The Lord’s Day Morning
September 13, 2009
Luke 6:20-26
“Blessed or Cursed? Weal or Woe”
Dr. J. Ligon Duncan III
If you have your Bibles I would invite you to turn with me to Luke chapter 6.
We’re going to look at verses 20 to 26 today as we continue to work our
way through this Gospel together.
Last Lord’s Day we looked at verses 12 to 23 and we said that in part, what
Jesus was doing as He introduced the Beatitudes, these surprising words of
blessing, because the kinds of things He lists in the category of blessedness
are not the kinds of things we normally associate with blessedness:
poverty, hunger, weeping, friendlessness, persecution.
How can these things be blessed?
And last Lord’s Day we said in part, what Jesus is doing, is He is
preparing His disciples for what they are going to face in a fallen world, so
that when they encounter poverty, and all His disciples did, and hunger, and all
His disciples did, and weeping, and all His disciples do, and friendlessness,
and persecution, the reaction is not — “What’s happening to me, Lord?
This isn’t supposed to be how it is!”
No, the reaction is, “This is just what the Lord Jesus told me I would
face. This is what He prepared me
for. This is what He trained me
for. This is what He discipled me
for. This is what He built me to
face.”
My wife’s, maybe her favorite part in all of movies, is the part in
Apollo 13 when the NASA administrator
walks into mission control with a message of doom and gloom.
“We’ve got a disaster on our hands.
This could be horrible.”
Then Ed Harris, who’s playing the head figure in mission control, stands up and
pulls his vest down and he says, “I beg to differ, sir.
This will be our finest hour.”
And you see, Jesus is preparing believers for when they face those
moments that absolutely take their breath away and all the lights almost go out,
to, with a steady resolve say, “This is what you built me for, Jesus.
Now we’ll put to test the grace that You have been working in me because
You didn’t build me to float to heaven on flowery beds of ease.
You built me, if necessary, to traverse bloody seas on the way home to
glory. That’s what you built me
for. And by God’s grace, I will do
it, trusting and treasuring You.”
That’s what we said last Lord’s Day as we came to these Beatitudes.
Now today, we are going to go back to those Beatitudes again, but this time
we’re going to couple them with the woes. It’s interesting that Luke is the only
one, who in the Sermon on the Mount, records both Jesus’ woes and Jesus’ words
of blessing. And obviously Matthew
gives three chapters to the Sermon on the Mount, Luke’s record is shorter, both
of them are abbreviations of what must certainly have been a longer sermon that
Jesus preached. They are giving you
the outlines. They are selecting
certain parts of what Jesus says and certain parts of the outline in order to
emphasize, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, particular truths.
And by grouping the blessings and woes together, what Luke does is he
helps you understand what Jesus is getting at.
So as we read today, please note how verses 20 and 24 parallel one another.
Twenty is “blessed are you who are poor.”
Twenty- four is “woe to you who are rich.”
Then look at how 21 and 25 go together.
That’s “blessed are you who are hungry now” and “woe to you who are full
now,” and “blessed are you who weep now” and “woe to you who laugh now.”
And then look at how verses 22 and 26 go together.
“Blessed are you when people hate you” — “woe to you when all people
speak well of you.” Luke is
actually helping you understand what Jesus is getting at by grouping the
blessings and woes as he does. So
be on the lookout for that.
But especially be on the lookout for this, as we ask, “Lord, what is it you want
us to learn from this passage?”
Jesus is especially concerned that all true disciples of His know what the good
life looks like and what looks like the good life, but isn’t.
He is very concerned that we know what the good life looks like and that
we know what looks like the good life, but isn’t.
That’s vitally important in the Christian life, for how we respond both
to the triumphs and the tragedies, the joys and the trials of our life, will be
directly related to whether we adequately understand what the truly good and
happy and blessed life is, and what the world thinks the truly happy, good, and
blessed life is, but it isn’t.
That’s one thing He’s up to in these blessings and woes so let’s pray before we
read God’s Word.
Heavenly Father, thank You for the Bible.
It is a lamp to our feet and a light to our way and we must confess that
we need it as much as we need food, only more.
For our Lord Jesus Himself reminds us, quoting Moses, that ‘man does not
live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God’.
So Lord, we need this Word more than we need food.
So give us spiritual ears to hear it, and help us to taste and see that
You are good, and help us to ask and answer rightly, ‘Who is it that we trust
and what do we treasure?’ as we read, mark, learn and inwardly digest the very
Word of God. Amen.
“And he lifted His eyes on His disciples, and said:
‘Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.
Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you shall be satisfied.
Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh.
Blessed are you when people hate you and when they exclude you and revile
you and spurn your name as evil, on account of the Son of Man!
Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great
in heaven; for so their fathers did to the prophets.
But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation.
Woe to you who are full now, for you shall be hungry.
Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep.
Woe to you when all people speak well of you, for so their fathers did to
the false prophets.’”
Amen. And thus ends this reading of
God’s holy, inspired, and inerrant Word.
May He write its eternal truth upon all our hearts.
Come with me in your imagination for just a few moments to an idyllic scene:
A well-to-do grandfather in a capacious and well appointed home on a
large country estate on Christmas morning.
He has four children and fifteen grandchildren and it is their custom
every four or five years for all of them to gather at his home, along with his
wife, and they celebrate Christmas together.
And it is their tradition to get up, and just before breakfast on
Christmas morning, to open just one present, and then to enjoy breakfast, and
later on in the morning to gather around the family tree and open the rest of
the presents. Well that morning,
early, the grandchildren had arisen and they had discovered one or two inches
dusting of snow on the ground all around them, and they are abuzz with
anticipation of getting out into the grass.
And so they awaken grandmother and grandfather early and they want to get
quickly to the opening of the first present and quickly to breakfast so they can
get out quickly into the yard, and so it is done.
As they are gathering around the tree and the smells of breakfast are already
wafting through the air, the grandfather does something just a little bit
different. Normally it is the
custom for the youngest of the grandchildren to begin opening and selecting the
first present that each will open before breakfast, but on this morning, the
youngest grandchild is bidden to open a tiny box and to display from it what
present is held in it. And the
youngest grandchild opens the tiny box and a slip of paper is taken out of it, a
small slip of paper is taken out, and it simply says, “A story, a parable.”
Now this has never been done before in this family and all are wondering
what’s about to happen and the grandfather says, “My first present to you all
this morning is a story, a parable, and here’s how it goes:
The happiest children in the world this morning are those who will get no gifts.
The happiest children in the world are those who will get no breakfast
this morning. The happiest children
in the world are the ones who will spend this morning crying.
The happiest children in the world are the ones who have no friends and
who are bullied by their schoolmates.
The saddest children in the world are the ones who have the most
presents. The saddest children in
the world are the ones with the best breakfast.
The saddest children in the world are the ones that will spend all
morning laughing and playing with their new toys.
The saddest children in the world are the ones with the most friends and
who are the most popular.”
Now, I don’t have time this morning in my imaginary scene to describe to you the
reaction of all fifteen grandchildren, but I can tell you this.
The oldest of them, a seventeen year old girl, is thinking to herself
quietly, “My granddad has lost it.”
But nine year old Jimmy, here’s what he’s thinking, “Does this mean we don’t get
any toys?” And I won’t tell you
what the rest of them are thinking, but leave granddad and the grandchildren
aside; we’ll come back to them later.
But do you understand that what Jesus says in His Beatitudes to the disciples
and the multitudes gathered to hear Him in the beginning of this great sermon,
is no less shocking than what this grandfather in my imaginary story has just
told his grandchildren? It would
have been no less arresting to the crowd who heard it than that parable, that
strange story, would have sounded to those grandchildren.
Surely those grandchildren were listening and thinking, “Gee, I wanted a
Christmas story on Christmas morning, not Lemony Snicket and
A Series of Unfortunate Events.
This is dark, Granddad.”
And surely that’s how the disciples and the gathered multitudes would have
responded to what Jesus was saying in these blessings and woes because what
Jesus is doing in those blessings and woes is He’s making a mockery of all that
the world values and considers blessing.
And He is mocking all that the world considers woes.
Now that’s obvious. You’re
smart people, and when you hear it read, you immediately think, “You know,
poverty, hunger, weeping, persecution and friendlessness are not in the top five
things I want for my life, or for the lives of my children.”
And, conversely, you don’t think of, well, a full stomach, laughter, many
and deep and rich friendships and a relative lack of persecution by the world —
you do not number those things among the worst possible things that could ever
happen to you. So you understand
that Jesus is being deliberately provocative and ironic.
That is obvious, but the question is, “Why?”
Why is Jesus talking about blessing and woe in this way, in a way that so
obviously cuts against our instincts and our sensibilities?
Is it — does He start with “blessed are the poor” because He wants us all
to become socialists? He wants us
to empty our 401K’s and take vows of poverty?
Is that what Jesus is up to?
There’ve been some that have interpreted it that way.
I think that entirely misses His point in this passage.
Very clear, from what everything else that Jesus teaches and what
everything else Luke says in this Gospel, that poverty, hunger, weeping,
friendlessness and persecution are not in and of themselves blessed states — nor
are wealth, a full stomach, laughter, friends, and persecution inherently
blessed states. Whether those
states are blessed or cursed depends on something else.
The key, by the way, is to see these words at the end of verse 22:
“on account of the Son of Man.”
That’s the key to understanding this whole passage.
Whether poverty or wealth are a blessing or curse, depends solely on your
relationship to the Son of Man.
That is one of the keys of understanding this passage.
It’s interesting that, of the Gospel writers, Luke was probably the wealthiest
of them. Maybe Matthew could have
rivaled him. Why?
Luke was a physician and even in his day, physicians were, among the
professional classes, among the wealthiest.
And yet Luke never uses the word “rich” in his gospel in a positive way,
though he himself was probably richer than any of the other Gospel writers.
It’s fascinating to me. I was doing
a word search on this, this week, and I noticed that when you get to the passage
in Luke about Joseph of Arimathea —it’s fascinating — Matthew tells you what
about Joseph of Arimathea? You
remember him? He’s the guy who
helped to bury Jesus. He provided a
tomb for Jesus. And Matthew tells
you what about him? “He was rich.”
It’s interesting that Matthew, the former tax collector, would note that
Joseph was rich. It is also
interesting that when you get to Luke’s gospel, he doesn’t tell you that.
You know what he says about Joseph?
“He was a good and righteous man.”
And I think that is fascinatingly instructive and it helps you know what
Luke is up to here. Luke is not
sneaking in a message of socialism into Jesus’ ministry.
He’s saying that neither wealth nor poverty, in and of itself, is a
blessed state apart from a person having the true treasure which is Jesus
Christ, the Son of Man. And if you
have that treasure, neither wealth nor poverty need be the state of either
blessing or woe for you because all your blessings are in Jesus Christ.
And so you can meet triumph and disaster and treat both those impostures
just the same.
So why then is Jesus juxtaposing these blessings and cursings?
Well, the blessings and woes are designed to exalt what the world
despises and reject what the world admires.
You follow that? The
blessings are the things that the world despises and Jesus says, “you are truly
happy if you treasure Me, even if you experience what the world despises, and
you are truly sad if you don’t treasure Me, even if you have what the world
admires.” So Jesus is saying these
blessings and woes are designed to make fun of what the world despises and help
us reject what the world admires.
But you still have to ask the question, “Why?
Why are you talking about this, Jesus?
Why are you talking this way?”
And the answer is pretty simple — Jesus is telling His disciples how He
intends us to be different from the world, how He intends us to be distinct from
the world, how He intends us to stand out in the world.
What will make us distinct from the world?
Not our wealth, not our food, not our clothing, not the laughter that we
enjoy common with the world, not the friendship that we have with the world, but
what we value most will make us distinct from the world.
Now, let me back up and explain this.
In the Old Testament, when God wanted to make Israel distinct from the nations,
you know what He did? He gave them
a special ceremonial law and in that special ceremonial law it requires them not
to eat certain foods, not to wear certain kinds of clothing, and conversely, to
wear their hair and clothing in such a way that was distinct and they were
required to do certain rituals that non-Jews did not do.
So, for instance, when it came to food, Jews were not allowed to eat pork
and shrimp. Now,
Israel’s neighbors — some of them lived on the coast of the
Mediterranean
and they ate lots of shellfish and they had vast herds of swine, so they ate
lots of pork. And to tell the
Israelites that they could not eat shellfish and pork, immediately set them
apart from the people around whom they lived.
It made them stand out to those people and those people said, “Well those
are the people who don’t eat shrimp and pork.”
And it also kept the Israelites from mixing and mingling with their
Baal-worshipping neighbors because they couldn’t sit down on Friday night and
have a pork barbeque. And so it
helped them to stay distinct from the world.
And He gave them clothing laws.
There were certain kind of clothes that they could wear and not wear, and they
had to wear their hair in a certain way because anyone could see them and say,
“That person is different from me.”
And so they could look at other people and say, “That person is not a Jew.”
And He gave them ritual laws, like circumcision, that they were to
practice, and the nations around them did not practice.
So when David sees that hulking giant Goliath and says, “You
uncircumcised Philistine!” he is not giving Goliath a compliment.
He’s dog cussing him because only the pagans are uncircumcised.
We’re circumcised. And what
did it do? It built a strong sense
of the identity of the people of God.
It is an identity that remains to this day.
If you have had friends who are from a Jewish home and have converted to the
Lord Jesus Christ, you know the trauma that that can induce within the family
circles because there are two types of people in the world:
Jews and Gentiles. And Jews
believe in the one, true God and they do not believe that the Messiah has come
yet. And so when an ethnic Jew
embraces Jesus as the Messiah, we’ve got a problem, because there are only two
kinds of people in the world: Jews,
and those who are not.
Well when Jesus comes, as you know, He abolishes the ceremonial law.
He says, “No longer are My people bound to follow those dietary laws and
those clothing laws and those ritual laws” even though those laws, many of them,
pointed to what? To Jesus Christ —
they pointed to Christ — especially the sacrificial system, it pointed to
Christ, but it’s abolished.
So then you have to ask, “How are God’s people going to be distinct in the world
without those ceremonial laws?” And
here Jesus is, in the Sermon on the Mount, and what is He telling you?
He’s saying, “This is how you are going to be distinct.
This is going to be how you are going to be shown to be different from
the world around you. Not your
food, not your clothing, not your ritual, but what you value most, is going to
set you apart from the world around you.
What you treasure most is going to set you apart from the world around
you. So let me explain it to you
this way, disciple — you are going to be blessed, even when you are poor,
because you understand that I am the only real treasure.
You’re going to be blessed, even when you’re hungry, because you
understand that I am the bread of life.
You’re going to be blessed, even when you are weeping, because you know
that I came to bring joy inexpressible and fully of glory.
You’re going to be blessed, even when you are friendless, because I am
the friend of sinners, and I will never leave you or forsake you.
You’re going to be blessed, even when you are persecuted for My sake,
because frankly, I’m worth it.”
You see what Jesus is saying? Jesus
is saying that thing that will make His disciple distinct in this world is what
we treasure. And my friends, He has
us at point blank range, right in His sights, because so many of us are trying
to find our satisfaction and our fulfillment in this life by copying what our
worldly friends think that satisfaction and fulfillment is found in, in this
life. We think it’s found in
popularity and friendships. We
think it’s found in the fulfillment of our ambitions.
We think it’s found in wealth and success, and we’re running after it
almost as hard as the worldlings around us, and you know when we do, we look
just like them. But Jesus is
saying, “Not amongst My disciples.
Even if they are poor, they know that in Me, they can have a transcendent
happiness that cannot be taken away from them because of their poverty.
And even if they are suffering the pangs of hunger, they know that I will
give them a fullness that will never ever abate.
And even if they are weeping so hard over the providences that have come
into their lives that they cannot control their weeping, I will wipe away every
tear from their eyes and no one can do it for them but Me.”
And so they have come to the point where they have said, “Lord Jesus, You
are my treasure, and You can take away everything else in this life and as long
as I have You, I have more than enough.”
He’s saying, “In this hand, I will give you all the treasures that the
world admires and seeks and longs for, and in this hand I will give you Me —
which is it going to be?” And His
disciple says, “I’d rather have Jesus.
I’d rather have Jesus.”
One of the old Puritans said that, “If Christ were not in heaven, I would not
want to go there. If Christ were
not in heaven, I would not want to go there.”
Why did he say that? Because
he understood that the prize is Christ.
You know, there are lots of people that want to go to heaven.
There are lots of people that want to go to heaven because they don’t
want to go to hell. They may not
even believe in hell but they want to go to heaven because they’d rather end up
in heaven than in hell. But here’s
the difference — a believer would choose to be in heaven with Jesus over any and
all of the joys that this earth has to offer, because the believer understands
that true blessedness is not in wealth, and it’s not in a full stomach, and it’s
not in all the laughter this world can provide, and it’s not in the friends that
this world can provide, and it’s not in not being persecuted.
True blessedness is knowing Jesus Christ our Lord; knowing Him as our
Savior, our Shepherd, our Guardian, our Guide, and our Friend.
And this is what Jesus is saying to His disciples and it’s what He’s saying to
you and me — “Here’s how the world is going to know that you are Mine – because
you treasure Me more than anything.
And when you have to answer the question, ‘What is the greatest satisfaction
that I could experience in this life?’ your answer is ‘fellowship with Jesus.’”
So with Paul you can say, “I know how to abound, and I know how to be
abased. I know how to be rich, and
I know how to be poor, because in either state, no one can take my treasure from
me. His name is Jesus.”
And Jesus is saying, “That’s what makes the difference between My
disciples and the world.”
You know what? There are still two
types of people in the world — you know what they are?
Those who treasure Jesus above anyone and anything and everyone and
everything else, and those who treasure something or someone above Jesus.
Those are the only two types of people in the world there are.
And Jesus is saying, “My disciples, the world will know who you are when
you trust Me and when you treasure Me.”
Let’s go back to the grandfather on Christmas morning.
Nine year old Jimmy could not keep his mouth shut.
He had to say something.
“Granddad, does this mean you’re not giving us presents this year?”
“No son, I’m giving you all presents, so are your parents, because we
love you and we want to give you the best things we can give you, but I told you
that story because your parents and your grandmother and I would hate for you to
treasure these gifts more than you treasure the one gift that matters more than
anything else — the gift of salvation which is in Jesus Christ.
And so this morning, as you unwrap those gifts, you remember, there’s a
gift that’s better than all of these gifts and His name is Jesus.
And we want you, whether you have these gifts or not, to treasure Him
more than all these gifts.”
And my friends, that’s the choice that’s before us today.
Will you treasure Jesus more than anything else, or will you treasure
anything else above Jesus? That’s
the great question of life. And those who have trusted in Jesus have so tasted
and seen that He is good, that they treasure Him more than anything.
Let’s pray.