An epiphany is a breakthrough moment, when one sees the familiar in a new light. A new understanding dawns and the person perceives the world through fresh eyes. In the Christian interpretation, we understand Epiphany as a time when God revealed to the world that Jesus is his beloved Son. 

This morning’s gospel (Luke 6:17-26) demonstrates epiphany in both senses of the word. 

…a great crowd of his disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea, Jerusalem, and the coast of Tyre and Sidon... had come to hear Jesus and to be healed of their diseases; and those who were troubled with unclean spirits were cured. And all in the crowd were trying to touch him, for power came out from him and healed all of them.

Jesus attracted people from as far away as the coast of the Mediterranean to Jerusalem… about 200km, north to south! Since word of mouth was the mode of communication, the size of the crowds and the distances from which they came was a sign that his ministry had captured the attention of many.

Beyond the spectacle of seeing lame people walk or blind people see, something about the experience of hearing Jesus’ words drew people to him so that all in the crowd were trying to touch him, for power came out from him and healed all of them. He moved them, body and soul, and they wanted contact with him. 

The passage reads like a description of a collective encounter with Epiphany. The people regarded Jesus as one sent by God. He ‘rearranged the furniture of their lives’ so that people experienced the familiar anew and interacted with the elements of their lives in fresh ways. 

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His teaching, especially, featured this new way of seeing and experiencing the world.

He looked up at his disciples… Jesus changed his focus from the multitude to his followers, but probably spoke in such a way that his words could be heard by all, since he invited everyone to follow him.

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

With these blessings Jesus restates the words of Isaiah that he had read in the Nazareth synagogue (Luke 4:16-20) he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor…to proclaim release to the captives… recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor

Jesus’ followers were destitute, hungry and sorrowful, the marginalized victims of an occupying power and a stratified social structure.  He addressed their present situation and their legitimate hopes and told them that God loved them. (The scholar Luke Timothy Johnson calls this the “divine reversal”.) 

As they listened to Jesus, the people would have experienced a variety of reactions. He was calling them blessed… holy, worthy, of great value. He invited them to see themselves as beloved by this person whom they recognized as wise and powerful. He validated their lives and gave them new significance. He acknowledged the reality of their pain rather than deny it or look away from it. While he did not remove their poverty, hunger (except sometimes temporarily) or sadness he did gift them with his attention and assured them that he valued them. Jesus, himself, became their new reference point. 

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Turning to the consequences of following him he told his disciples, “Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you on account of the Son of Man. … Discipleship would include further personal costs. But there was something else in his statement. 

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A ‘wait-a-minute!-Did-we-hear-that-correctly?’ moment pops out of this blessing. When he referred to himself as the Son of Man, he alluded to the passage in Daniel 7:13-14 in which Daniel describes a divine messenger from God: I saw one like a Son of Man (or a human being) coming with the clouds of heaven. And he came to the Ancient One (God) and was presented before him. To him was given dominion and glory and kingship, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that shall not pass away, and his kingship is one that shall never be destroyed.

Identifying himself as Son of Man, with its divine allusions, was an Epiphany moment. He revealed himself to his disciples, in this scriptural context, as the Messiah.  His words and their implications probably washed over them like a powerful wave knocking them off their feet. 

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Returning to the theme of people will hate you… exclude you, revile you, and defame you Jesus added, more brightly, Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, for surely your reward is great in heaven; for that is what their ancestors did to the prophets. 

His counterintuitive words spoke of the biblical tradition of prophets like Jeremiah, who was ridiculed and banished for his words. By comparing them to prophets Jesus invited his new followers to see themselves afresh and to understand that he had a purpose for each of them. 

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Then, Jesus issued warnings that mirrored his previous blessings:
“But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation.
 “Woe to you who are full now, for you will be hungry. 
“Woe to you who are laughing now, for you will mourn and weep.
 “Woe to you when all speak well of you, for that is what their ancestors did to the false prophets.

Beyond cautioning his disciples, Jesus’ words suggest that he saw some in the crowd who were rich, fat, and self-satisfied. They may have come for the ‘show’ but he had their attention and he spoke to their circumstances. His warnings may have been an epiphany moment of a different kind for them!

This recitation of ‘woes’ echoes those in Isaiah 5:8-22 who denounced the social injustice of the wealthy prior to the capture of Jerusalem by the Babylonians. 

Jesus might have paraphrased his words as, ‘I come to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.’

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This gospel reminds us that Jesus’ society suffered from a number of ills: sickness, injury, mental illness, demonic possession, food scarcity, poverty, inequality, occupation by a foreign power, diverseness …and spiritual deficit. Jesus addressed all the issues. And, while he came as a savior to all he had a preferential bias for those who were marginalized. 

As in Jesus’ days, we experience pandemic, polarization, racism, vast differences in wealth, hunger, addiction, homelessness, climate crises and rumors of war, simultaneously. One common denominator between our times and Jesus’ is that those who live on the economic and social fringes always seem to suffer more. 

Jesus did not cure everyone, or end hunger… though the gospels tell us that he cured and fed many. His mission was not to heal society’s ills. It was to lead people to God, his Parent. His miracles were signs, not the final cure.  He wanted the marginalized to know that in God’s eyes each one was blessed. For many that was the Epiphany moment. 

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  • Look at the first four beatitudes … Blessed are you who are poor…hungry … weeping…when people hate you (for my name)…and consider which one most closely describes you. Is the situation voluntary or inflicted on you? Do you feel valued and loved by God… and his church… in your state?
  • When have you had an epiphany moment? Do you recall suddenly understanding an experience in a whole new way? Did it shape how you moved forward, at least with respect to that context? How does  your experience inform how you understand this gospel?
  • What are your synonyms for blessed? … Fortunate? Valued? Worthy? Loved by God? Happy?

Peace

Michael