Lent Bible Challenge | Day 13
March 11
Luke 6:17-26

Jesus' beatitudes are maybe some of the most challenging things that he taught. How do we understand them?...then in his context and for us in ours today? Was he high? Was he simply telling his poor compatriots to suck it up and accept their oppressed lot by the occupying Roman legions in Palestine? Was he talking about some far distant future salvation in heaven, saying grin and bear it because we'll get ours in heaven? Or was he talking about something else? I think in large part he's talking about what it means to be truly human - free to love, with the hope to risk and the faith that what we see isn't all there is. We're relational beings, yet often we protect ourselves from loss which is an unavoidable part of life. We all will mourn when we lose what we love. We all will suffer (today's translation might throw you)...beacause if we risk relationships, risk sharing ourselves, risk loving others and risk being loved in return .... we will suffer. Not because life is suffering. But because relationships are risky things. Jesus doesn't promise to deliver us from suffering, nor does he promise to deliver us into suffering. Rather Jesus points the way to live fully in and out of suffering in radical relationship.