This week, Victoria has taken a historic step towards passing legislation to establish a treaty process with Aboriginal peoples. It is a moment that asks us to pause, reflect, and consider what this means for who we are as a people. The treaty speaks of coming together — the rich and the poor, the powerful and the powerless — to rebuild relationship and restore justice. For those who read the Gospel, it is also an invitation to see this political event through the lens of faith. In Luke 6:20–31, Jesus calls us to see the world differently: to stand with the poor, to love our enemies, and to live out the radical ethic of reciprocity, a key element of First People’s kinship care — “Do to others as you would have them do to you.”
The Great Reversal — Luke 6:20–26
Jesus’ sermon on the plain begins with a blessing and a warning: “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God,” and “Woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation.” In this great reversal, the values of God’s kingdom are laid bare. What the world calls success — wealth, comfort, reputation — Jesus calls empty. What the world calls weak — poverty, hunger, lament — he calls blessed.
The treaty moment in Victoria mirrors this spiritual reversal. It calls the descendants of settlers to confront the reality that privilege and prosperity have come at a cost: the dispossession of the First Peoples of this land. To acknowledge this is not to assign blame, but to tell the truth — and truth is always the beginning of healing. Jesus’ blessings and woes remind us that God’s justice begins where human systems fail, and that the poor and the excluded are not on the margins of God’s concern but at its very centre. The treaty asks us to embody that truth: to stand where Jesus stands, with those who have been dispossessed and silenced.
Love, Reciprocity, and Reparation — Luke 6:27–36
The next part of Luke’s passage takes us even deeper. “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you.” These are not easy words, especially when applied to the story of colonisation. They are not words that should ever be used to silence or to demand forgiveness. Rather, they reveal the moral power that love holds — a love that is active, just, and restorative.
In treaty, we are called to this same moral depth. For non-Indigenous Australians, it is not enough to say “sorry” or to seek equality on colonial terms. For First People’s it is not a demand for revenge or an excuse to load others with guilt or shame.
Love in the way of Christ is about reparation — giving back what was taken, making space where there was exclusion, listening where there was silencing. For those of us seeking reparation we are to be open to and welcoming of the steps being taken to heal the fracture in society. Jesus’ teaching to “lend expecting nothing in return” speaks to the posture of those who hold power and wealth: to act not out of self-interest or image, but out of love that expects no reward.
Treaty, in this light, is not a political transaction but a sacred covenant — a renewal of relationship grounded in respect, reciprocity, and grace. It calls us to walk together, not as benefactors and recipients, but as partners in the ongoing work of justice. Love is the measure of that covenant — not a sentimental love, but a courageous one that heals through truth and accountability.
Do to Others — The Call to Recalibration
The passage ends with what we know as the Golden Rule: “Do to others as you would have them do to you.” Simple, yet profoundly radical. This principle of reciprocity goes to the heart of treaty and the decolonising of our relationships. It asks us to imagine life from the other’s perspective — to stand on the other side of history and feel what it is like to be dispossessed, to be invisible, to have your voice and sovereignty denied.
If the colonisers of this land had truly lived by this principle, colonisation could not have unfolded as it did. Yet the call of the Gospel is not only to lament the past, but to live differently now. Treaty gives us the chance to embody this rule in public life — to move from entitlement to empathy, from possession to partnership, from ignorance to understanding. It is an opportunity to recalibrate our relationships across Country and to recognise that Aboriginal peoples are not merely equals within a Western framework, but the original and continuing civilisation of this land.
The Kingdom in Our Midst
Luke’s vision of the Kingdom is not about a distant heaven but about a new order breaking into the present — a world where justice overturns oppression, where those who have been trampled on are raised up, and where love becomes the law. Treaty is a glimpse of that possibility. It is the Spirit stirring among us, asking whether we are willing to live as if God’s reign were already here.
As followers of Christ — and as people of this land — we are called to participate in that divine work. To let go of privilege is to step into freedom. To tell the truth is to open the way for reconciliation. To share power is to reflect the nature of God, whose kingdom belongs to the poor. This is the invitation of Luke’s Gospel, and it is the invitation that treaty places before us now: to walk humbly, to love fiercely, and to act justly on this ancient and sacred Country.