Suppose a new restaurant opens and it offers the most sumptuous, all-you-can-eat breakfast. It will only cost you $75 plus a tip. Would you go? Nothing sounds better than this perfect breakfast, but there is a trade-off—it will punch a big hole in our bank account. Isn’t this the story of our pursuit of happiness? There are two sides to every choice we make; to get one thing we have to give up something else. How do we go about making these choices?
Jesus talks to us about trade-offs today (Luke 6:17-26).
“Jesus came down with the Twelve and stood on a stretch of level ground with a great crowd of his disciples and a large number of people from all Judea and Jerusalem and the coastal region of Tyre and Sidon. And raising his eyes toward his disciples he said…”
Jesus “came down.” Apparently, he and the Twelve had been on a mountain and came down to a level space. Though he was standing, we read that he “raised his eyes toward his disciples.” My take is that the great crowd of disciples were sitting on the hillside apart from the “large number of people” on the plain. The message he had to give was for the disciples, not the crowd. The disciples were those who bought into Jesus’s message and the “large number” were still shopping.
What Jesus says next is for mature audiences only.
“Blessed are you who are poor, for the kingdom of God is yours.”
No one in their right mind wants to be poor. We all want money. And yet the disciples had given up their jobs to follow Jesus. This was their “trade-off” for getting a greater gift that God was offering—the kingdom of God. They chose God’s “big breakfast” over their measly bank accounts.
“Blessed are you who are now hungry, for you will be satisfied.”
There are few things we like more than food. And yet the disciples gave up some of the pleasures the world offered them, because it created in their spirits room for the kind of food that God had to offer. They believed that God’s food was more satisfying than what their friends back home had for breakfast.
“Blessed are you who are now weeping, for you will laugh.”
Who wants to be sad? No hands! We all want to laugh. But what is it that we laugh about? Is it a joke that makes fun of other people? Is it sitting in the stands watching our favorite team play basketball? Most of the things that make us happy are temporary…and sometimes they are at the expense of someone else’s dignity.
Were the disciples actually weeping? Did they really feel sad? Why? Maybe because their family and friends were not opting for the Kingdom of God and were content to buy into the fleeting joys of the world. The deep joy that God gave them was beyond all else.
“Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude and insult you, and denounce your name as evil on account of the Son of Man…”
Now this takes the cake! How many of you like to be rejected, insulted, ostracized from a group, and have a bad reputation? No hands! However, we must read the whole sentence which includes “on account of the Son of Man.” The history of the Church gives evidence that those who sold out to Jesus Christ were persecuted by their contemporaries. The trade-off for following Jesus was rejection by the world. They were willing to be hated by the world because the love of God they experienced in accepting Jesus into their lives was thousands of times more satisfying than the tidbits of favor offered by the world.
In our first reading today Jeremiah also talks of trade-offs (Jeremiah 17:5-8).
“Cursed is the one who trusts in human beings…whose heart turns away from the Lord…He is like a barren bush…Happy is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose hope is the Lord. He is like a tree planted beside the water…in the year of drought it shows no distress…”
Would you rather be a barren bush in the desert or a tree rich with life beside the water? God is the water; the world is the desert. Which are we choosing? Which are we placing our trust in? What are we willing to trade off for the life of the Holy Spirit that Jesus offers?
