Blessings and woe

Prayer Meeting

This section of Luke is Jesus’ explanation of

What it means to enter the kingdom, to commit yourself to following Christ as king.

So far Jesus has shown the authority that he brings,

And these verse begin to summarise the nature of discipleship which he calls for.

The blessings and the woes are symmetrical, poor/rich (v. 20, v. 24), hungry/fed (v. 21a, v. 25a), weeping/laughing (v. 21b, 25b), insults/complements (v. 25, v. 26).

Each pair presents a present benefit,

which is forfeited or given up or never acheived for a future reward.

“Blessed are you who are poor,

for yours is the kingdom of God.

21 Blessed are you who hunger now,

for you will be satisfied.

Blessed are you who weep now,

for you will laugh.

22 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.

The New International Version Chapter 6

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

However, if this benefit is embraced in the present, then the reward is in the present and it is the future reward that is forfeited.

24 “But woe to you who are rich,

for you have already received your comfort.

25 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.

26 Woe to you when everyone speaks well of you,

for that is how their ancestors treated the false prophets.

The New International Version. (2011). (Lk 6:24–26). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

The comparison with present riches in v. 24 suggests that this is related to economic poverty now. But the point is not that that all who are poor are blessed, for clearly, they are not,

but poverty can lead to a recognition of need and dependence on God,

while those who live in comfort,

can all too easily remain oblivious to their spiritual need.

The same can be said for hunger and weeping, and so the list could go on.

Perhaps the weeping for our own sin,

or the weeping brought about by the this broken, sinful world.

Those who laugh, can’t see the problem:

Woe to you who laugh now, for you will mourn and weep.

And it’s even worse for those of us who weep,

becasue A world which produces such mourning, will always reject those who recognize it:

That’s what is going on in v22

22 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.

The point here is not that these attitudes earn our way into the kingdom,

it is a kingdom of grace not works,

but that this is the demeanour or attitude - even experience,

of those who enter.

One who recognizes their needs,

Sees this world and our own struggles for what they are.

IN many ways, most of us will be comfortable,

what a challenge we have to still reject the comfort of this world in exchange for what is to come!

And many of us will be really, really struggerling, weeping and mourning for our situation and the world, and our own sin.

What an oppertunity to turn to Jesus alone for comfort.

You are blessed.

Put simply,

“These blessings are not a works salvation but represent an invitation to let God mould us into who we ought to be. And so, God assures those who are needy that he will care for them.”

If you read these and know you need, come to him and you will be blessed. But if you have had your fill, if you laugh in comfort, and that blinds you to your need, woe to you.

Heavenly Father show me my poverty, my hunger, my sorrow and rejection. Do not hide them from me, forgive me when I have hidden from them. Seeing my need, show me a blessing, not in these things but in you. In Jesus’s name, Amen.