Uncomfortably blessed

Blessing is uncomfortable: living in dependence, longing for restoration, speaking for Jesus yet rejected - but with a reason to rejoice. Those who are comfortable, satisfied and approved of will be welcomed now but woe is ahead.

Non-Christian application: There's something much better than the best of this life available Christian application: But don't expect to be comfortable pursuing it

Are you sitting comfortably?

Introduce me

Want to talk about comfort today. Ironically, I was busy thinking about today’s message sat in the spa this week (don’t freak out - it’s the first time I’ve been in one for many years! I’m not a regular). It really was rather nice, though. Smelly steam rooms. Aqua jets. Robes. But I don’t want you thinking about me - think about you for a minute. How comfortable is your life just now? If you had to rate it on a scale of 1-10, 1 being maximum discomfort to 10 being maximum comfort, where would you put yourself? I know there are some among us in very difficult situations. Others I imagine face challenges only known to them. But perhaps there are some here today and for you everything’s going swimmingly. Where are you? 1-10. Comfort? Discomfort?

As we’ve been tracing Jesus’ story, we’ve seen him say and do wonderful things, but also we’ve seen him begin to feel the bite of opposition. Last week we saw him calling his 12 special disciples and we thought about how God chooses to work through very ordinary people - then, and still here today. All so the glory goes to Him.

Today, we’ll see Jesus begin to teach those disciples. We’ll hear Jesus warning those who are comfortable now that there’s trouble ahead - and at the same time he lets his disciples know they shouldn’t expect a comfortable life, but it will be worth it. Think back to your comfort score. If you’re comfortable, should you feel bad? If you’re uncomfortable, should that somehow be something good? Listen in to what Jesus has to say - and then we’ll dig in together to see what we can learn.

Luke 6:17-26

Luke 6:17–26 NIV

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. “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 everyone speaks well of you, for that is how their ancestors treated the false prophets.

Assembled a huge crowd, disciples at the front but many others there too. Jesus, speaking primarily to his disciples, lists off a set of blessings and woes: people favoured by God vs. misfortune ahead. Four marks in each list: poor/hungry/weeping/rejected vs. rich/fed/laughing/accepted.

Yes, yes, yes? No: Surprise!

I think it’s a bit too easy just to nod along and say “yes, yes, yes”, Churchill-style sometimes - but let’s just stop the tape here for a moment and think before we nod: what do you think life looks like for someone blessed? Someone favoured by God? What do you imagine a blessed life to be?

Back then, many would have thought of riches as a mark of blessing, a mark of divine favour. And I expect if we’re honest, we often think much the same way too. Perhaps we wouldn’t write it down or lay it out on the table quite like that - but it’d probably be part of our assumptions under the covers: If God blesses someone, favouring them, they’re going to be living the high life, enjoying the good life, right? And what about the other side? Say you’re hungry, say you’re weeping - doesn’t that sound more like “woe” than “blessed”, favoured by God?

So first, we should be surprised at what Jesus is saying - just like the first hearers would have been. It’s not at all obvious that people who are blessed, people who are favoured by God, should have things so bad: poor, hungry, weeping, rejected. That’s not the list of ways to know you’re blessed that anyone’s going to reel off when you ask.

Why does Jesus surprise us? Jesus is brilliant at saying things which make people stop and think. That’s exactly what he’s doing here. So second, we should scratch our heads a little. Let’s allow what he’s said here to us make us think!

What Jesus isn’t saying

And let’s start our thinking with these categories, these pairs of opposites, which separate those who are blessed from those who face woe: rich/poor, hungry/fed, laughing/weeping. rejected/accepted. Have we understood these categories right?

We could take them at surface level - and conclude there are some very simple ways to blessing here: all we need to do is get poor, hungry, sad and rejected - and we’re sure to be blessed. Getting rid of money’s pretty easy. Hungry’s a bit harder if you’re like me and you like your food. Weeping - well, perhaps a tearjerker of a movie? And then I could just cultivate being really offensive so I end up with people hating me and rejecting me. Have I described the path to blessing? A path into the Kingdom of God? Of course not.

Paul, one of Jesus’ first followers writes “If I give all I possess to the poor … but do not have love, I gain nothing”. It’s not as simple as becoming materially poor. Or physically hungry, or weeping for that matter: do you remember Jesus and his disciples celebrating at a party just a few verses back?

And the other side of things isn’t to be taken at surface level either. Jesus isn’t saying here everyone materially rich is headed for woe - good thing too since all of us on a global scale would be considered pretty rich. He’s not saying everyone who has enough to eat, everyone who dares to laugh is headed for woe.

So what is he getting at? Let’s start with this first one, “poor”. It’s only been on Jesus’ lips once before in Luke’s gospel so we should probably look there for some insight. Back when Jesus announced his mission on earth, laid out his manifesto, he used it:

Lk 4:18-19

Luke 4:18–19 NIV

“The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

Here, “the poor” are the recipients of the good news; cast alongside prisoners freed and blind seeing again. Now, just like Jesus isn’t primarily about prison breaks or ophthalmology (though he does heal a few blind); these things are primarily metaphors, word pictures; captive to sin; blind to God’s message. Poor = recognise they need help, dependent on God; these are the “sick who need a doctor” of Lk 5:31, sinners [explain] Jesus is calling to repentance Lk 5:32

Mt 5:3 close parallel expands to “poor in Spirit”

Poor, hungry, weeping

If you wanted a one-word expansion of “poor” here, I’d go for “dependent”. That’s what characterised the poor back then even more than it does today: those who are dependent on another. Jesus says there’s blessing for the spiritually poor, for those who are ready to depend on God. In fact, here he says there’s blessing for them not just in some future time, but blessing right here and right now. Notice in v20 it’s “yours is the Kingdom of God” not yours will be.

Those who know they have a problem which they can’t fix, one they can’t talk their way out of, or run away from, who know they have turned their back on God and His ways and who choose to return to him, desperate and dependent on his mercy. That’s the poor who are blessed.

So what about hungry?

Well, the same parallel passage in Matthew helps us out on hungry: this isn’t primarily about physical hungriness, it’s about hunger for righteousness cf Mt 5:6. What does a hunger for righteousness look like? I think it has internal and external aspects.

Internally, it’s a hunger for finally getting things right rather than wrong, for finally choosing God’s way rather than our own. A profound desire to please God. If you’ve chosen to follow Jesus, you’ll know that’s not something which Christians achieve - it’s something we fall short of every day, something we can miss by miles and miles. True Christians aren’t those who have already arrived at a life filled with right-ness - they’re those who know that’s where they want to be, who hunger for it. People with that desire are here declared blessed, and given the confidence that a day will come when that hunger will be fulfilled

Externally, it’s a hunger for a world finally made right where it has gone wrong. A world where things are put back to how they should have been all along. A world where the strong protect the weak rather than exploit them. A world filled with justice and generosity. A world where people love God and love one another, like we were meant to. Now you can call that a fairytale utopia, but that’s the world God intended when he created - and that’s the world he’s promised to restore and renew. When he declares here that a day will come when this hunger is satisfied, that’s also what he’s promising.

So a hunger for right-ness inside ourselves and outside in the world.

And what about weeping?

This pairs up with hungry, it’s the other side of it. Christians are hungry for the way things should be, internally and externally. Christians weep for the way things are, internally and externally. It’s our response to the wrong-ness in our lives and the wrong-ness in our world. My life is filled with failings; do I sweep them under the rug? Do I pretend they never happened? Or do I mourn over them? Our world is filled with brokenness; do we ignore it, pretending it’s not there? Do we dismiss it, sweeping it under the rug? Or do we weep over the brokenness of this world?

Notice again here that just like the hunger comes with a promise of future satisfaction, so also the weeping will end; we’ll laugh and rejoice in our arrival at the destination of our spiritual journey, finally conformed to Christ, pressed into his shape and likeness; finally seeing the pain of our broken world resolved.

So, poor, hungry, weeping; but it’s important we see these aren’t three separate groups. It’s not like a multiple choice test where you could tick the box for hungry but miss the one for weeping. Or tick the box for poor but miss being hungry. These categories are all describing one group in the end, they are just different aspects of what it means to be in that group, those blessed by God, those chosen by Him, brought into His Kingdom now with a confident hope of fulfilment ahead.

Uncomfortable

And I think there’s a single banner we can helpfully collect all of these under: “uncomfortable”. The life of a disciple, the Christian life, the blessed life, Jesus says, is uncomfortable. Uncomfortable in that it recognises our total dependency on God and his mercy. Uncomfortable in that is feels the brokenness in our own lives and in the world around us. Uncomfortable in that it hungers for more progress in our own walk, more transformation in our world.

But the observant among you will notice I haven’t said anything about the final pairing yet - rejected and accepted. Saving the best for last - just like Jesus! We’ve looked at three metaphors, all describing this one uncomfortable group - and this last pair adds one more dimension to that, describes one more feature of it.

But this last one is different. It’s different in lots of ways: emphasised by volume (word count); by precision (4 terms); by response called for (only one; only command); by explanation (only explanation). It’s where everything is pointing. It’s like Jesus marks this out as the summit, the heart of what he’s describing.

And it’s not just about being rejected - it’s about speaking.

Look at v22 with me. Why are these people hated, excluded, insulted, and rejected? Not just because they are obnoxious - but because of the Son of Man, Jesus says. Son of Man is the term he’s using for himself, a pointer to who he is and what he will do.

Think about this a moment, though. How is it that anyone could be rejected on account of the Son of Man? More specifically, how is it that anyone actually does get rejected on account of the Son of Man? As we read on in Luke’s story of the life of Jesus, and then on into the story of the early church, we’ll see it isn’t just being associated with Jesus that gets his people in trouble. It’s not just wearing “I’m with Jesus” tshirts or robes or whatever. It’s not that they’re busy loving one another and doing good to all and sharing their stuff. People mostly seem fine with that. They enjoy the favour of all the people, we’re told. That’s not what winds people up.

It’s that they speak. They speak about who Jesus is and what he has done, and what he will do.

Bring this into the present. How many people will reject you just because you call yourself a Christian or are associated with Jesus? Perhaps some, but not many. Most people don’t really care what you think and do inside your own head. What about following Jesus’ commands and instructions? I don’t think you’ll face much rejection on account of loving others or serving those in need or seeking to grow in patience and gentleness or things like that. But speaking about him, speaking for him? Yeah, I think that can get you rejection from some people today still just fine.

And notice here the parallel Jesus draws for the disciples: v23 “that is how their ancestors treated the prophets” - he makes the parallel between the disciples and the prophets of old. No-one really got that upset at prophets for what they believed or how they acted even if they were pretty weird. Nope. Virtually always it was what they said that drove people completely potty.

Now it’s not that the disciples are to be rejected by everybody - it’s not “all people” in v22 - just people, just some people. On account of what we say. That’s uncomfortable.

So here’s the aspect of being a follower of Jesus that he chooses to emphasise, chooses to place at the centre when he’s defining those who are blessed - and remember these are all different aspects of the same group of people. Rejected like the prophets of old. Rejected because of the Son of Man, because of speaking of him, speaking for him.

The life blessed by God is an uncomfortable life here and now. But it’s blessed because our longings will be fulfilled and our reward will be great in heaven.

Does that make you uncomfortable?

So what?

Well, if you’d call yourself a follower of Jesus here today, I think this challenges us to think less about how comfortable we feel, and more about how well we match up to Jesus’ definition of blessed - and let’s face it: matching up to that is going to leave us decidedly uncomfortable.

We started out, if you remember, by thinking about how comfortable or uncomfortable we feel our current situation is - but so often what makes me feel comfortable or uncomfortable is just the same things as the next person, follower of Jesus or not: Do I have enough to look after myself and my family? Are things going ok for me? Do people like me? I imagine that’s what most of us had in mind when we scored how comfortable we are.

Do we value our comfort so much that we’re in danger of missing out on something far, far more important: being blessed? Should we allow ourselves to become less comfortable in pursuit of this?

In particular, Jesus made us focus on speaking. I know I duck opportunities to speak of him and for him - because I don’t want to be rejected. It’s only human, I tell myself. But Jesus says that speaking is at the heart of what it means to be someone blessed; that even though it will make us uncomfortable, it’s worth it. So if no-one at all ever raises an eyebrow at you, at what you say, why not let Jesus’ words make you feel uncomfortable?

Why not resolve to live a little less comfortably this week?

Too easily satisfied

And if you wouldn’t call yourself a follower of Jesus here today, perhaps Jesus has something to say to you too?

Think about the way we’ve unpacked these different categories for blessing, and what that means for the woes.

Jesus pronounces woe on the rich - and remember, that’s not materially rich. Rich here pictures those who are independent of God, have no need of him, because they think they’re fine, failing to grasp they are alienated from God - in truth, his enemy.

He pronounces woe on the well fed - that is, those who are fine with the way things are, who don’t hunger for things to be different internally or externally.

He pronounces woe on those who laugh - that is, those who don’t see or mourn for the brokenness of our world and ourselves.

He pronounces woe on those who everyone approves of. Just like the false prophets who said whatever people wanted to hear.

I can sum all those up with one word: comfortable. Are you comfortable? Do you feel comfortable? The irony is that’s the sentence Jesus pronounces here: v24 “you have already received your comfort.” This is it. This is your summit. This is as good as it’s going to get.

You might be thinking “well, hey, this is ok. I’m fine with this. It’s not so bad. It’s pretty good really.” But you will be missing out on what it really means to be blessed, on what it really means to be an object of God’s favour. There is something so much more wonderful on offer than everything this world calls comfort. Something so much more satisfying, so much grander, so much more far reaching and complete and pleasing and right.

CS Lewis: "We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased." link

Sure, being blessed might be less comfortable for a while - but ultimately it’s worth it.