Blessings and Woes

The scriptures referred to are Luke 6:17-26.

Everybody has heard of the Sermon on the Mount. In today's reading from Luke it sounds like this is another account of that sermon. But it's not. For one thing we are told a few verses earlier that Jesus was on a mountain praying and choosing the twelve men who would be his core disciples. (Luke 6:12-16) Then our passage says, “He came down with them and stood on a level place...” (v.17) Thus what follows is called the Sermon on the Plain.

But if you read the whole thing you will see that while it has passages parallel to the ones in Matthew chapters 5 through 7, it's a lot shorter. Some of those other teachings are found scattered throughout Luke. (Luke 14:34-35, cf. Matthew 5:13; Luke 8:16, cf. Matthew 5:15, etc) Plus the parts of this sermon that sound like the Beatitudes are different. And we have a series of woes added. So what is Luke doing here?

The obvious answer is that he is reporting a different sermon, albeit one where Jesus is giving some of the same teachings and adding some new variations. I doubt Jesus gave the Sermon on the Mount just once. How could the disciples memorize it perfectly hearing it for the first time and never again? Like people who give a lot of speeches, Jesus sometimes gave the same sermon over and over in different towns and regions. There were no videos to share nor even newspapers to publish the text. If he had a good line or illustration, he reused it. And sometimes Jesus changed or added parts of the sermon. That doesn't mean one version is superior to another version. Jesus always meant what he said.

So here Jesus said, “Blessed are you who are poor...” not “Blessed are the poor in spirit...” He said here “Blessed are you who are hungry now...” not “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness...” Here Jesus is focusing not on people's spiritual needs but on their physical needs. Because humans are both spiritual and physical beings and both are important. Notice that before he starts to preach we are told that people came not only to hear him but to be healed. Jesus' ministry was not just preaching and teaching but healing as well. (Matthew 4:23) No doubt many people came primarily to be healed and only afterward stayed to hear what the man who healed them had to say about God's love and forgiveness. It's really hard to care much about your spiritual needs when you are sick or in pain. But when those basic physical needs are met, your mind is freed to concentrate on spiritual things.

In fact, Jesus' brother James says, “Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes or daily food. If one of you says, 'Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed,' but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.” (James 2:15-17) If faith does not motivate us to act, it is just words. As it says in 1^st John, “If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.” (1 John 3:17-18) As we said last week, we are not saved by works, we are saved by God for works.

Those passages are just echoing what Jesus is getting at here. Judea was supposed to be populated by God's people. They were supposed to be a nation of priests. (Exodus 19:6; Isaiah 61:6) And a priest is expected to behave in a godly way. In Leviticus 19, God says, “Speak to the entire assembly of Israel and say to them, 'Be holy, because I, the Lord your God, am holy.'” (Leviticus 19:2). What follows are commandments not merely concerning worship but also how you treat others, especially those who are vulnerable. “When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. Do not go over your vineyard a second time or pick up the grapes that are fallen. Leave them for the poor and the alien. I am the Lord your God.” (Leviticus 19:9-10) He goes on to say, “Do not steal. Do not lie. Do not deceive one another...Do not defraud your neighbor or rob him. Do not hold back the wages of a hired man overnight. Do not curse the deaf or put a stumbling block in front of the blind, but fear your God. I am the Lord. Do not pervert justice; do not show partiality to the poor nor favoritism to the great, but judge your neighbor fairly. Do not go about spreading slander among your people. Do not do anything that endangers your neighbor's life. I am the Lord. Do not hate your brother in your heart. Rebuke your neighbor frankly so you will not share his guilt. Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against one of your people but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord.” (Leviticus 19:11, 13-18) Yes, that's the context of that famous commandment that Jesus says is the second greatest one after loving God. And just 15 verses after that God says, “When an alien lives with you in your land, do not mistreat him. The alien living with you must be treated as one of your native-born. Love him as yourself, for you were aliens in Egypt. I am the Lord your God.” (Leviticus 19:33-34) So part of being holy is treating all people fairly.

And this makes sense because both in Hebrew and Greek, the word for righteousness is the same as the word for “justice.” A righteous person is just. They act fairly towards others. God is just and so should we be.

But if God were only just, all of us would be in trouble. Because we all do wrong things. As Paul says, “...all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God...” (Romans 3:23) By all rights, a just God should punish us all.

But God is also merciful. Psalm 103:8 says, “The Lord is compassionate and merciful; he is patient and demonstrates great loyal love.” If God were not merciful, none of us would survive. And we should be like him in this way as well. Right after today's gospel reading Jesus says, “Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.” (Luke 6:36)

But more than that, God is gracious. (Psalm 86:15) If justice is getting what you deserve, and mercy is not getting all that you deserve, grace is getting what you could never deserve. God's grace, his undeserved, unreserved goodness towards us, is what saves us.

Paul was acutely aware of this. Writing to his protege Timothy, he says, “I am grateful to the one who has strengthened me, Christ Jesus our Lord, because he considered me faithful in putting me into ministry, even though I was formerly a blasphemer and a persecutor, and an arrogant man. But I was treated with mercy because I acted ignorantly in unbelief, and our Lord's grace was abundant, bringing faith and love in Christ Jesus. This saying is trustworthy and deserves full acceptance: 'Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners”--and I am the worst of them.” (1 Timothy 1:12-15) That is why Paul mentions God's grace in every single one of his letters. He was grateful for God's grace.

Micah says, “He has shown you, O man, what is good, and what does the Lord require of you? To act justly, and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” (Micah 6:8)

Jesus' call to be just and merciful to the poor and needy explains the first part of his preaching in this passage. But what about the part where he says, “But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation. Woe to you who are full now, for you will be hungry. Woe to you who are laughing now, for you will mourn and weep. Woe to you when all speak well of you, for that is what their ancestors did to the false prophets.” Is Jesus against all rich people?

No. When invited, he goes to eat with rich people. (Luke 14:1) He invites himself to the tax collector Zacchaeus' house. (Luke 19:1-10) His friends Lazarus, Mary and Martha were rich. (John 12:1-5) He looked at the rich young ruler with love. (Mark 10:17-22) Jesus came to bring his message of salvation to everyone. But part of that message was to use what you have been given to help others. Which Jesus realized was extremely hard for the rich to do because of the extra temptations they faced. Why? Because almost everything is easier for people with lots of money. Nothing they desire is off the table for them. People let them do things they wouldn't let others do. Nobody bars them from going wherever they want to. But when Jesus said, “It easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter into the kingdom of God,” those who hear this said, “Then who can be saved?” They thought the rich had an automatic “in” with God because he blessed them with wealth. Jesus replied, “The things which are impossible with men are possible with God.” (Luke 18:25-27) In other words, everyone, rich or poor, needs God's grace to be saved. No one can do it by themselves, no matter how much they have in terms of money or resources.

Jesus is trying to wake up the rich and comfortable. He is saying, “You have it good in this life but that doesn't mean you will in the next. And if you are doing well but ignoring those who don't, if you are not helping out those who are less fortunate than you are, you are lost.” He may well have been thinking of passages such as this in Deuteronomy, “If there is among you a poor person, one of your brothers within the towns of your land which the Lord your God is giving you, do not be hardhearted or tightfisted toward your poor brother, but you shall be open handed to him and willingly lend him enough for whatever he needs. Beware of letting there be a wicked thought in your heart, saying, 'The seventh year is at hand, the year of forgiving debt,' and you show ill will to your poor brother and give him nothing. Because he will cry out against you to God and you will be guilty of sin.” (Deuteronomy 15:7-9) Not helping the poor is a sin, says God. Just before this passage God says that there should not be any poor in the land he is giving his people. (Deuteronomy 15:4) If God's people act with justice and mercy everyone should have their needs met. But God is a realist and so he makes the commandment to share explicit.

Nor is this the only place where the Bible tells us to take care of the needy. The poor are mentioned more than 200 times in 197 verses. In Jeremiah God talks of those whose “'houses are filled with the gains of their fraud and deceit. This is how they have gotten so rich and powerful. That is how they have grown fat and sleek. There is no limit to the evil things they do. They do not plead the cause of the fatherless in such a way as to win it. They do not defend the rights of the poor. I will certainly punish them for doing such things!' says the Lord. 'I will certainly bring retribution on such a nation as this!'” (Jeremiah 5:27-29) When preachers thunder about how God will punish nations for doing certain things, they rarely bring up this passage or say that God will judge us for what we fail to do for the poor. But here it is. And Jesus is echoing the prophets when he pronounces woe to those who can help the poor and hungry and thirsty and sick and imprisoned and refugees but don't. He does this explicitly in the parable of the sheep and goats. (Matthew 25:32-46)

Rich people think they have money because they are smarter or harder working than the poor. But studies have shown that the very rich are not smarter than the average person. And anyone who works with their hands and their back works harder than most of the rich. Studies find that the significant factors in becoming rich have more to do with family background, social connections and chance occurrences, ie, luck. And a third of the rich, especially the ultra-rich, inherited wealth.

The Bible does not denounce people who get rich through honest hard work. It denounces those who see this as an excuse to hoard wealth rather than as a blessing to be shared with those who are in need. In Jesus' parable of the rich man and Lazarus, the rich man is punished not for being wealthy but for not helping the poor, sick and hungry man who was lying right at his gate. (Luke 16:19-31) The rich man would have to step over or walk around this poor fellow to enter his house. His is a sin of omission, of not doing something he should have, which in this case, was helping someone he knew was in need of food and care for his disease.

As we said, we are both physical and spiritual beings. Loving our neighbor is not limited to helping them with their spiritual needs. If they have physical needs—food, clothing, shelter, medical care—God expects us to help. We can all do that to some extent. And those who can help the most are those who have the most in terms of resources.

Ultimately, all we have in this life—our talents and abilities, the support of others—are gifts and grace from God our Father. He wants us to share them with one another and to help one another. He is concerned not only with the bad things we do but also with the good things we don't do. Neglecting others is not love. And we are called to love one another over and over and over. (John 13:34-35; 15:12, 17; Romans 12:10; 1 Thessalonians 3:12; 1 Peter 1:22; 1 John 3:11, 23; 4:7, 11-12; 2 John 5, etc.) Because God is love. And he who does not love others does not know God. (1 John 4:8)