“Blessed are the poor…”

This the passage that was going through my head as I walked through the streets of a village in Guatemala last week.

It was a poor village. Just up the hill from an orphanage. The orphanage provides food for many of the children in the village.

“Blessed are the poor…”

It’s Luke’s version of the Beatitudes. There’s no wiggle room in this version. No middle-class room for debate or a way to comfort ourselves out of the discomfort of poverty with this. Nope, Luke just makes it plain and simple — “Blessed are the poor.”

Here’s the full version:

“Then he looked up at his disciples and said:
‘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.

‘Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame youon that day and leap for joy, for surely your reward is great in heaven; for that is what their ancestors did to the prophets.
‘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.”