Luke 6:17-26 Blessings and Woes
He went down with them and stood on a level place with a large crowd of his disciples, and a large number of people from all Judea and Jerusalem, as well as from the coastal area of Tyre and Sidon. These people came to listen to him and to be healed of their diseases. Those who were troubled by unclean spirits were also cured. The whole crowd kept trying to touch him, because power was going out from him and healing them all. He lifted up his eyes to his disciples and said: “Blessed are you who are poor, because yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you who hunger now, because you will be satisfied. Blessed are you who weep now, because you will laugh. Blessed are you whenever people hate you, and whenever they exclude and insult you and reject your name as evil because of the Son of Man. Rejoice in that day and leap for joy because of this: Your reward is great in heaven! The fact is, their fathers constantly did the same things to the prophets. But woe to you who are rich, because you are receiving your comfort now. Woe to you who are well fed now, because you will be hungry. Woe to you who laugh now, because you will be mourning and weeping. Woe to you when all people speak well of you, because that is how their fathers constantly treated the false prophets.”
One of the most recognized, iconic photographs that came out of World War II was the famous picture of the raising of the flag on Mount Suribachi during the battle of Iwo Jima. The picture was taken 74 years ago this week, February 23, 1945. It was actually the second flag raised that day. The first one was half its size. The Secretary of the Navy was there, coming ashore on the beach when he saw it from a distance, and he wanted to take the flag home for a souvenir, but the battalion commander didn’t want to give it up, so he sent the men up the mountain again with a second, bigger flag that the secretary could have. That’s the one that was in the picture. Later, the men who had raised the first flag always felt forgotten—it was unfair, how they never got the attention they deserved. They were there first, but they didn’t get their picture taken, and their flag-raising just didn’t get the press. It was forgotten.
Well, our sermon text today suffers the same unfairness. It comes from the Sermon on the Plain, in Luke’s gospel. You’ve heard of the Sermon on the Mount, which is found in Matthew’s gospel. This is the other one, the one that just doesn’t get the same attention and the “press” that the other one does. It’s understandable—it’s a smaller flag; Luke’s sermon is much shorter than the Sermon on the Mount. And it’s got a humbler setting—the “Sermon on the Plain” just doesn’t have the same ring to it as the Sermon on the Mount; instead of hoisting Jesus up to a position on top of a mountain where he could be seen by everyone, the Sermon on the Plain took place down below, where there were so many people crowding around him, wanting to be touched, wanting to be healed, it may have been hard to see him at all. There are some other differences between these two sermons, but there are also a lot of similarities. Jesus sometimes repeated his teachings in much the same way for a new audience. So these two sermons have a lot in common. They both start out with beatitudes, Christ’s assurances of God’s blessings on the people.
Now we’re more familiar with the other flag-raising, the way Jesus said it on the mountain, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God.”
The Sermon on the Mount is like that photo from Iwo Jima; it’s the one we remember. But this other sermon doesn’t have to play second fiddle or be forever forgotten; it’s worth giving it our attention for all the things that make it different. Yes, the Sermon on the Mount is loftier. It focuses entirely on spiritual blessings for spiritual people. It talks about the poor “in spirit,” those who hunger and thirst “for righteousness,” the pure in heart. But down here on the plain, Jesus isn’t just talking about people who have an inner, spiritual hunger for the spiritual bread of God’s righteousness, he’s talking about people whose stomachs are actually growling. They’re hungry, really hungry for actual food. “Blessed are you who hunger now, because you will be satisfied.”
We can tell that’s actual hunger because of this other thing that he didn’t do when he preached his first sermon on the mountaintop; he adds woes for some of his listeners who aren’t so blessed: “Woe to you who are well fed now, because you will be hungry.” On the mountain Jesus pronounced God’s blessings on the poor in spirit, those who are well aware of their humble, needy, and impoverished status before God, as sinners and undeserving of his grace. But down here on the plain he’s actually talking to poor people, because, again, he makes the contrast: Woe to those of you who are rich. Life may very comfortable for you right now, but that’s all the comfort you’re going to get. Don’t expect comfort when God’s judgment comes.
It’s a different sermon for a different group of people, in spite of sounding so similar. Both sermons are worth listening to and learning from. But this morning we’re not up there on the mountaintop. We’re down here on the plain. Down here, Jesus is surrounded by people who were struggling through life. Many were sick or crippled, and they tried to touch Jesus to be healed. They were poor; they were hungry, not just because lunchtime was a number of hours ago, but because they had no food for lunch. Down here on the plain, people struggle. We may not have the same struggles they did. Not many in our community or our rich country know the kind of hunger and severe poverty that were commonplace in that land. But that doesn’t mean we don’t have struggles. We have aches and pains that they would have said, “I know exactly how that feels.” We have family strife or worries about how we’re going to handle all of our responsibilities, as they would have. Worries about the future, for our country, for our community, for our children as well as for ourselves, like they had.
Yet the blessings Jesus pronounces down here on the plain where we’ve got problems, are the same blessings he pronounced on the mountain top. He looks around at the poor and hungry people crowding around him and says, “Yours is the kingdom of God.” Think of it. You own a kingdom; a beautiful, rich and glorious kingdom is yours. It might not be money in the bank in the sense that we can make a withdrawal this morning and pay for dinner, to stop our stomachs from growling. But it is money in the bank. It is certain and safe and yours forever. Jesus himself earned those riches for us by his sacrifice and payment for all of our debt of sin. And he chose each one of us, individually, and sealed us, marked us with the Holy Spirit. We are his. So the kingdom is ours, as surely as if we held the deed in our hands.
And that knowledge, and the understanding that our lives here serve a purpose in getting us to God’s glory and letting us be the witnesses and ambassadors that help somebody else get to God’s glory, makes it worth some temporary discomfort on the journey. It encourages us that, even if we still have problems and unfulfilled needs and pains in life, God is there for us, providing for us and making sure that this all will lead us directly to his glorious kingdom.
It’s encouraging. But what about the other half of this sermon? “Woe to you who are rich... Woe to you who are well fed now... Woe to you who laugh now.” Financially, most of us have more in common with the very richest of the rich in the land of Israel in Christ’s day than we do with the poorest of the poor. And we’ve got a pretty nice pot luck waiting for us after church today, so nobody should go home hungry. And we do laugh occasionally, maybe frequently. Whoa! Woe to us? If God’s kingdom is assured to the financially poor and the physically hungry, and we’re financially rich by comparison to Christ’s audience, and we’re well fed, what are our chances of being truly and eternally blessed?
But this wasn’t a blanket condemnation of everyone who was rich, just because they had money, any more than Jesus ever would have suggested that anybody who lives is poverty automatically goes to heaven. There is a connection, between our earthly state and our spiritual state. There’s a connection between how we view earthly possessions and riches and how we treasure heavenly things. Those who were poor also tended to be humble. Life taught them that they needed mercy, compassion, and charity, just to get by, from God most of all. They were both poor in their pocketbooks and poor in spirit. The rich tended to be proud and think they were entitled to everything good, in life and in God’s graces. They were rich in their bank accounts, but not with God. And Christ’s message of forgiveness, grace, and mercy fell on deaf ears with them.
And, yes, that could be a temptation for us as well, to take God’s treasures for granted because we are so blessed in earthly things. A temptation, but not one we have to give in to. It’s not the net worth, but the attitude that brought such woes addressed to them from Jesus’ lips. In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus warned against people who “run after” all these things, fine clothing and rich food and earthly possessions. It’s not the possessing that’s a problem, but the chasing and prioritizing above heavenly things. So he says there, “So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”
We are blessed. We are cared for by a heavenly Father, and the good things we have are gifts of his love. We are blessed by the gift of his Holy Spirit, sealing us as his own, and making us wise about the dangers and the proper use of all these earthly things. We are blessed by his forgiveness when we become greedy, selfish, or overly concerned about this life, running after such things, and by his help to transform our hearts to the same attitude that was found in Christ our Savior. We are blessed, and in Christ the kingdom of God belongs to us by his grace. Amen.
He went down with them and stood on a level place with a large crowd of his disciples, and a large number of people from all Judea and Jerusalem, as well as from the coastal area of Tyre and Sidon. These people came to listen to him and to be healed of their diseases. Those who were troubled by unclean spirits were also cured. The whole crowd kept trying to touch him, because power was going out from him and healing them all. He lifted up his eyes to his disciples and said: “Blessed are you who are poor, because yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you who hunger now, because you will be satisfied. Blessed are you who weep now, because you will laugh. Blessed are you whenever people hate you, and whenever they exclude and insult you and reject your name as evil because of the Son of Man. Rejoice in that day and leap for joy because of this: Your reward is great in heaven! The fact is, their fathers constantly did the same things to the prophets. But woe to you who are rich, because you are receiving your comfort now. Woe to you who are well fed now, because you will be hungry. Woe to you who laugh now, because you will be mourning and weeping. Woe to you when all people speak well of you, because that is how their fathers constantly treated the false prophets.”
One of the most recognized, iconic photographs that came out of World War II was the famous picture of the raising of the flag on Mount Suribachi during the battle of Iwo Jima. The picture was taken 74 years ago this week, February 23, 1945. It was actually the second flag raised that day. The first one was half its size. The Secretary of the Navy was there, coming ashore on the beach when he saw it from a distance, and he wanted to take the flag home for a souvenir, but the battalion commander didn’t want to give it up, so he sent the men up the mountain again with a second, bigger flag that the secretary could have. That’s the one that was in the picture. Later, the men who had raised the first flag always felt forgotten—it was unfair, how they never got the attention they deserved. They were there first, but they didn’t get their picture taken, and their flag-raising just didn’t get the press. It was forgotten.
Well, our sermon text today suffers the same unfairness. It comes from the Sermon on the Plain, in Luke’s gospel. You’ve heard of the Sermon on the Mount, which is found in Matthew’s gospel. This is the other one, the one that just doesn’t get the same attention and the “press” that the other one does. It’s understandable—it’s a smaller flag; Luke’s sermon is much shorter than the Sermon on the Mount. And it’s got a humbler setting—the “Sermon on the Plain” just doesn’t have the same ring to it as the Sermon on the Mount; instead of hoisting Jesus up to a position on top of a mountain where he could be seen by everyone, the Sermon on the Plain took place down below, where there were so many people crowding around him, wanting to be touched, wanting to be healed, it may have been hard to see him at all. There are some other differences between these two sermons, but there are also a lot of similarities. Jesus sometimes repeated his teachings in much the same way for a new audience. So these two sermons have a lot in common. They both start out with beatitudes, Christ’s assurances of God’s blessings on the people.
Now we’re more familiar with the other flag-raising, the way Jesus said it on the mountain, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God.”
The Sermon on the Mount is like that photo from Iwo Jima; it’s the one we remember. But this other sermon doesn’t have to play second fiddle or be forever forgotten; it’s worth giving it our attention for all the things that make it different. Yes, the Sermon on the Mount is loftier. It focuses entirely on spiritual blessings for spiritual people. It talks about the poor “in spirit,” those who hunger and thirst “for righteousness,” the pure in heart. But down here on the plain, Jesus isn’t just talking about people who have an inner, spiritual hunger for the spiritual bread of God’s righteousness, he’s talking about people whose stomachs are actually growling. They’re hungry, really hungry for actual food. “Blessed are you who hunger now, because you will be satisfied.”
We can tell that’s actual hunger because of this other thing that he didn’t do when he preached his first sermon on the mountaintop; he adds woes for some of his listeners who aren’t so blessed: “Woe to you who are well fed now, because you will be hungry.” On the mountain Jesus pronounced God’s blessings on the poor in spirit, those who are well aware of their humble, needy, and impoverished status before God, as sinners and undeserving of his grace. But down here on the plain he’s actually talking to poor people, because, again, he makes the contrast: Woe to those of you who are rich. Life may very comfortable for you right now, but that’s all the comfort you’re going to get. Don’t expect comfort when God’s judgment comes.
It’s a different sermon for a different group of people, in spite of sounding so similar. Both sermons are worth listening to and learning from. But this morning we’re not up there on the mountaintop. We’re down here on the plain. Down here, Jesus is surrounded by people who were struggling through life. Many were sick or crippled, and they tried to touch Jesus to be healed. They were poor; they were hungry, not just because lunchtime was a number of hours ago, but because they had no food for lunch. Down here on the plain, people struggle. We may not have the same struggles they did. Not many in our community or our rich country know the kind of hunger and severe poverty that were commonplace in that land. But that doesn’t mean we don’t have struggles. We have aches and pains that they would have said, “I know exactly how that feels.” We have family strife or worries about how we’re going to handle all of our responsibilities, as they would have. Worries about the future, for our country, for our community, for our children as well as for ourselves, like they had.
Yet the blessings Jesus pronounces down here on the plain where we’ve got problems, are the same blessings he pronounced on the mountain top. He looks around at the poor and hungry people crowding around him and says, “Yours is the kingdom of God.” Think of it. You own a kingdom; a beautiful, rich and glorious kingdom is yours. It might not be money in the bank in the sense that we can make a withdrawal this morning and pay for dinner, to stop our stomachs from growling. But it is money in the bank. It is certain and safe and yours forever. Jesus himself earned those riches for us by his sacrifice and payment for all of our debt of sin. And he chose each one of us, individually, and sealed us, marked us with the Holy Spirit. We are his. So the kingdom is ours, as surely as if we held the deed in our hands.
And that knowledge, and the understanding that our lives here serve a purpose in getting us to God’s glory and letting us be the witnesses and ambassadors that help somebody else get to God’s glory, makes it worth some temporary discomfort on the journey. It encourages us that, even if we still have problems and unfulfilled needs and pains in life, God is there for us, providing for us and making sure that this all will lead us directly to his glorious kingdom.
It’s encouraging. But what about the other half of this sermon? “Woe to you who are rich... Woe to you who are well fed now... Woe to you who laugh now.” Financially, most of us have more in common with the very richest of the rich in the land of Israel in Christ’s day than we do with the poorest of the poor. And we’ve got a pretty nice pot luck waiting for us after church today, so nobody should go home hungry. And we do laugh occasionally, maybe frequently. Whoa! Woe to us? If God’s kingdom is assured to the financially poor and the physically hungry, and we’re financially rich by comparison to Christ’s audience, and we’re well fed, what are our chances of being truly and eternally blessed?
But this wasn’t a blanket condemnation of everyone who was rich, just because they had money, any more than Jesus ever would have suggested that anybody who lives is poverty automatically goes to heaven. There is a connection, between our earthly state and our spiritual state. There’s a connection between how we view earthly possessions and riches and how we treasure heavenly things. Those who were poor also tended to be humble. Life taught them that they needed mercy, compassion, and charity, just to get by, from God most of all. They were both poor in their pocketbooks and poor in spirit. The rich tended to be proud and think they were entitled to everything good, in life and in God’s graces. They were rich in their bank accounts, but not with God. And Christ’s message of forgiveness, grace, and mercy fell on deaf ears with them.
And, yes, that could be a temptation for us as well, to take God’s treasures for granted because we are so blessed in earthly things. A temptation, but not one we have to give in to. It’s not the net worth, but the attitude that brought such woes addressed to them from Jesus’ lips. In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus warned against people who “run after” all these things, fine clothing and rich food and earthly possessions. It’s not the possessing that’s a problem, but the chasing and prioritizing above heavenly things. So he says there, “So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”
We are blessed. We are cared for by a heavenly Father, and the good things we have are gifts of his love. We are blessed by the gift of his Holy Spirit, sealing us as his own, and making us wise about the dangers and the proper use of all these earthly things. We are blessed by his forgiveness when we become greedy, selfish, or overly concerned about this life, running after such things, and by his help to transform our hearts to the same attitude that was found in Christ our Savior. We are blessed, and in Christ the kingdom of God belongs to us by his grace. Amen.
