Lucky are the unlucky

Up until a few years ago, people with physical and mental disabilities used to make me really uncomfortable. My family can attest to this. Whenever anyone with a disability would walk into a restaurant I would immediately lose my appetite. All I could see was the brokenness on the outside.
The Sermon on the Mount where Jesus preaches on the Beatitudes teach this truth: lucky are the unlucky. The Beatitudes go against everything we pursue and believe in- blessed are the strong, blessed are the wealthy, blessed are the powerful, blessed are the liberators, blessed are the triumphant. But in the Sermon on the Mount Jesus says if an enemy soldier slaps you, turn the other cheek. Rejoice in persecution. Be grateful for your poverty. Essentially Jesus says "How lucky are the unlucky!" In the Beatitudes, Jesus promises that these rewards lay somewhere in future but the more I learn the more I realize that the Beatitudes describe the present as well as the future. Philip Yancey says in his book The Jesus I Never Knew that he does not view the Beatitudes as patronizing slogans, but as profound insights into the mystery of human existence. "God's kingdom turns the tables upside down. The poor, the hungry, the mourners, and oppressed truly are blessed. Not because of their miserable states of course- rather, they are blessed because of an innate advantage they hold over those that are self-sufficient." (Pg. 116).
Henri Nouwen, a priest who used to teach at Harvard University, moved to a community called Daybreak near Toronto at the height of his career in order to take on the demanding chores required by his friendship with a man named Adam. Adam is a 25-year-old man who can't speak, cannot dress himself, cannot walk or eat without help. He does not cry or laugh. His back is distorted, his arms and leg movements are twisted and he suffers from severe epilepsy. Nouwen writes, "It takes me about an hour and a half to wake Adam up, give him his medication, carry him into his bath, wash him, shave him, clean his teeth, dress him, walk him to the kitchen give him his breakfast, put him in his wheelchair and bring him to the place where he spends most of his day with therapeutic exercises."
Philip Yancey writes about a time where he went to visit Nouwen in Toronto and had doubts about whether this was the best use of this man's time...he thought couldn't someone else take care of Adam because Nouwen has much to offer the world. When Yancey voiced this to Nouwen himself, he informed him that he had completely misinterpreted what was going on. "I am not giving up anything," he insisted. "It is I, not Adam, who gets the main benefit from our friendship. Adam has taught me that what makes us human is not our mind but our heart. Not our ability to think but our ability to love." From Adam's simple nature, he had glimpsed the "emptiness" necessary before one can be filled by God. Nouwen said he was enjoying a new kind of peace, acquired not within the walls of Harvard but by the bedside of Adam.
At the Reality King's and Queen's Dance on Saturday night I saw what Jesus meant by the Sermon on the Mount. Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of God. In the Great Reversal of God's kingdom, prosperous saints are very rare. It's not that the poor are more virtuous than anyone else, but they are less likely to pretend to be virtuous. They are more naturally dependent, because they have no choice; they must depend on others simply to survive. In summary, through no choice of their own these people find themselves in a posture that befits the grace of God. In their state of neediness and dependence they welcome God's free gift of love. Their security rests not in things but on people.