their spiritual lives over kids who grow up "with a silver spoon" in their mouth, getting everything they want growing up. The "spoiled kids" have a harder time being genuine in their faith. Again, not to say that it's always that way. There have been some amazingly generous saints throughout history who were born wealthy. But that's the exception. The rule is the rich man and Lazarus.

So that, I think, is what Jesus is telling us. That in the Kingdom of God, things are upside down from what the world considers good. Wealth and power and fame and being good looking... the world thinks these things are what make life worth living. People who are poor and powerless and unknown and ugly don't matter... or worse, should just die. (How often do we read about homeless people being victimized by the wealthy because they "don't matter"?)

The good news is that no matter where on this spectrum we fall (and most of us reading this fall on the wealthy side, when you think about average global income), we have a choice to make. We can CHOOSE to give our wealth to those who need help. We can alleviate the suffering of the Lazarus at our door. We can use the power and popularity and even our attractiveness for good, making the world a better place, influencing others with wealth to lend a helping hand. We can choose to be an exception to the rule.

God, thanks for showing us how reality, in Your kingdom, is the opposite of what the world sees as good. Help us to use what life gives us to help people in need.