What is God's Blessing?
What does it mean to be "blessed"? In your opinion, who is really well-off in our world today, in our culture, our city, our church? Who are those who're blessed?
It's normal and natural for our minds to go to those who appear to have stable and secure lives, those with resources, maybe a house or a spouse or kids or a stable job or those who seem to be happy or well-connected or good-looking.
Our minds go this way because, for various reasons, we intuitively assume that blessing is material not spiritual. Don't get me wrong, if we have food and clothes and our basic necessities met, it's because God has mercifully provided for us and we should be grateful. Because we're all hell-deserving sinners, anything we get besides that is mercy from God.
Our hearts and our culture teach us to believe that success, wealth, beauty, power, and strength is what reveals God's blessing. But the emphasis of the New Testament is that "blessings" aren't material but spiritual in nature. For example, in Ephesians 1, Paul says, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places" (1:3). Then he proceeds to talk about predestination, adoption and redemption and forgiveness of sins and an inheritance and the gift of the Holy Spirit to those who believe the gospel (vv. 4-14), which are all spiritual blessings we have in Christ. So when we pray, "Oh God please bless us!", we need to remember that he already has in all the ways that matter most.
Because we're so easily blinded by this glittering image (or idol) of blessing, Jesus comes to, among other things, pull back the curtain and show us what's really important in life. To show us what real blessing from God looks like.
Like Paul, Jesus has a lot to say about the "blessed life," and what he has to say contradicts what we often assume to be true about life. This is what he's doing in our text today, Luke 6:17-26. The main point of this text is that God's blessings aren't what you'd think. First, we'll see Jesus bring power for the people (vv. 17-19). Second, he brings blessings for the poor (vv. 20-23). And third, he brings woes for the rich (vv. 24-26). In this passage, Jesus shows us what the blessed life looks like.
Power for the People
In verses 17-19, we see Jesus' power on display to the people flocking to him. Jesus was rejected by Israel's leaders so he's organizing a new community of God's people by first selecting leaders and then second by giving his followers instruction on the foundational practices and attitudes for his new distinct community.
The way Luke sets up the sermon is important. People are flocking to Jesus to hear him preach, be healed of diseases and demons, and even just to touch him because "power came out from him and healed them all" (v. 19). So the crowds are coming for blessings from Jesus and indeed receive the blessing of healing and freedom from bondage. But then Jesus proceeds to tell them what true blessings are (vv. 20-23) and warn them of living a life not blessed by God (vv. 24-26).
They come for one thing and end up receiving far more. They come for physical healing and are healed but then they're given teaching that will heal their souls.
Blessings for the Poor
His sermon begins in verses 20-23 by showing the people what true blessing looks like. Back in his sermon in Nazareth, Jesus announced that his mission was "to proclaim good news to the poor" (4:18). This sermon is an example of that good news.
Verse 20 says that Jesus addresses his words to his disciples, while the crowds listen in. So his words are to instruct those who've chosen to follow him, but they're also an invitation to those who're listening in and considering what to do with his message.
The key word in this message is "blessed." It's a Greek word usually used to describe those who had earthly success or good fortune. It was for those who'd achieved a measure of worldly well-being. It was a word used for the upper social caste which, in contrast to the lower classes of slaves and servants, enjoyed wealth, prosperity, and happiness. It was a word for the rich.
But Jesus says, "Blessed are you who are poor." This was counter-cultural and radical! He says that blessing has nothing to do with quantitative things like goods or money. Rather, he says that blessing is for those who experience a qualitatively different life by participating in the kingdom of God.
You may recall that in Matthew, Jesus says, "Blessed are the poor in spirit" (5:3), or that God blesses those who understand their spiritual bankruptcy. But Jesus doesn't qualify it like that here. He simply says that God's blessing is on the poor. In Luke, Jesus isn't talking about the spiritually poor; he's talking about the economically poor.
Luke mentions the poor twice as often as Matthew or Mark, likely as a way of helping his audience understand God's care for them. But not to extol poverty as a virtue in and of itself. In other words, disciples aren't blessed because they're poor. Poverty isn't blessed in itself. The church father Ambrose understood that "poverty is neutral. The poor can be either good or evil."1 The poor, like the rich, can be either good or bad.
So how are the poor blessed in Jesus' eyes? I think he's saying that disciples who're poor are blessed because they possess the most important thing, the kingdom of God. They're poor in only one sense, but lavishly wealthy in a more fundamental and important sense.
Jesus isn't referring to all the world's poor. He's speaking to his disciples, "Yours is the kingdom of God." The poor who follow him can be happy because they know that God is on their side even if no one else is. They can know that God will act on their behalf even if no one else does.
Jesus' blessing of the poor is also a challenge to those who have the means to help them to do all they can to alleviate their suffering. As James says, "If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, 'Go in peace, be warmed and filled,' without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that?" (2:15-16) Doing all we can to help the poor, especially the Christian poor, is a basic fruit of God's grace in our lives. When we understand how blessed we are spiritually, we'll work to bless others materially.
But the essential thing Jesus is doing in this beatitude is pulling back the curtain on reality and showing us that God's blessing has nothing to do with money. As one writer says, Jesus' words "challenge a perspective that thinks we are what we have accomplished or have accumulated. Jesus' beatitudes challenge conventional wisdom regarding political power and wealth. The world values the winners, but Jesus pronounces the losers, the marginal in Galilee, as blessed."2
In verse 21, Jesus mentions the hungry and the grieving, which are subgroups of the poor. Jesus says that they "will be satisfied" and "will laugh." These verbs are in the passive voice, indicating that someone else will bring this about, namely, God. God will fill them and bring them joy. There will be a great turnaround for the disciples of Jesus one day when their needs are fully met and their griefs are fully relieved.
The Cost and the Joy
Then in verse 22, Jesus describes the persecution that will come against his followers because of him. They'll be hated, rejected, insulted, and slandered because they follow the Son of Man. Jesus isn't saying that they'll be blessed if these things happen generally, but if they happen because they follow him.
But then in verse 23, Jesus says that persecution should create an unusual response among his followers. He says they should "rejoice" and "leap for joy" when they're mistreated for following him. How can this be possible? "For behold, your reward is great in heaven." The joy comes from knowing that God has ordained great reward for all who suffer for Jesus.
Unless the cultural winds in America start blowing in a different direction sometime soon, those who choose to live for Jesus Christ in obvious and outward ways will be ostracized and maligned. Darkness hates light. As evil grows and festers in our cultural imagination, we may see more anger and rage toward those who proclaim the goodness of God and the lordship of Jesus Christ. A culture disconnected from reality will spiral into irrational thinking and unimaginable violence.
There has always been a price for following God in this world. People thought Noah was crazy. Moses was laughed out of Pharaoh's palace. The prophets were killed by the people God sent them to. Jesus was falsely accused and executed for crimes he didn't commit. Tradition tells us that the apostles were all gruesomely murdered.
Those who decide to follow Jesus have to understand what they're getting themselves into. This is what Jesus says in Luke 14:25-33. Following Jesus will cost you something. If it doesn't cost you anything, you need to rethink what you mean by following Jesus. Living for God's truth in a world that hates God will come with a price. So don't pretend you're following Jesus if you aren't willing to pay the price.
What would attract us to such a life? The comfort of knowing that our suffering in this world is nothing compared to the reward of the next world (v. 23; cf. Rom. 8:18). Does the joy of heaven compel you to forsake everything this world offers, even your own life, for Jesus' sake?
Woes for the Rich
In verses 24-26, Jesus gives four corresponding woes to the rich. Jesus has good news for the poor and bad news for the rich. He's still speaking to his disciples, but the crowd is listening in. These woes are for those in the crowd, like the wealthy Gentiles from Tyre and Sidon, who came to see the Jesus show. The disciples from Galilee were almost certainly not rich. But Luke also wants to make sure that wealthy Christians hear these words so that we're not confused about what's really important in life.
Luke refers to the "rich" eleven times in his Gospel and always pejoratively. Poverty isn't holy in and of itself, but it does lend itself to a greater dependence on God, whereas wealth inevitably can become a substitute for God. Jesus isn't calling down curses on the rich but expressing deep concern for those who think they're safe from God's judgment because of their worldly status (cf. James 5:1-5).
The rich, the full, the content, and the noteworthy are four descriptions of the same group. They live for the here and now and are "blessed" in the world's eyes.
The rich who have their reward stand in contrast to the poor who belong to the kingdom of God. And this is the main thing Jesus is getting at: outward circumstances aren't what matter in God's kingdom. You can have everything but be poor spiritually or have nothing and be truly rich.
Later in Luke, Jesus says in the parable of the rich fool (12:13-21) and the parable of the rich man and Lazarus (16:19-31) why the rich will be judged. It's because they find security in their riches, selfishly serve themselves to perpetuate their status, and neglect the poor. They therefore have received all the consolation they can ever hope to receive, living under the awful burden of their riches. They will be judged because they sought consolation in the wrong place.
The question for the rich, then and now, is whether they will find their consolation in their riches or in God. Will God or money be their comfort? One way to discern what our consolation is, is to ask whether we're willing to sacrifice to bring consolation to others in need? This is what Paul tells the rich to do (1 Tim. 6:17-19). Generosity reveals where our hope is.
Then Jesus ends in verse 26 with a warning to those who win friends through flattery. Disciples aren't to deliberately try to have a bad reputation. But if everyone likes you, you're probably not doing something right.
Our reputation and honor are among our highest values, even more valuable than life itself for many. But Jesus praises disciples who're willing to forsake their name for his name's sake. Doing so brings us into company with the holy prophets of old (v. 23). But if we put our name and reputation above following Jesus then we join the company of the false prophets (v. 26). Living and speaking for Jesus will cost something. It always has and always will.
An Invitation and a Test
So what do we take from all this? Jesus knows he's on his way to the cross to die for his people so he begins to teach them how to live after he's gone. He starts by telling them to live for what really matters. He tells them to look beyond the allusion of safety and comfort and happiness that money offers and to instead find consolation in something more durable and satisfying, namely, the kingdom of God.
His words are an invitation into a new way of living, but they're also a test. Of course, no one can perfectly fulfill Jesus' demands. But with this sermon, Jesus is saying, "These are the values of the kingdom of God. Those who belong to the kingdom will live like this."
These blessings and woes give us insight into our condition. God's blessing doesn't look like we often think it should. Jesus shows us that the glory and value and joy of his kingdom totally reshape the way his people view life. His disciples understand that the blessed life has nothing to do with things you can see and everything to do with things you can't see.
Jesus came to show us reality. Jesus came to reorient our whole life toward the God who made us. And this is our deepest need. God is greater than everything else and our lives are either centered around him, or they aren't. Saying this won't win us many friends in our culture. But it will keep us tethered to what's real. God's blessings aren't what you think. Are you pursuing a life truly blessed by God?
May these words from the hymn "Be Thou My Vision" be our aim:
"Riches I heed not, nor vain, empty praise;
Thou mine inheritance, now and always.
Thou and thou only, first in my heart,
High King of Heaven, my treasure thou art."