The Kingdom of God Belongs to the Poor

By T.V. Philip

T. V. Philip, born in India and a lay member of the Mar Thoma Church, has
worked and taught in India, Europe, USA and Australia. He is a church
historian, and a former Professor at the United Theological College,
Bangalore, India. The following appeared in The Kingdom of God is Like
This, by T.V. Philip, jointly published by the Indian Society for Promoting
Christian Knowledge and Christava Sahitya Samithy (CSS), Cross
Junction, M.C. Road, Tiruvalla-689 101, Kerela, India. The material was
prepared for Religion Online by Ted & Winnie Brock.

Luke 6: 17-26:

Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.
Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will befitted
Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh.

Our Gospel lesson for today is part of the Sermon on the Mount. In
Matthew, the sermon on the Mount is very long, but Luke gives a shorter
version of it.

The Sermon on the Mount is addressed to the disciples. It is about the

nature of the kingdom and life in the kingdom of God. It is a beautiful
sermon and millions of people are fascinated and attracted by its message.
In India, a large number of Hindus have great love for the teachings in the
Sermon on the Mount. It had produced a great impression on Mahatma
Gandhi. Reading the Sermon on the Mount gave him comfort and
boundless joy, he once said. It was one of the influences which led him to
adopt the principle of non-violence (passive resistance) in his political
struggle against the evils of colonialism.

In the first century, Israel was eagerly awaiting the coming of the new age.
This longing for the dawn of a new age was not confined to Israel alone.
The people in Rome, long before the birth of Christ, were longing for a
leader who would establish peace and inaugurate a new age. The last years
of the Roman Republic were years of utter chaos, an age of agony for
ordinary people. Military leaders fought against each other in their lust for
power. It was a time of bloodshed. The people were longing for a leader
who would bring about order and peace. When Augustus defeated the rival
military leaders and brought about peace in the first century, he was hailed

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as a Messiah. The advent of peace under the Roman Caesars seemed to the
poets of the Augustinian era as the dawn of a golden age. It was to such a
situation that Jesus came.

Jesus preached the kingdom of God, inviting all ‘to repent and enter the
kingdom of God.’ The kingdom of God represented a new age, the
messianic age when God’s will would be done on earth as in heaven. What
is the new thing about the kingdom of God? What happens when the
kingdom comes?

In the Old Testament, the prophets foretold what would happen when the
kingdom arrived. In Isaiah chapter 25, there is a graphic description of the
new age to come.

On this mountain the Lord Almighty will prepare a feast of

rich food for all peoples, a banquet of aged wine -- the best
meat and the finest of wines. On this mountain he will destroy
the shroud that enfolds all peoples, the sheet that covers all
nations; he will swallow up death forever. The sovereign Lord
will wipe away the tears from all faces.

In the new age, God will prepare a banquet for all peoples, not merely for
the people of Israel. God will destroy the shroud that is spread over all
people. The shroud means the sheet that is used to cover a dead body or the
face of people who mourn. There is a shroud of gloom that spreads on all
areas of the life of the world today, the gloom that is spread over the
children of broken families, over single parents, over the unemployed, over
minority communities. The banishment of sorrow and suffering, misery and
pain, even death, belong to the very heart of the kingdom of God.

In Isaiah chapter 61, the prophet again speaks of what will happen when
the Messiah comes.

The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord

anointed me to preach good news to the poor.

He has sent me to bind up the broken hearted, to proclaim

freedom for the captives and release for the prisoners.

In God’s kingdom all that destroy human life, human dignity and human
freedom will be removed. This expectation has been fulfilled with the
coming of Christ. In the synagogue in Nazareth, Jesus read from the
prophet Isaiah and announced, ‘Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in
your hearing’.

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The Sermon on the Mount is about life in the kingdom. The Beatitudes
summarize the nature of the kingdom. "Blessed are you who are poor." In
this world, in our society, the poor will always remain poor. They will
always be hungry. The meek will always be persecuted and those who
weep will always weep and no one is going to comfort them. This is the
way of the world. In our society, ‘Blessed are the rich, for they will receive
more wealth and influence.’

The coming of the kingdom of God creates a crisis in human society. It

challenges our accepted political, economic and social order. In the
kingdom of God, the tax collectors, the sinners, the prostitutes, the
Samaritans and the Gentiles are accepted. When the Pharisees and the
Scribes murmured saying, ‘This man receives sinners and eats with them’,
Jesus in reply told the parable of the lost sheep, the lost coin and the lost
son. ‘There will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than
over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.’ Jesus
accepted the hospitality of a tax collector and when the Jewish leaders
complained that he had gone to be the guest of a man who was a sinner
Jesus replied, ‘Today salvation has come to this house, since he is also a
son of Abraham’.

This is the new thing about the kingdom of God. When the kingdom
comes, the foundations of the old order will crumble. The mighty will be
cast down and the lowly lifted up. Blessed are those who are poor, hungry
and those who weep. They will all be satisfied. But, ‘Woe unto you that are
rich, for you have received your consolation; woe unto you that are full
now, you shall mourn and weep’.

‘Blessed’ means that the poor, the hungry and those who mourn are the
favored people. It is the task of the followers of Christ to care for them and
struggle for a social, political and economic order which is just and
participatory. Blessedness also refers to the joy which springs from within,
which is completely independent of the changes and chances of the
situation one may be in. The beatitude also speaks of that joy which sorrow
and loss, pain and grief, are powerless to touch. It is a joy which nothing in
life or death can take away.

The wealthy and the mighty of this world depend on their wealth and
influence. They have their reward in this world itself. The poor have
nothing to depend upon except on God. Their joy and blessedness comes
out of their utter dependence on God; it is the joy of walking in the
company of God. This is what happens when we live in the kingdom of
God. This is a new thing. The poor are favored in the kingdom not only

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because injustice is done to them in this world, but also because they trust
in God. ‘This poor man cried and God heard him.’

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