In next Sunday’s Lectionary, Jesus says… “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God…” Is he saying something radical – if this kingdom of God is ‘now’? Earlier in Luke’s gospel, where he does the thing with the scroll … “4:16 When he came to Nazareth, where he [Jesus] had been brought up, he went to the synagogue on the sabbath day, as was his custom. He stood up to read, 17 and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written:
18 ‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to let the oppressed go free,
19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.’
20 And he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. 21 Then he began to say to them, ‘Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.’” … suggests it is ‘now’. Or is it the opposite of radical – ‘poor people don’t worry yourselves about setting things right, because it’ll all be fine when you go to heaven’?
What Jesus says later about ‘woe’ to rich people makes me think this speech does have a radical edge. In any case, what Jesus says is very different to what the dominant view seems to be;- ‘It is good to be rich, and poor people only have themselves to blame’. Christians have to go against the flow.