The beatitudes, in Luke's telling, are blunt: "Blest are you poor." Throughout his Gospel and in Acts, too, Luke relentlessly shows Jesus' focus on the poor and reveals early Christian groups having that same concern. This image both haunts and inspires us today as we consider what it means to be the Christian community in the United States.
Jesus calls the poor "blest" — then and now — because blessing comes to
followers who belong to a community that sees need and responds to it.
In that, there is hope.
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© 2013 Augsburg Fortress, Publishers
