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He went down with them and stood on a level place. A large crowd of his disciples was there and a great number of people from all over Judea, from Jerusalem, and from the coastal region around Tyre and Sidon, who had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases. Those troubled by impure spirits were cured, and the people all tried to touch him, because power was coming from him and healing them all.

Looking at his disciples, he said:

“Blessed are you who are poor,
    for yours is the kingdom of God.
Blessed are you who hunger now,
    for you will be satisfied.
Blessed are you who weep now,
    for you will laugh.
Blessed are you when people hate you,
    when they exclude you and insult you
    and reject your name as evil,
        because of the Son of Man.

“Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, because great is your reward in heaven. For that is how their ancestors treated the prophets.

- Luke 6:17-23

Sometimes we think that the essence of Christianity is believing in God and being good. We celebrate when people experience a sense of connection with their Father, and the effect that has on their lives. 

That’s not wrong. There is a deep sense of connection with God, and we do experience changed hearts and changed minds. But its not the whole thing either, not even nearly.

Jesus preached a new Kingdom, a new order, a new system of reality. We’ve just got to pay attention to where Jesus was preaching to catch a glimpse of the significance of this. Galilee is a mountainous region in the north of Israel. The area had a reputation for being a hotbed for rebels and revolutionaries. In the year 6 AD – around the time of Jesus’ birth – Judas of Galilee led resistance to the census imposed for Roman tax purposes by Quirinius in the Judaea Province. He warned people not to register, and burnt down the houses of those that did. He said that the people should have no King but God.

So if you have a Galilean preacher gathering crowds and teaching them about the Kingdom of God that’s not a new religious philosophy, it’s a revolution. Not like Judas the Galilean’s revolution, but a revolution all the same. In fact, more revolutionary than all revolutions. Other revolutions change the people in power. This revolution is a complete reversal in of what is valued and prioritised.

Blessed are the poor, woe to the rich! That's what God's Kingdom looks like - and that was Jesus' revolutionary manifesto. The question for us is: what manifesto does our life manifest?