Continuing his ministry in Galilee, Jesus delivers a message on the plain (Luke 6:17-26, Year C Epiphany 6, verses 21-26, Year C All Saints’ Day). Although the message continues to verse 49, this Sunday we consider the beatitudes and woes in the first part of the message.
Luke 6:17-19 (Mark 3:7b-12, Matt 12:15, but instructive for their differences here as well as similarity) is an editorial summary statement of the crowds following Jesus that describes the extension of the ministry of Jesus. It generalizes the wonder-working ministry of Jesus.[1] It provides detail in its summarizing description of the healing activity of Jesus and his preaching, doing so under the influence of the Jewish-Christian and Hellenistic community missionary preaching.[2] A large and varied crowd of listeners has gathered to seek healing from Jesus' hands and to hear truth from Jesus' preaching. Three types of individuals make up this multitude. 17 He came down with them and stood on a level place, standing amid this needy crowd, with a great crowd of his disciples, including 1) the Twelve and 2) a larger group who identified themselves as committed to the way of Jesus and to be his witnesses, and 3) a great multitude of people from all Judea, Jerusalem, and the coast of Tyre and Sidon. This third group had not yet committed themselves to the way of Jesus. Luke also places importance upon the needs of the crowd. 18 They had come to hear him. They were as hungry for the word as they were for the works of Jesus. They had come to receive physical healing of their diseases from Jesus. Further, Jesus cured those whom unclean spirits troubled. Jesus offered what we might call a form of spiritual and emotional healing as well. 19 And all in the crowd were trying to touch him, for power came out from him and healed all of them.
Luke 6:20-26 present the beatitudes. Luke has stressed that the people came to hear (verse 17). Now he shows Jesus' response and his giving a challenge to them. Although surrounded by a crowd, 20 Then Jesus looked up at his disciples and said. He addressed the sermon to his disciples. By using his eyes to hold his disciples' attention, he lets his closest companions know that these words are of particular importance for them. Before Luke begins the recitation of blessings and woes, he masterfully intertwines this public discourse with a private lesson specifically for Jesus' chosen disciples.
In Luke, the beatitudes and maledictions both speak of material conditions in this life to be reversed in the next. Jesus wants his followers to cultivate a new way of making sense of the world. Jesus addresses the audience directly in form with the second person and giving detailed grounds for blessedness in the final beatitude.[3] They become prophetic sayings. The prophecy of future salvation in the beatitudes refers to the present, for the longed-for age is breaking in now, the immediacy of the eschatological consciousness being something new that distinguishes Jesus from his contemporaries. Blessed are the saints who long for this age.[4]
20b“Blessed are you who are poor (πτωχοί), for yours is the kingdom of God.[5] The followers of Jesus experience the outward oppression of those who suffer poverty. They are oppressed and cannot defend themselves; they are desperate and hopeless.[6] Jesus pronounces a beatitude promised to God's poor, oppressed people, with the need for them to show love and mercy. Those blessed are those who outwardly whom we should pity. The Lord hears the oppressed and needy (Ps 69:32-33). God’s future action will meet their present need. Jesus' blessings are a proclamation of the way the world is in the reign of God. Note that there are no imperatives here, no exhortations to do better. The poor refers to those who are "so poor as to have to be," that is, those who are completely destitute. Jesus does not find any blessing in being poor; he does find that God's promise makes the poor blessed.
Such a paradoxical formulation of those who belong to the rule of God represents the central theme of the proclamation of Jesus. The poor are near to God because the eschatological reversal of fortunes is beginning to be realized. [7] As Jesus speaks, the future rule of God comes. Clearly, the rule of God manifests itself differently than the rule of Rome. The sovereignty and authority of God is behind what Jesus says. The humble receive the promise of the kingdom. In doing so, the salvation that Jesus mediates consists of fellowship with God and the related life, which also embraces a renewal of fellowship with others. To have part in the rule of God is of the very essence of salvation.[8]
21 “Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be filled (Matt 6:6). The second beatitude has an intimate relation to the first. For where there is poverty there is surely hunger. The followers of Jesus are hungry. Again, Luke's text emphasizes a bodily condition, not a spiritual malaise. The particle "nun" (now) focuses this beatitude because while hunger did not describe a social status like poverty, for many, hunger was a constant in their lives. Jesus' blessing promises that this unwanted companion God will banish and instead God will at last fill the hungry. Their hunger is for "now," but God will give complete and unwavering satisfaction. True spirituality, then, focuses our attention upon “now” rather than escaping our “now” for another world.[9]
In pronouncing this blessing, Jesus demonstrates two aspects of his messianic authority. He reveals that the rule of God is near. He proclaims his authority to declare this rule of God as the special possession of the poor. Upon those who have nothing in this world, Jesus bestows the whole of the coming rule of God. A life without political power or material prosperity was neither inevitably defeated nor depressed, but instead somehow blessed. The Cynic epistle, in a similar vein, says: "Practice needing little, for this is nearest to God, while the opposite is farthest away." The rule of God is this ability, this wisdom, to incorporate adversity into the enjoyment of contentment.
“Blessed are you who weep (κλαίοντες, mourn) now, for you will laugh (γελάσετε). The third beatitude Jesus proclaims upon those who "weep now" (again the "nun" particle focuses the time and place). The Lucan term for weeping expresses general sorrow, not some specialized mourning over the ways of the world. This weeping accompanies everyday life and its losses. Luke contrasts this weeping with ordinary laughter in his elevated declaration that those with tears will laugh. The prophetic promise is the year of the favor of the Lord will bring comfort those who mourn and gladness instead of mourning (Isaiah 61:2-3). Thus, where Jesus speaks of the transfigured world, he speaks in the images of symbolic language, in this case, the laughter of the time of salvation rings out.[10]
In verses 22-23 (Mat 5:11-12), 22 “Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you on account of the Son of Man (τοῦ υἱοῦ τοῦ ἀνθρώπου, which is secondary[11] given Matt 5:11, “on my account”). The reference to the Son of Man here may not be “authentic,” but the general New Testament reference to Jesus as the Son has its basis in the way Jesus referred to God as his Father.[12] 23 Rejoice in that day(eschatologically meant[13]) and leap for joy, for surely your reward is great in heaven, speaking of empowerment to participate in the kingdom for the sake of something bigger than personal satisfaction; for that is what their ancestors did to the prophets, disciples becoming the successors of the prophets. The followers of Jesus suffer persecution. What kind of reception can Jesus' followers expect? What would happen if the answer were to have others hate, exclude, revile, and attack you? Being "defamed" ("casting out your name as evil") refers to an official excommunication from the synagogue ‑‑ an attack leveled by one's entire community. Jesus' surprising revelation to his disciples is that this experience of rejection is in fact a sign of blessing. The certainty of salvation and the security it provides gives followers of Jesus courage to submit to the uncertainties of life, especially related to seeing suffering in a new light as a child of God, here becoming an occasion of joy that receives recompense from God.[14] Jesus would refer to those welcoming prophets in the name of a prophet receiving the reward a prophet (Matt 10:41a), that many prophets longed to see what this generation sees and hear what this generation hears (Matt 13:17), and that he sends prophets whom the Pharisees will flog (Matt 23:34). Jesus claimed prophetic authority that he then shared with his disciples, claiming for himself the promise of the Spirit (Isa 61:1).[15] The beatitude points us in the direction of the love of enemies. Here is precisely where the task of standing with and for the kingdom comes into play most fully, particularly whenever we confront the sad news of the world with the good news of heaven, no matter what the personal cost. One receives blessing from God especially when the world offers rejection. Such blessed boldness connects us to the same heavenly power that sustains Jesus and the prophets before him.
In Luke 6:24-26 are prophetic sayings on woes to the rich. The prophecy of future judgment refers to the present, for the new age is breaking in now, the immediacy of the eschatological consciousness being something new that distinguishes Jesus from his contemporaries.[16] Some scholars have suggested that the pointedness of the "woes" in Luke's beatitudes section indicates that many of these listeners may have been actively hostile toward Jesus and his message.
In Luke 6: 24-25 is ancient tradition, since there is no reference to the person of Jesus and the “woe” prophets pronounce is common in the Old Testament. We find an element of compensation for the suffering and deficiencies of the present world, which is part of the eschatological transformation that will take place. Those compensated now and find satisfaction in what they receive now, and therefore no longer yearn for the coming salvation of God, will be those whom God shuts out of the participation in salvation.[17] Jesus is reminding us of the challenge in leading a human life out of its challenges can come a new person with renewed vision and purpose.
In verses 24-26, the woe upon contemporaries suggests God is giving one final respite before the final catastrophe.[18]
24 “But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation. The "woe" declared upon those who are rich in this world stipulates that these rich ones have nothing to look forward to at all. Having "received their consolation," that is, they have all their receipts, they have no future claims whatsoever.
25aWoe to you that are full now, for you shall hunger.
25bWoe to you that laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep
26 “Woe to you when all speak well of you, for that is what their ancestors did to the false prophets. Jesus directs the linked declarations in verses 22 and 26 to those who have at least established themselves in some sort of relationship with Jesus. The "woe" that Jesus warns the disciples to stay away from is the experience of acceptance, the disaster of having "all speak well of you." Jesus contrasts the historic treatment of genuine and false prophets to demonstrate his disciples' own acceptance or rejection by their communities. Thus, Jesus cannot spare his messengers hardship. He does help them understand why they suffer. Suffering is part of the service of a messenger. True prophets suffer, and the disciples are in that line.[19] The false prophets, those crowd‑pleasers who used smooth words to hide evil intentions, stand as a warning to all who may be tempted to accommodate the gospel message to make it more acceptable to everyone. Followers of Jesus need to reconcile themselves to adversity. In fact, we need to consider that when the culture or the tribe to which we belong smiles upon us, we need to have some caution.[20]
Thus far, the message of Jesus is promise and peril. The promise of God’s blessing upon the needy at the end of the age is beginning to be fulfilled in Jesus’ ministry, and that very approach of the end holds out peril to those who would seek to arrogate those blessings only to themselves. Judgment is as sure as blessing.
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[9] Rob Bell, Velvet Elvis, inspired this thought.
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[20] John Wesley.
I have always missed the type of crowd. Could this be a Sunday morning crowd? Pondering the beatitudes day by day is a good point. Lynn Eastman
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