...sing them again...

“20 Then Jesus looked up at His disciples and said:

‘Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.

21 ‘Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be filled.

‘Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh.

22 ‘Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you on account of the Son of Man.      

23 Rejoice on that day and leap for joy, for surely your reward is great in heaven; for that is what their ancestors did to the prophets.

24 ‘But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation.

25 ‘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.

26 ‘Woe to you when all speak well of you,

for that is what their ancestors did to the false prophets.

27 ‘But I say to you that listen, Love your enemies,

do good to those who hate you” Luke 6:20-27.

These are the Beatitudes, Jesus’ teachings that we can learn quite easily. They have a swing and a flow to them. “Blessings on the poor; blessings on the hungry; blessings on the weeping, blessings on those who hate you.

But woe to the rich, woe to the full, woe to those who are laughing, woe those about whom others speak so well!

But what do these all mean? Well, we’re working on that, aren’t we all!

Promises, promises, promises…but it does seem to be coming true, for some people at least. That old lady down the road, the fisherman’s mother, who now looks twenty years younger since He prayed for her when she was ill the other day. And as for that poor young man with the withered arm – well, it really doesn’t matter what day of the week it was, because anyone who can cure someone like that should get all of our votes. And they say if you get near enough to Jesus in the crowd you can sense a kind of healing aura all around Him. Why even a woman just touched His clothing once, and she was cured!

So if He’s saying that the world is being sorted out, straightened out, at last, maybe it’s true. But not everybody’s going to like it. There are already mutterings and mumblings in the background. After all, that’s what you’d expect, going around teaching people rhymes like that. Do you ever wonder how long He’ll survive if He keeps this up – the occupying forces have eyes and ears everywhere, and old Happy Herod up the road isn’t going to be exactly jumping for joy either.

In fact, maybe that’s what the rhyme means. Maybe it’s not just a general truth we have to learn. Maybe we need to think about what it means. And maybe these rhymes of Jesus show us how Jesus thinks.

Today, then, read these words again — slowly.

Lord, help me to learn Your new song today,

and to find out what it means in the life you’ve given me today.

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God,

have mercy on me a sinner.