Week 06 Sunday (Year C)

Readings: Jeremiah 17.5-8; Psalm 1; 1 Corinthians 15.12,15-20; Luke 6.17, 20-26

Saint Luke, the scribe of the gentleness of Christ, is also the one who picks out Jesus's most forthright and direct warnings about the danger in being rich. It is to Luke that we owe our knowledge of great parables such as the Good Samaritan and the Prodigal Son, as well as miracles involving more than usual compassion and sensitivity - the woman bent over, the widow's only son at Nain, the man with dropsy, Zaccheus, the tax-collector presumably mocked for his short stature. The key moment in all these parables and miracles is a movement of compassion.

What Jesus says about wealth and its dangers is all the more striking coming from the lips of 'Luke's gentle Jesus'. Today's gospel reading is the first such text in the gospel. Famously, where Matthew records Jesus saying 'blessed are the poor in spirit', Luke's version is simply 'blessed are you who are poor'. Lest we think ti is just an error in copying what he had received, Luke gives us the corresponding woe to go with the beatitude: 'woe to you who are rich'. It is not a mistake in transcribing.

 The warning about wealth is repeated and further underlined throughout Luke's gospel. Chapter 16 gives us stories about a crafty manager, about the rich man and Lazarus, and about the right use of money. Jesus thus inaugurates a long tradition in Christian preaching along the lines of 'look what people are prepared to do, the sacrifices and work they will undertake, in order to gain this world's wealth: and what are you prepared to do for a treasure that is more lasting and more valuable?'

Earlier we read about a rich fool whose wealth leads him to forget the realities of life (Luke 12). True wisdom is seen in the ones who enter the kingdom because they simplify their lives radically, trusting in God's care (Luke 12; 14). The man who wants to live well appears also in Luke's gospel and once again we are told that he cannot do what is necessary 'for he was very rich' (18.23). The story about the widow]s mite is recounted by Mark and by Luke - note that she is not praised by Jesus for what she does but rather serves as an example of the kind of exploitation the temple system had come to operate (Luke 21:1-4; 20.47). She also serves as an acted parable pointing to Jesus who, like her, 'put in all he had to live on' and gave everything in his service of the Father and of the kingdom.

The message is clear: to be rich is to be in danger because it means we will inevitably place our trust in things we can possess. That numbs us to some of the fundamental realities of life: trust, gratitude, dependence, grace, relationship. It therefore makes it more difficult for us to understand what Jesus is about and to enter his kingdom.

It does not compromise Jesus's teaching to extend the meaning of 'wealth' to things other than money and material possessions. To be rich in other ways - power, influence, reputation, talents of various kinds - all carry the same risk, all provoke the same responses in their 'owners' and in others. All this makes if difficult to enter the kingdom of God, which is given to the poor.