Beatitudes (Luke 6:20-26). The Beatitudes are normally misunderstood as a list of virtues. The Beatitudes, however, are not a virtue list: they are a list of the kinds of people in the society Jesus maps for his listeners. Those who are responding to his kingdom vision are the poor and the hungry, those who weep and those who are despised by the powerful—and those who are not responding are the rich, the well fed, the party-prone, and those who are approved by such powerful folks. No, this is not a virtue list but a sociopolitical statement: the work of God in Jesus and through the kingdom is
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