On Line Bible Study - For the Week May 10-16, 2010

Lesson 439

Luke 6: ²⁰Looking at his disciples, he said: "Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. ²¹Blessed are you who hunger now, for you will be satisfied. Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh. ²²Blessed are you when men hate you, when they exclude you and insult you and reject your name as evil, because of the Son of Man.

²³"Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, because great is your reward in heaven. For that is how their fathers treated the prophets.

²⁴"But woe to you who are rich, for you have already received your comfort. ²⁵Woe to you who are well fed now, for you will go hungry. Woe to you who laugh now, for you will mourn and weep. ²⁶Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for that is how their fathers treated the false prophets.

This is a passage of Scripture found also in Matthew, though with much less detail here. And there are some significant differences in terms of the beatitudes themselves between the two gospels. In his commentary on Luke, Darrell Bock acknowledges a level of complexity in terms of the sources for this section. Matthew has eight beatitudes; Luke has four. Matthew says those who mourn will be comforted; Luke says those who weep will laugh. Luke has four "woes" that are not present in Matthew. There are many other textual considerations we could explore (such as: Matthew says 'poor in spirit' whereas Luke simply says 'poor', etc.).

Luke tells us the crowds gathered around Jesus were trying to touch him because of his healing power. Recalling the threat Jesus was deemed to be by the Pharisees in the previous sections, Jesus now begins to acknowledge that there are two kinds of people - those who will know God's blessing, and those who won't. It's not the rich, well-fed, happy and popular who are necessarily on the "in" with God. Rather, it is the poor, the hungry, the sad and the persecuted who will experience the blessing.

A major question this section imposes on us is that of deciding which camp we are in. There are spiritual and ethical/sociological implications in both Matthew and Luke's telling; however, Luke leans more heavily on the ethical. What does it mean in our day to be rich, popular, well-fed, etc.? Are there spiritual implications attached to our standard of living, whether we care to consider them or not?

Another factor to consider has to do with receiving God's blessing apart from the Law. It's not the "Law" that provides blessing, but your station in life ... perhaps we could even say your chosen station in life. It is from who you are ethically that blessing will emerge ... or not. We have said it before - poverty in and of itself has no redeeming quality. But wealth should never be construed as the evidence of God's blessing. Quite the contrary! Wealth is a burden, a responsibility; left untended and improperly used wealth can cause us no end of woe!

For next time we will move past the "blessings and woes" and consider Jesus' teaching on love.