Luke Looks Back 08

Luke Looks Back Chapter 8

Luke 6:17 – 6: 26

The Way of Jesus: blessings and woes

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Luke wrote his own version of Matthew's more famous Sermon on the Mount. It is much shorter and was preached in 'a level place'. Probably Jesus, like any travelling preacher, used much the same material many times and these are two slightly different reports of what he said.

Please do read Luke 6: 17 - 26

The biggest differences occur in the list of blessings and the woes that Luke, but not Matthew, has after them. Luke has only 4 Blessings and 4 matching Woes. Understanding them can be tricky!

Blessing 1 (v 20).

Question 1: Say which of the following statements are true or false comments about this Blessing? And why? a. All poor people are already in the Kingdom because they are poor and therefore can be sure they will be saved when they die. b. All the poor people who met King Jesus as he walked round Galilee were in the Kingdom because they had met the King and therefore would be saved. c. Jesus was only talking about those who were, and are, spiritually poor - they would be in the Kingdom (Matt 5: 3). d. Jesus didn't say anybody is 'in' the Kingdom he told them who it belongs to. That means it is wide open for the poor but they still have to set out to follow Jesus whole heartedly to be 'in' the Kingdom.

It is certainly true that Jesus had a special feeling for the poor people he met and got on better with them than rich people but just poverty by itself does not let anyone into the Kingdom so the first 3 are all false.  To "follow Jesus" is the all important way into the Kingdom which is about what the fourth statement said.

That first blessing was about something that was happening then (present tense). The next 2 blessings 2 and 3 are about the future (future tense).

Blessing 2 (v 21a):

Jesus was talking to a big crowd. In those days many people did not get enough to eat and would be hungry. Matthew interprets this as being about hunger and thirst for righteousness and we should probably understand this that way. The difficult word righteousness is about establishing a relationship (the basic meaning of the word translated righteousness) between the Lord and his people. Which can only be done by making a person good and holy before God, which, fortunately, God by his grace will do for us, for we could never be good enough ourselves.

Question 2: Are you hungry, in this spiritual sense, now? Are you prepared to wait to be satisfied later? When will 'later' be? Or are you in too much of a hurry?

The Bible consistently teaches that the final justice of God at the judgement day will right all wrongs, particularly for the poor and the hungry who trust him now. But of course most of the answer to this question is something you are going to have to meditate on yourself.

Blessing 3 (v 21b):

Someone has said "those who wish to serve him best are conscious most of sin within".

Question 3: Is it worth weeping over our sins now for the promise of laughing later? Have you any advice for yourself and others as to how to think more about the future and make that a more important factor in the way you live?

Blessing 4 (v 22, 23)

the most important point about all the Blessings only comes in this last one.

Question 4: What is the great condition of this Blessing and all the others (here it is again)? Are the problems of this Blessing certain to happen for the true follower of Jesus?

Our joy depends on following the Son of Man, as Jesus called himself. Whether we will be hated, despised, insulted and rejected depends on where we have to live in this world. Some of us have it easy, others do not.

4 Woes. v24 - 26.

Jesus does seem to have a rather poor view of life. He seems to think being rich, well fed, cheerful and well thought of are all bad things. Most of us probably disagree and would defend our right to disagree. What then can we make of these sayings? Perhaps we can start this way - you probably know somebody who is rich, fat, always cheerful and in the middle of a group of people and yet you would not at all like to be that person. Why is that?

Question 5: What are the bad things about being rich, fat, always in the middle of a group of people? Why then did Jesus make these his woes?

You will need to think hard about this one. People like this all too often are what they are because they are careless of other people. They think only of themselves and what they can get out of life, regardless of how many people they hurt and offend on the way. But they have a sort of life force that seems to push them through life successfully. The Psalmist in psalm 73 grumbles about these sort of people and comforted himself saying "God is the strength of my heart and my portion for ever".

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