1 Corinthians 15.12-20, Luke 6.17-26
The Third Sunday Before Lent, 16 February 2025
Austwick, Clapham
‘The poor, you will always have with you.’ [1] What did Jesus mean when he said that? That poverty is unfortunate but it is the way things are; that there will always be poor people – so why spend time trying to eradicate poverty? For generations Jesus’ words have been used as an excuse for non-involvement in social and political reforms. But surely that was not what Jesus meant….?
After all, Jesus was one of the poor of his day. Born in a stable, child of a migrant family fleeing Herod’s genocide, and in later years, having ‘nowhere to lay his head’, he knew homelessness.
Throughout his Galilean life Jesus was one of ‘the crowd’, the ‘people of the land’ who we find everywhere in the gospels. The Son of God was the son of a carpenter, not the poorest of trades but amongst the poorest of society, and his challenging, unconventional teaching soon made him a moral outcast in the eyes of those who upheld the status quo for their own comfort and gain. [2]
Jesus’ teaching reverses the roles between the rich and the poor. From what you’re told, you’d think that being rich is good news. But Jesus began his ministry announcing that his mission was to bring good news to the poor. [3] The ‘beatitudes and woes’ we heard today reinforce this teaching:
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.
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.
Jesus lived out these words, in a wandering ministry predominantly among the poor; engaging with the wealthy and powerful, but constantly challenging those who grew their wealth by exploiting others, and misused their power in oppressing others, calling on them to change.
In Jesus’ society the wealthy elite who kept the Temple rules regarded themselves as the ‘righteous’. But in Jesus’ teaching [4] the righteous are those who feed the hungry, quench the thirsty, welcome strangers, clothe the naked and visit the prisoner. The righteous are the ones who bring good news to the poor, in recognition that Jesus is to be found in the poor, that the actions of people towards the poor are actions towards Jesus himself: ‘Truly I tell you,’ he said, ‘just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’ [5]
Think of the stories of the ‘good Samaritan’ [6] the ‘unforgiving slave’ [7] and the ‘prodigal son’, [8] how they reinforce this ‘reversal of perspectives’, how they accomplish ‘a victory of human kindness over inflexible principles and hardened attitudes’, over fear, selfishness and greed. [9]
In Jesus’ teaching there is a place in the kingdom for the wealthy ones who can transform themselves through acts of kindness and generosity. His invitation to the rich ruler to sell all he owned and distribute the money to the poor, is a call to freedom and redemption. ‘Then you will have treasure in heaven’ [10] Jesus told him. Jesus’ teaching carries good news for all – including the wealthy elite – who turn to ‘seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness’. [11] Think of the joy of Zacchaeus the tax-collector, who, after he’d met Jesus, spontaneously returned to those he’d cheated, four times the amount of money he’d taken from them, in celebration of his salvation. [12]
Now, one of the most beautiful things about the Church is that it embraces both rich and poor alike. Our parishes include people of all positions on the social scale, and locally and worldwide the Church brings the richest and the poorest people together around the Lord’s Table.
For Jesus ate with both rich and poor. When not among ‘the crowds’, Jesus sat around meal tables sharing fellowship with invited guests. His meals were often hosted by people who were not outcasts. He ate in the homes of leading Pharisees, and many of his meals were paid for by wealthy supporters such as Joanna. The remarkable thing about Jesus’ meals was that they brought together around one table, devout Jews and the ‘outcasts and sinners’ and the poor of the land, which was an extraordinary departure from the divisive social and religious conventions of the time.
So Jesus was on the side of the poor, whilst not being prejudiced against the wealthy. As Ronald Sider wrote in Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger, ‘God is not partial; nor is God neutral’:
God is not partial. He has the same loving concern for each person he has created. Precisely for that reason he cares as much for the weak and disadvantaged as he does for the strong and fortunate. By contrast with the way that the comfortable and powerful of every age and society always act toward the poor, God seems to have an overwhelming bias in favour of the poor. But [it] is only when we take our perverse preference for the successful and wealthy as natural and normative that God’s concern appears biased.
God, however, is not neutral. […] God is on the side of the poor! The Bible clearly and repeatedly teaches that God is at work in history casting down the rich and exalting the poor because frequently the rich are wealthy precisely because they have oppressed the poor or have neglected to aid the needy. God also sides with the poor because he disapproves of extremes of wealth and poverty. The God of the Bible is on the side of the poor [not] because he is biased, [but because] he is a God of impartial justice. [13]
Sometimes in our history dangerous, hateful, words are spoken about the poor, the homeless, and the outsider; sometimes we hear scripture being ‘weaponised and abused’ to justify bigotry and hatred and violence against the most vulnerable. We hear it more and more today, and the more we hear it, the more we must challenge and oppose it. [14]
This week, in response to events in the USA, Pope Francis wrote to the American bishops, urging ‘all the faithful of the Catholic Church, and all men and women of good will, not to give in to narratives that discriminate against and cause unnecessary suffering to our migrant and refugee brothers and sisters.’ He continued, saying that ‘With charity and clarity we are all called to live in solidarity and fraternity, to build bridges that bring us ever closer together, to avoid walls of ignominy and to learn to give our lives as Jesus Christ gave his for the salvation of all.’ [15]
As we approach the Lord’s Table in fellowship with all God’s people, let us recall where Jesus stood; that he sought to bring good news to the poor, that he taught that we should ‘welcome the stranger and fight for the least of us’.
Let us never tire of trying to put ourselves alongside those he put himself with, in life; let us always desire to keep shining His light of love, joy and peace to all people. [16]
Notes
A rewrite of Placed among the poor, preached in Bratton Clovelly, Devon, 2013 and Gruline, Isle of Mull, 2019. In turn, the body of material in this sermon is edited from an unpublished academic essay of mine, ‘Does Jesus of Nazareth have a bias to the poor?’
[1] Matthew 26.11
[2] Ched Myers, Binding the Strong Man: A Political Reading of Mark’s Story of Jesus, p. 156
[3] Luke 4.14-21
[4] Matthew 25
[5] Matthew 25.45
[6] Luke 10.30-37
[7] Matthew 18.23-35
[8] Luke 15:11-32
[9] Merkel, H, The Opposition Between Jesus and Judaism in Bammel, E, Moule, C.F.D (eds), Jesus and the Politics of His Day, p.136/7
[10] Luke 18.22
[11] Matthew 6.33
[12] Luke 19.1-10
[13] Ron Sider, Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger, p.76
[14] John Fea, (Congresswoman) Alexandria Ocasio Cortez asks what Jesus Christ would say if he preached his message in the House of Representatives. Current, 8 February 2025. (“I feel, especially in this body, that if Christ himself walked through these doors, and said what he said, that we should love our neighbour and our enemy, that we should welcome the stranger, fight for the least of us, that it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to get into the kingdom of heaven, he would be maligned as a radical and rejected from these doors.”)
[15] Pope Francis, Lettera del Santo Padre ai Vescovi degli Stati Uniti d’America, 11.02.2025. Vatican, 10 February 2025.
[16] John Fea, (Congresswoman) Alexandria Ocasio Cortez asks what Jesus Christ would say if he preached his message in the House of Representatives. Current, 8 February 2025.”)
