Blessings and Woes

Our world has little trouble in classifying its inhabitants. We qualify each other on the basses of race, religion, beauty, wealth, and other exterior characteristics. And, no matter how removed we believe ourselves to be from this concept, it’s often difficult not to apply labels of poor, rich, ugly, pretty, black, white, etc. I don’t remember the existence of these labels at the beginning of my years in elementary school. My friends were from many different backgrounds and all looked different. But, I didn’t care about the skin color or number of rooms in their houses that my friends had. My biggest concern was having something exciting to bring to “show and tell”.
The older I get, the more I notice how limited my perspective can be. I almost immediately have opinions about an individual based on my first impression. Often, it’s just how an individual speaks that inspires me to apply criterion. My intention is not to make those reading this feel guilty or to make you afraid to approach me. I merely want us to see people through the eyes of Jesus. One of Jesus’ first concerns was to unify people. He often defied convention by reaching out to those considered to be outcasts by the majority of society. Jesus showed love to lepers, tax collectors, and prostitutes.
In Luke 6:17-49, we read Jesus’ sermon on a “level place”. He begins by giving blessings to those who are poor, hungry, sad, and hated. Jesus then applies woes to the rich, well fed, laughing, and those spoke well of. Jesus isn’t trying to make people feel bad if they are enjoying life. He wants us to understand that blessings don’t come to those who put all of their focus on enjoying their lives. Jesus continues to say that we must love our enemies and not judge others. We need to have a broad perspective. We need to see what matters. We need to have empathy for and try to understand each other.