Daily Devotion for Lent 2024, Day 36

“Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be filled.  Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh."

                                                        Luke 6:21 (NRSVue)

These Beatitudes continue to differ slightly from the Sermon on the Mount.  Rather than hunger for righteousness, we see the blessed are just hungry.  We also see "weep" instead of "mourn" with the result being laughing which seems a more dramatic turnaround over the comfort offered in Matthew.

These are in the same vein as the poor being favored in Luke.  

For the crowds that Jesus was preaching to, many of them would understand what it is to be hungry.  If a day laborer didn't work, he may not have any savings on which to eat.  It is not likely that they thought of themselves as being blessed by God while in this condition.  It is more likely that they may have been asking, "What's God got against me?"

Certainly, people who have wept in grief have experienced the anger that often comes with loss.  Many times this anger may be directed to God.  I've heard many people say, "Why did God take my loved one now?"  

There's often a lot of theological statements made in the moment that are designed to comfort but really say some awful things about God's character.

"God needed another angel."

"It was just their time to go and we can't understand God's reasons."

"It must have been God's will."

Often these statements are designed to protect God's sovereignty or the idea that God is in complete control of the universe.  Of course, Wesleyans believe in free will which is God's self-limitation on divine control over everything.  

I believe that God weeps with us when we weep.  What does it mean to be blessed in weeping?  

Both of these - hunger and weeping - are conditions that Jesus claims give us favored attention by God.  These would have been a reversal of the common thought of the day.  They are a reversal for us today in how we normally think.

I think what this communicates for Jesus' followers is that God is concerned with those who are hurting.  I think about my grandmother who loved me.  She would sit by her refrigerator during every meal so that she could easily get anything that someone might want.  No matter what time we arrived, she would have something warm on the stove for us (much of the time it was some kind of homemade cobbler). She never wanted any of us to go hungry.  This could have been because she had both of her children during the Great Depression and was widowed while pregnant with my uncle.  She showed her love with offering sustenance - meeting a basic need. 

She was extra concerned with those who were hungry!

I think this is how God operates with the hungry and the despondent.

How do Christians show the hurting world that God cares?  We, like my grandmother, are also interested in feeding hungry people through a great variety of ministries.  We also provide care for those who are grieving.  As we move through Holy Week, we may have special concern because this is the week that Jesus may not have had an appetite.  We know he wept in the garden as he prayed.  

May we be part of someone's blessing this week.

Prayer for the day: Loving God, thank you for showing special favor to those who lack food.  Thank you for sending comfort to those who are weeping, whether it be from grief or fear or pain.  Help us to be attentive for you.  And when we may feel at the end of our rope, give us the strength to be able to offer love and care in any circumstance.  We pray these things in Jesus' name.  Amen.

 

Photo by ellen. via Flickr.com.  Used under the Creative Commons license.

New Revised Standard Version, Updated Edition. Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.