Luke 6:17-6:26
How many of you, in the morning while having breakfast, getting dressed, or otherwise getting ready for your day, turn on the TV and watch CNN, or the Today Show, or some similar informational show? At our house we don’t do this; in fact, we have largely gotten out of the habit of watching “live” TV altogether, except for some kiddie shows Hannah watches. With four kids, our mornings, like many of yours, are hectic, busy, and noisy.
But when I travel for business reasons, it is a different story. I am alone. Once I get up in the morning it is quiet. It is too quiet. And I admit it, it is lonely. I miss my wife and my children. So when I travel, even before I take a shower, I turn on the TV to one of these programs, as much to make it less quiet as it is to actually learn what is going on in the world.
If you have watched these types of programs, many of them do not just give news, but equally, or even more so, have a great variety of segments that could be classified generally as “how to live a better life.” Make better food, make better career decisions, get better gadgets, have a better love life… and a million more topics like this.
Perhaps because TV watching has become such a rare activity for me, I find that, in that hotel room, if I keep the TV on for any significant length of time, I begin to become numbed by the stories. They are all vaguely interesting, but also they all run together, and because they never stop, I don’t have time to think about or evaluate what I have heard. But I have thought about them this week, and I think there are several themes that stand out from these shows.
All the stories boil down to how to be “successful.” According to these shows what is a successful life? It is one where you earn enough money to buy what you want, where you appreciate and can cook good food, where you are happy and content with your life, where you look and feel good, and where other people look at you and say, “There goes a successful man” or “There goes a successful woman.”
There is a lot to be learned by the types of stories these shows generally don’t show. They assume you are already successful, and what they are providing are not life-changing principles for turning your life around, but simply “tips” to make your life just a little bit better. There is a powerful subliminal message here – if you are not successful (by their definitions of success), then, well, they are not even talking to you.
Although they will occasionally have someone (usually someone who has just published a book, or a rock star about to go on tour) talk about turning their life around, but you just don’t see many “experts” dealing with serious life issues – dealing with addiction, overcoming grief, dealing with severe marital problems, etc. – instead they only go with safe issues. Shows like Oprah and Dr. Phil do sometimes tackle serious problems, but their solutions are generally quite superficial and unlikely to be effective.
Instead, this message of “how to be slightly more successful” to the “already pretty successful, thank you very much” is the bread and butter of these morning shows. And this message is not just limited to these shows; it is also the message of our advertising, of all kinds of entertainment, and indeed, I would say, of our entire culture.
For me personally, because I only watch this stuff when traveling on business, I tend to associate this message with “business travel” people. They (and by association, me, since at that time I am one of them) are the “successful people.” After all, how great is it to stay in a nice room, have people wait on you and clean your room, have taxis take you where you need to go, etc., etc.; it can easily go to your head. This is a generalization, but people who travel a lot for business generally do make a good amount of money, are well fed (restaurant food), appear happy (they have mastered the “professional smile” and are treated with respect (the “professional response”).
Because I am in the category of someone who does this relatively infrequently, I am one who is susceptible to becoming “puffed up” by this type of treatment. “Hey, I am successful! You, Ms. TV lady, are talking to me! That was some good advice about 401Ks, there. And those blueberry pancakes look yummy! I’ll have to try to make those sometime.” (I suspect those who have to travel every week are less vulnerable to these proud thoughts.) And by the way, for me personally, reading the USA Today newspaper (perhaps because I only read it when I travel) has a similar mind-numbing effect.
This seems to be a very different world from the world of Jesus, 2000 or so years ago. But I read today’s passage from Luke, and I think, maybe the world isn’t all that different. What did it mean to be “successful” in Jesus’ day?
To be successful meant you had money, enough to buy things you wanted when you wanted them. It meant you didn’t worry about food – you bought and enjoyed good food. It meant you were generally pretty happy – life was treating you well. And it meant that you were respected. There wasn’t a Ms. TV lady talking to you, but in the marketplace, among your friends, people knew you were doing all right. Even back then, you had mastered the “professional smile” and the “professional response.”
With this context consider today’s passage from Luke 6. I am going to back up a few verses, to verse 12, to give some context.
One of those days Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray, and spent the night praying to God. When morning came, He called His disciples to Him and chose twelve of them, whom He also designated apostles: … – Luke 6:12-13
The list of the twelve apostles follows this verse. The thing I want to point out is that Jesus has just picked them. This was an extremely special honor – talk about being labeled “successful”! What could be more successful than that? These twelve, from all walks of life, most of them humble walks of life, had just been thrust into the equivalent of the business traveler/hotel/taxi world.
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 coast of Tyre and Sidon, who had come to hear Him and to be healed of their diseases. Those troubled by evil spirits were cured, and the people all tried to touch him, because power was coming from Him and healing them all. – Luke 6:17-19
So Jesus went down from the mountainside with them, finding a flat place. Now some people, some commentators, believe that the event here is the same as that recorded in Matthew 5-7, the Sermon on the Mount. There are significant differences in these accounts, however. Here Jesus comes down from a mountain to a level place and teaches standing up. In Matthew, He goes up to a mountainside and sits down. And there are many differences in the teachings themselves, although there are also similarities.
Although I admit it is possible these accounts are referring to the same historical event, I think it is more likely that they are referring to different events. Do you think that, as Jesus went from town to town, from location to location, that He never repeated any of His sayings? I doubt it. It is similar to how the presidential candidates on the campaign trail repeat their messages over and over again; the details change some, and the messages are updated to reflect the issues of the particular audience, and current events are stuck into the messages, but fundamentally, there are certain themes that politicians repeat over and over and over in city and city and city. Isn’t it possible, even likely, that Jesus was doing the same thing? Again, they didn’t have Ms. TV Person reporting the news, so Jesus’ messages were brand new to all except those few people (some of the disciples) who followed Him around wherever He went.
Again it is possible they are referring to the same event, but then you have work to do to try to explain the differences in the accounts. For me it is much simpler to presume that the accounts refer to different events. Because I am unconvinced that they have to refer to the same event, I am not going to spend any time today trying to reconcile them. One commentator who takes the view that these are separate events calls Luke’s account here the Sermon on the Plain, in contrast to Matthew’s Sermon on the Mount. I like that.
So what is going on here? Once again, there is a large crowd, from many different locations, and many of them have come specifically for healing. I can understand that. If you knew of a miracle worker in your vicinity and you had an un-curable disease, you might do the same thing! The description of the crowd sounds like it is almost out of control – it is certainly chaotic! Some people are being healed of physical sicknesses and infirmities, others are having demons cast out of them, and still others, seeing these things happen, are simply pressing forward to try to touch Him, to receive a miracle themselves.
And then, Jesus chooses to speak. He says, “Blessed are you who are rich. Blessed are you who are well fed. Blessed are you who are happy. Blessed are you who are well-respected. It is good, isn’t it? And to you who are poor, to you who are hungry, to you who mourn or weep, and to those who are hated, I’m sorry. It stinks, doesn’t it?”
No. That is not what Jesus says. It might be what Ms. TV Person might say, for that really is the underlying message of Ms. TV Person, but it is not what Jesus says. Here is what Luke records:
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 men 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 fathers treated the prophets. – Luke 6:20-23
"But woe to you who are rich, for you have already received your comfort. Woe to you who are well fed now, for you will go hungry. Woe to you who laugh now, for you will mourn and weep. Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for that is how their fathers treated the false prophets. – Luke 6:24-26
It’s quite a different message from that of Ms. TV Person, isn’t it? It is very nearly the opposite message. I want to go through this message in a bit more detail, pairing up verses from the first section with that of the second. The fact that we can pair things up shows that there is a special type of structure here called parallelism. The specific type of parallelism is antithetic parallelism. This structure is fairly common in the Old Testament, especially individual Proverbs. But it also is used in whole passages, for example, Psalm 1. Sometimes even blessings and woes are spelled out. For example:
Tell the righteous it will be well with them, for they will enjoy the fruit of their deeds. Woe to the wicked! Disaster is upon them! They will be paid back for what their hands have done. – Isaiah 3:10-11
Woe to you, O land, whose king was a servant and whose princes feast in the morning. Blessed are you, O land, whose king is of noble birth and whose princes eat at a proper time—for strength and not for drunkenness. – Eccl. 10:16-17
Why did Jesus, as well as God in the Old Testament, use this structure? I believe it is because there is something powerful about it. It reinforces the message, gets it past our minds, and starts to plant it in our hearts. Antithetic parallelism packs an emotional punch. It gets our attention just like descriptive analogies and parables do.
Makarios is the Greek word for “blessed.” The ancient Greeks frequently used this word to describe the happy, carefree state of the Greek gods, and more generally it would be used to describe anyone who was carefree (i.e., the rich). Ouai is the Greek word for “woe.” It is an interjection – do you remember what those are? Words like “Aha! Awww! Yay!” An English word that comes close to ouai is “Alas!” or even “Bummer!” In Yiddish, the phrase is “Oy!” English phrases might include “How awful! How terrible!”
I want to look at Jesus’ blessings and woes more carefully. To do this, I am going to take one line from the first part and the corresponding antithetic line from the second part and look at them together.
Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. [...] Woe to you who are rich, for you have already received your comfort. – Luke 6:20, 24
Imagine what it was like for Jesus’ audience to hear this. The poor must have been amazed, and some may have thought Him crazy. The rich might have laughed (nervously) and said, “Yeah, right!” Of course, with Jesus miraculously healing people right before this message, it was hard to completely dismiss Him.
Is Jesus saying that all poor people are saved, and no rich people are? Of course not. Jesus is saying that the poor are not distracted by wealth, which can lead people to seek present comforts instead of eternal ones. As Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount, you cannot have two masters, God and Money. Recall from Luke 4:18 that Jesus said He was to “preach good news to the poor.” And it is true! There are rich believers today, and certainly poor nonbelievers, but the rich, especially the very rich, truly have a lot to overcome to get to that point of humility where they can stop depending on themselves or their station in life and instead rely totally on Christ.
This is a tremendously practical teaching. Sometimes it is better to take the lower paying job, or to work fewer hours. Sometimes it is better to forgo creature comforts and use your money for missions, or church work, or helping out others. I guarantee that none of us, when we get to heaven, will say, “I wish I had spent less time with my family so I could have worked more hours. I wish I had given less to the church so that I could have bought a nicer car.”
And for those of us that struggle just to get by, this is a tremendously encouraging teaching. We may be at a disadvantage in the world’s eyes, Ms. TV Person might not even be talking to us, but we, if we are living for Christ, are accruing eternal riches.
Practically speaking, should we live like rich people or poor people? In attitude, more like poor people. We should not trust in our riches, but trust in Christ. If we have money, we should treat it more like a treacherous snake than like a source of comfort and safety. Our trust should be in the Lord, not in our bank account.
Blessed are you who hunger now, for you will be satisfied. [...] Woe to you who are well fed now, for you will go hungry. – Luke 6:21a, 25a
Although there are exceptions, generally Americans do not understand what it means to live life continually hungry. Back in the 1920s, and certainly back to the westward expansion in the 1800s, people knew what it was to go hungry. If your crops failed, you might be hungry for another year. And the same was true in Jesus’ time.
Can you imagine what it is like to go continually hungry and see some of those around you plump and selecting only the finest delicacies? Such was life at the time of Jesus. It would be easy to be jealous or resentful of those who had such privilege. But now can you imagine what it would be like to be eternally hungry? That is what awaits those who do not feed on the Bread or drink from the Fountain of living water that will make them live forever (John 4:14, John 6:58).
Again, practically, we should live like hungry people. We should not seek contentment in this world, but should hunger for Christ.
Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh. [...] Woe to you who laugh now, for you will mourn and weep. – Luke 6:21b, 25b
Now, all people go through times when they weep, and all people sometimes laugh. Eccl. 3:4 says there is a time for each. But some people have a greater share of weeping – from difficult circumstances, such as a chronic illness or the loss of a loved one. People who have really suffered tend to have a greater “depth” than those for whom life has been easy. Some people have been truly spoiled their entire lives, and have a shockingly shallow and selfish view of life. Such people rarely have turned to Christ, and indeed, have little desire to even contemplate the gospel. They don’t care. It is to people like this that I believe Jesus refers. Unbelievers face a future of mourning and weeping. It is not a pleasant thought to think about, but the Bible is absolutely clear about this. But in contrast, those who have endured great tragedy, although “deepened” by it, will not remain suffering forever. These people will have an eternity filled with joy, a joy deepened by their very suffering!
Practically, if you are suffering, this should be a great encouragement to you. I know that in my own life, my “deepening” has primarily come through the challenging times, not the easygoing ones. And as we minister to others, we should keep this in mind. We should not point others to band-aid answers to their pain, but point them to Christ. There is a natural tendency, when hearing someone share who is in the middle of pain, suffering, or grief, to want to “make it better.” But that is not our job. Our job is to point to the One who has borne more suffering, grief, and pain than anyone else and who offers to take you through the pain.
Blessed are you when men 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 fathers treated the prophets. [...] Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for that is how their fathers treated the false prophets. – Luke 6:22-23, 26
The first three blessings and woes are similar in that they all contrast present temporary rewards with future eternal rewards. On the flip side of the coin, they contrast future eternal misery with present temporary suffering. Poverty, hunger, and weeping – each endured now by someone who has become a “disciple” of Christ are not worth comparing to the eternal riches, satisfaction and joy that are to come.
But this fourth pair presents things a little differently, and it speaks to something I find much more subtle but equally dangerous – the love of praise. We all love praise and hate rejection. Who among us wishes they could go back to high school again? Only those of us who were popular; for many of us, there are aspects of those years that we wouldn’t want go back to even if someone pointed a gun to your head. Woe to you when all men speak well of you. Wow!
I don’t know about the rest of you, but I find this the hardest of the four to swallow. I want to be popular! I can see the danger of wealth, of living a life without heartache, and even of continually lusting for chocolate, but popularity sounds so innocent! I don’t want to be excluded, I don’t want to be insulted, and I certainly don’t want to be rejected as evil! Yet Jesus says that if this is so, you are blessed, and your reward in heaven will be great.
I need to make sure we don’t misapply this passage. Is Jesus saying you can be blessed by being antisocial or rude, by deliberately choosing to be weird just for the sake of being weird, or by choosing to never take a shower? No. Is Jesus saying that if you are a believer you can never be popular? No – Jesus Himself was very popular – for a time. What He is saying, I believe, is that you can not judge yourself, for good or bad, based on your popularity. Popularity means nothing. Even the false prophets were popular. But eventually, the true prophets lost theirs. And of course the ultimate example of this is Christ Himself. The bottom line is that we should not seek popularity, but seek fellowship in the sufferings of Christ. Popularity is a goal we should have nothing to do with. Instead we should seek to know Christ more, we should seek to become increasingly in love with and faithful to Him, even to fellowship in His sufferings, as Paul writes about in Phil. 3:10.
Going back to the value system of Ms. TV Person – we need to reject the subtle but ever-present value system she (and our whole culture) promotes. Let us instead be salt and light. I am struck with these verses from John 6:
Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. On Him God the Father has placed His seal of approval." Then they asked him, "What must we do to do the works God requires?" Jesus answered, "The work of God is this: to believe in the One He has sent." Then Jesus declared, "I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me will never go hungry, and he who believes in Me will never be thirsty." – John 6:27-29, 35
How many of you, in the morning while having breakfast, getting dressed, or otherwise getting ready for your day, turn on the TV and watch CNN, or the Today Show, or some similar informational show? At our house we don’t do this; in fact, we have largely gotten out of the habit of watching “live” TV altogether, except for some kiddie shows Hannah watches. With four kids, our mornings, like many of yours, are hectic, busy, and noisy.
But when I travel for business reasons, it is a different story. I am alone. Once I get up in the morning it is quiet. It is too quiet. And I admit it, it is lonely. I miss my wife and my children. So when I travel, even before I take a shower, I turn on the TV to one of these programs, as much to make it less quiet as it is to actually learn what is going on in the world.
If you have watched these types of programs, many of them do not just give news, but equally, or even more so, have a great variety of segments that could be classified generally as “how to live a better life.” Make better food, make better career decisions, get better gadgets, have a better love life… and a million more topics like this.
Perhaps because TV watching has become such a rare activity for me, I find that, in that hotel room, if I keep the TV on for any significant length of time, I begin to become numbed by the stories. They are all vaguely interesting, but also they all run together, and because they never stop, I don’t have time to think about or evaluate what I have heard. But I have thought about them this week, and I think there are several themes that stand out from these shows.
All the stories boil down to how to be “successful.” According to these shows what is a successful life? It is one where you earn enough money to buy what you want, where you appreciate and can cook good food, where you are happy and content with your life, where you look and feel good, and where other people look at you and say, “There goes a successful man” or “There goes a successful woman.”
There is a lot to be learned by the types of stories these shows generally don’t show. They assume you are already successful, and what they are providing are not life-changing principles for turning your life around, but simply “tips” to make your life just a little bit better. There is a powerful subliminal message here – if you are not successful (by their definitions of success), then, well, they are not even talking to you.
Although they will occasionally have someone (usually someone who has just published a book, or a rock star about to go on tour) talk about turning their life around, but you just don’t see many “experts” dealing with serious life issues – dealing with addiction, overcoming grief, dealing with severe marital problems, etc. – instead they only go with safe issues. Shows like Oprah and Dr. Phil do sometimes tackle serious problems, but their solutions are generally quite superficial and unlikely to be effective.
Instead, this message of “how to be slightly more successful” to the “already pretty successful, thank you very much” is the bread and butter of these morning shows. And this message is not just limited to these shows; it is also the message of our advertising, of all kinds of entertainment, and indeed, I would say, of our entire culture.
For me personally, because I only watch this stuff when traveling on business, I tend to associate this message with “business travel” people. They (and by association, me, since at that time I am one of them) are the “successful people.” After all, how great is it to stay in a nice room, have people wait on you and clean your room, have taxis take you where you need to go, etc., etc.; it can easily go to your head. This is a generalization, but people who travel a lot for business generally do make a good amount of money, are well fed (restaurant food), appear happy (they have mastered the “professional smile” and are treated with respect (the “professional response”).
Because I am in the category of someone who does this relatively infrequently, I am one who is susceptible to becoming “puffed up” by this type of treatment. “Hey, I am successful! You, Ms. TV lady, are talking to me! That was some good advice about 401Ks, there. And those blueberry pancakes look yummy! I’ll have to try to make those sometime.” (I suspect those who have to travel every week are less vulnerable to these proud thoughts.) And by the way, for me personally, reading the USA Today newspaper (perhaps because I only read it when I travel) has a similar mind-numbing effect.
This seems to be a very different world from the world of Jesus, 2000 or so years ago. But I read today’s passage from Luke, and I think, maybe the world isn’t all that different. What did it mean to be “successful” in Jesus’ day?
To be successful meant you had money, enough to buy things you wanted when you wanted them. It meant you didn’t worry about food – you bought and enjoyed good food. It meant you were generally pretty happy – life was treating you well. And it meant that you were respected. There wasn’t a Ms. TV lady talking to you, but in the marketplace, among your friends, people knew you were doing all right. Even back then, you had mastered the “professional smile” and the “professional response.”
With this context consider today’s passage from Luke 6. I am going to back up a few verses, to verse 12, to give some context.
One of those days Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray, and spent the night praying to God. When morning came, He called His disciples to Him and chose twelve of them, whom He also designated apostles: … – Luke 6:12-13
The list of the twelve apostles follows this verse. The thing I want to point out is that Jesus has just picked them. This was an extremely special honor – talk about being labeled “successful”! What could be more successful than that? These twelve, from all walks of life, most of them humble walks of life, had just been thrust into the equivalent of the business traveler/hotel/taxi world.
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 coast of Tyre and Sidon, who had come to hear Him and to be healed of their diseases. Those troubled by evil spirits were cured, and the people all tried to touch him, because power was coming from Him and healing them all. – Luke 6:17-19
So Jesus went down from the mountainside with them, finding a flat place. Now some people, some commentators, believe that the event here is the same as that recorded in Matthew 5-7, the Sermon on the Mount. There are significant differences in these accounts, however. Here Jesus comes down from a mountain to a level place and teaches standing up. In Matthew, He goes up to a mountainside and sits down. And there are many differences in the teachings themselves, although there are also similarities.
Although I admit it is possible these accounts are referring to the same historical event, I think it is more likely that they are referring to different events. Do you think that, as Jesus went from town to town, from location to location, that He never repeated any of His sayings? I doubt it. It is similar to how the presidential candidates on the campaign trail repeat their messages over and over again; the details change some, and the messages are updated to reflect the issues of the particular audience, and current events are stuck into the messages, but fundamentally, there are certain themes that politicians repeat over and over and over in city and city and city. Isn’t it possible, even likely, that Jesus was doing the same thing? Again, they didn’t have Ms. TV Person reporting the news, so Jesus’ messages were brand new to all except those few people (some of the disciples) who followed Him around wherever He went.
Again it is possible they are referring to the same event, but then you have work to do to try to explain the differences in the accounts. For me it is much simpler to presume that the accounts refer to different events. Because I am unconvinced that they have to refer to the same event, I am not going to spend any time today trying to reconcile them. One commentator who takes the view that these are separate events calls Luke’s account here the Sermon on the Plain, in contrast to Matthew’s Sermon on the Mount. I like that.
So what is going on here? Once again, there is a large crowd, from many different locations, and many of them have come specifically for healing. I can understand that. If you knew of a miracle worker in your vicinity and you had an un-curable disease, you might do the same thing! The description of the crowd sounds like it is almost out of control – it is certainly chaotic! Some people are being healed of physical sicknesses and infirmities, others are having demons cast out of them, and still others, seeing these things happen, are simply pressing forward to try to touch Him, to receive a miracle themselves.
And then, Jesus chooses to speak. He says, “Blessed are you who are rich. Blessed are you who are well fed. Blessed are you who are happy. Blessed are you who are well-respected. It is good, isn’t it? And to you who are poor, to you who are hungry, to you who mourn or weep, and to those who are hated, I’m sorry. It stinks, doesn’t it?”
No. That is not what Jesus says. It might be what Ms. TV Person might say, for that really is the underlying message of Ms. TV Person, but it is not what Jesus says. Here is what Luke records:
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 men 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 fathers treated the prophets. – Luke 6:20-23
"But woe to you who are rich, for you have already received your comfort. Woe to you who are well fed now, for you will go hungry. Woe to you who laugh now, for you will mourn and weep. Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for that is how their fathers treated the false prophets. – Luke 6:24-26
It’s quite a different message from that of Ms. TV Person, isn’t it? It is very nearly the opposite message. I want to go through this message in a bit more detail, pairing up verses from the first section with that of the second. The fact that we can pair things up shows that there is a special type of structure here called parallelism. The specific type of parallelism is antithetic parallelism. This structure is fairly common in the Old Testament, especially individual Proverbs. But it also is used in whole passages, for example, Psalm 1. Sometimes even blessings and woes are spelled out. For example:
Tell the righteous it will be well with them, for they will enjoy the fruit of their deeds. Woe to the wicked! Disaster is upon them! They will be paid back for what their hands have done. – Isaiah 3:10-11
Woe to you, O land, whose king was a servant and whose princes feast in the morning. Blessed are you, O land, whose king is of noble birth and whose princes eat at a proper time—for strength and not for drunkenness. – Eccl. 10:16-17
Why did Jesus, as well as God in the Old Testament, use this structure? I believe it is because there is something powerful about it. It reinforces the message, gets it past our minds, and starts to plant it in our hearts. Antithetic parallelism packs an emotional punch. It gets our attention just like descriptive analogies and parables do.
Makarios is the Greek word for “blessed.” The ancient Greeks frequently used this word to describe the happy, carefree state of the Greek gods, and more generally it would be used to describe anyone who was carefree (i.e., the rich). Ouai is the Greek word for “woe.” It is an interjection – do you remember what those are? Words like “Aha! Awww! Yay!” An English word that comes close to ouai is “Alas!” or even “Bummer!” In Yiddish, the phrase is “Oy!” English phrases might include “How awful! How terrible!”
I want to look at Jesus’ blessings and woes more carefully. To do this, I am going to take one line from the first part and the corresponding antithetic line from the second part and look at them together.
Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. [...] Woe to you who are rich, for you have already received your comfort. – Luke 6:20, 24
Imagine what it was like for Jesus’ audience to hear this. The poor must have been amazed, and some may have thought Him crazy. The rich might have laughed (nervously) and said, “Yeah, right!” Of course, with Jesus miraculously healing people right before this message, it was hard to completely dismiss Him.
Is Jesus saying that all poor people are saved, and no rich people are? Of course not. Jesus is saying that the poor are not distracted by wealth, which can lead people to seek present comforts instead of eternal ones. As Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount, you cannot have two masters, God and Money. Recall from Luke 4:18 that Jesus said He was to “preach good news to the poor.” And it is true! There are rich believers today, and certainly poor nonbelievers, but the rich, especially the very rich, truly have a lot to overcome to get to that point of humility where they can stop depending on themselves or their station in life and instead rely totally on Christ.
This is a tremendously practical teaching. Sometimes it is better to take the lower paying job, or to work fewer hours. Sometimes it is better to forgo creature comforts and use your money for missions, or church work, or helping out others. I guarantee that none of us, when we get to heaven, will say, “I wish I had spent less time with my family so I could have worked more hours. I wish I had given less to the church so that I could have bought a nicer car.”
And for those of us that struggle just to get by, this is a tremendously encouraging teaching. We may be at a disadvantage in the world’s eyes, Ms. TV Person might not even be talking to us, but we, if we are living for Christ, are accruing eternal riches.
Practically speaking, should we live like rich people or poor people? In attitude, more like poor people. We should not trust in our riches, but trust in Christ. If we have money, we should treat it more like a treacherous snake than like a source of comfort and safety. Our trust should be in the Lord, not in our bank account.
Blessed are you who hunger now, for you will be satisfied. [...] Woe to you who are well fed now, for you will go hungry. – Luke 6:21a, 25a
Although there are exceptions, generally Americans do not understand what it means to live life continually hungry. Back in the 1920s, and certainly back to the westward expansion in the 1800s, people knew what it was to go hungry. If your crops failed, you might be hungry for another year. And the same was true in Jesus’ time.
Can you imagine what it is like to go continually hungry and see some of those around you plump and selecting only the finest delicacies? Such was life at the time of Jesus. It would be easy to be jealous or resentful of those who had such privilege. But now can you imagine what it would be like to be eternally hungry? That is what awaits those who do not feed on the Bread or drink from the Fountain of living water that will make them live forever (John 4:14, John 6:58).
Again, practically, we should live like hungry people. We should not seek contentment in this world, but should hunger for Christ.
Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh. [...] Woe to you who laugh now, for you will mourn and weep. – Luke 6:21b, 25b
Now, all people go through times when they weep, and all people sometimes laugh. Eccl. 3:4 says there is a time for each. But some people have a greater share of weeping – from difficult circumstances, such as a chronic illness or the loss of a loved one. People who have really suffered tend to have a greater “depth” than those for whom life has been easy. Some people have been truly spoiled their entire lives, and have a shockingly shallow and selfish view of life. Such people rarely have turned to Christ, and indeed, have little desire to even contemplate the gospel. They don’t care. It is to people like this that I believe Jesus refers. Unbelievers face a future of mourning and weeping. It is not a pleasant thought to think about, but the Bible is absolutely clear about this. But in contrast, those who have endured great tragedy, although “deepened” by it, will not remain suffering forever. These people will have an eternity filled with joy, a joy deepened by their very suffering!
Practically, if you are suffering, this should be a great encouragement to you. I know that in my own life, my “deepening” has primarily come through the challenging times, not the easygoing ones. And as we minister to others, we should keep this in mind. We should not point others to band-aid answers to their pain, but point them to Christ. There is a natural tendency, when hearing someone share who is in the middle of pain, suffering, or grief, to want to “make it better.” But that is not our job. Our job is to point to the One who has borne more suffering, grief, and pain than anyone else and who offers to take you through the pain.
Blessed are you when men 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 fathers treated the prophets. [...] Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for that is how their fathers treated the false prophets. – Luke 6:22-23, 26
The first three blessings and woes are similar in that they all contrast present temporary rewards with future eternal rewards. On the flip side of the coin, they contrast future eternal misery with present temporary suffering. Poverty, hunger, and weeping – each endured now by someone who has become a “disciple” of Christ are not worth comparing to the eternal riches, satisfaction and joy that are to come.
But this fourth pair presents things a little differently, and it speaks to something I find much more subtle but equally dangerous – the love of praise. We all love praise and hate rejection. Who among us wishes they could go back to high school again? Only those of us who were popular; for many of us, there are aspects of those years that we wouldn’t want go back to even if someone pointed a gun to your head. Woe to you when all men speak well of you. Wow!
I don’t know about the rest of you, but I find this the hardest of the four to swallow. I want to be popular! I can see the danger of wealth, of living a life without heartache, and even of continually lusting for chocolate, but popularity sounds so innocent! I don’t want to be excluded, I don’t want to be insulted, and I certainly don’t want to be rejected as evil! Yet Jesus says that if this is so, you are blessed, and your reward in heaven will be great.
I need to make sure we don’t misapply this passage. Is Jesus saying you can be blessed by being antisocial or rude, by deliberately choosing to be weird just for the sake of being weird, or by choosing to never take a shower? No. Is Jesus saying that if you are a believer you can never be popular? No – Jesus Himself was very popular – for a time. What He is saying, I believe, is that you can not judge yourself, for good or bad, based on your popularity. Popularity means nothing. Even the false prophets were popular. But eventually, the true prophets lost theirs. And of course the ultimate example of this is Christ Himself. The bottom line is that we should not seek popularity, but seek fellowship in the sufferings of Christ. Popularity is a goal we should have nothing to do with. Instead we should seek to know Christ more, we should seek to become increasingly in love with and faithful to Him, even to fellowship in His sufferings, as Paul writes about in Phil. 3:10.
Going back to the value system of Ms. TV Person – we need to reject the subtle but ever-present value system she (and our whole culture) promotes. Let us instead be salt and light. I am struck with these verses from John 6:
Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. On Him God the Father has placed His seal of approval." Then they asked him, "What must we do to do the works God requires?" Jesus answered, "The work of God is this: to believe in the One He has sent." Then Jesus declared, "I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me will never go hungry, and he who believes in Me will never be thirsty." – John 6:27-29, 35
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