Tom Mount – October 6, 2024

 

Introduction

  • We continue our series in Luke’s gospel. Today we pick up with Jesus among the people: healing diseases, casting out impure spirits, demonstrating power of the kingdom.
  • Now he begins to teach them about what life is like when lived in the kingdom of God.
  • This is often called the “Sermon on the Plain” (cf. Matthew 5-7).

Jesus describes the way of blessing and curse

20 Looking at his disciples, he said:

  • Jesus will start with a rhetorical device well known to audience: “Blessing and Woe Pronouncements” (Deut 27-28). Also common in Greek and Egyptian literature.
  • Jesus lists four blessings, then four corresponding woes related to one’s experience of four things: wealth, nourishment, emotional response and persecution.
  • I’ve reorganized the material in vv. 20-26 into contrasting couplets

Material wealth

20 “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God…24 “But woe to you who are rich, for you have already received your comfort.

  • Not only is this counter-intuitive, it also seems to run counter to the Old Covenant.
  • Under Old Covenant, speaking generally, if you obeyed torah you were better off materially. God blessed piety, hard work, honestly. (See Proverbs; cf. Ps 73, Job).
  • But now, Jesus is doing something new. Prior to him, the focus was on national Israel (physical descendants of Abraham). Now the focus is on the nations which were dispossessed in Genesis 11. The old ways (torah, circumcision, sabbath regulations, food laws, temple worship, sacrificial offerings) will no longer apply. Jesus has come to fulfill each of those old types and inaugurate an entirely new way: the Kingdom of God under the terms of a New Covenant (remnant Israel plus believing Gentiles).
  • There is going to be pushback against this new way from certain Jews who are unwilling to change (Pharisees, Sadducees), the Roman authorities who fear anything that upsets the fragile peace they established, and the dark powers.
  • Jesus begins by debunking the idea that there is a one-to-one correspondence between God’s blessing and material wealth. In fact, those who have a lot of it will find it hard to enter the K of G because all their needs are met (Luke 18:18-30).
  • Is God saying you can’t be wealthy and blessed? (1 Timothy 6:17-19).

Physical nourishment

21 “Blessed are you who hunger now, for you will be satisfied… 25 Woe to you who are well fed now, for you will go hungry.

  • Hunger was an ever-present reality in the ANE: droughts, insect infestations, military operations. Staying fed often depended on good social connections.
  • And if you were kicked out of your synagogue or trade guild, you lost your contacts and could easily go without means of feeding yourself and your family.
  • Why, then, are they blessed? Because they are doing it out of love for Jesus and will be rewarded at the Messianic banquet (Isa 25:6). This is a recurring theme in Luke (see 13:29; 14:15-24; cf. Rev 19:1-9).

Emotional response

25 Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh…25 Woe to you who laugh now, for you will mourn and weep.

  • Is laughing evil? What kinds of things do Christ’s disciples weep over in this life?
  • Why are they blessed? They choose to identify with Jesus, and that choice qualifies them to experience unending laughter and joy in the life to come (Rev 21:1-4).

Religious persecution

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. 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. 26 Woe to you when everyone speaks well of you, for that is how their ancestors treated the false prophets.

  • Here it really becomes obvious Jesus is preparing his disciples to suffer the persecution they are about to experience because of their association with him.
  • When you and I faithfully live for the Lord and speak the truth and stand up to power, we will get pushback (2 Tim 3:12).
  • Note the words Jesus uses here. Your enemies will: “hate you… exclude you… insult you… reject your name as evil because of the Son of Man.” Sound familiar?
  • What kind of payoff can we expect if we are faithful? He says, “Great is your reward in heaven:” the praise of God, positions of authority, eternal respect and honor.

What is central focus of this passage?

 

Jim Elliot: “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.”