Luke 6:17-26 Pastor Nathan P. Kassulke
The Sixth Sunday after Epiphany Sunday, February 13, 2022 “Jesus Defines Blessings Differently”
Are you blessed? I think we would all agree that we are blessed in many ways. The fact that we are here this morning means that we were blessed to be healthy enough to get out of bed and get ready, blessed to have transportation in some form to arrive here, blessed to be clothed and fed. And all those things are only a small percentage of the blessings we enjoy. We could talk about the blessings of families and friends, jobs and careers, houses, cars, entertainment, and so many other things that we enjoy. God has certainly blessed us in many ways. So what exactly is a blessing? How would you define it? Usually, we probably think of a blessing as something that makes us happy. A blessing is any good thing that God puts into our lives. A blessing is something that we want to have. Appropriately, we thank God when he gives us these sorts of blessings. In our Gospel today, though, we hear Jesus saying something surprising. He takes what we think about or know about blessings and curses, and he flips it completely on its head. And while our other readings help us understand better, this lesson in particular makes it clear that Jesus defines blessings differently. And it goes without saying for us that Jesus is worth listening to. However, we see in this account how he drove that point home to his listeners. As Luke records, Jesus had spent time both calling his disciples and then allowing them to witness his miracles. He had recently spent a night in prayer before appointing twelve followers as his apostles, and then as our text records, he went down to an open place, a level place. That is where the crowds met him. They came from the coast, and they came from the cities. They came with diseases, and they came with evil spirits. All many of those people wanted to do was to touch Jesus. They had seen how his power was healing people just like that. So do you think that Jesus had their attention when he began to speak? He lifted up his eyes toward his disciples and he announced a series of blessings. “Blessed are you who are poor…Blessed are you who hunger…Blessed are you who weep.” I don’t know how the people reacted. The Bible doesn’t tell us. But I know my reaction when I hear these words. Don’t you wonder whether Jesus switched up his notecards for this sermon? Doesn’t it sound like something got confused on the teleprompter? So many people have been coming to Jesus to have him fix the problems that they are facing, and he seems to tell them that they should instead embrace the problems. He seems to tell them that the problems are actually the blessings. The people don’t want to be poor. They don’t want to be hungry. They don’t want to weep. They certainly don’t want other people to hate them. Who would want that? And yet, those four things are the exact four things that Jesus calls blessings, the things that he says make people blessed. The people to whom Jesus first spoke this sermon, like us, needed to hear these shocking words. They, like us, far too often failed to understand true blessings. They, like us, too often failed to look at the world the way that God would want them to. Sinful people often see the world according to their own narrow perspective and their own selfish goals. The reality is a lot more complicated than just asking at any single moment whether I feel happy. Blessed are you who are poor, because yours is the kingdom of God. Riches can’t buy our way into God’s kingdom. Those who are poor understand that they have nothing to offer to God. They rely on him completely. They know that is has to be a gift from God to be a part of his kingdom, and that is exactly what it is. And if you are a part of God’s kingdom, it doesn’t matter what kind of earthly wealth you have or don’t have, you are truly rich in the most important of ways. Blessed are you who hunger NOW…Blessed are you who weep NOW. The blessing is not all about what is happening now, but it is found in the fact that you WILL BE satisfied, you WILL laugh. Jesus teaches us to look beyond our immediate situations and circumstances. He has something better in store for us. He has promised us an eternity in heaven. Those who are part of God’s kingdom now may still be poor and hungry and weeping, but the time will come when they will not. At that time and in that most blessed place we will be completely satisfied and forever happy.
That news is good enough to overcome any struggles and any seeming difficulties that we face right now. That means it overcomes even those who hate and insult and exclude us because of our relationship with Jesus. It is truly a wonderful thing to be here in church together. And it must have been even more amazing to have been at this sermon in that outdoor church with Jesus himself. One of the blessings of a gathering like this is that we encourage each other. We have the same mindset about Jesus and about our lives. But our lives also take us to other places. Our lives intersect with people who don’t feel the same way about Jesus. And sometimes people mock and ridicule and put down Christians and Christianity. About that, Jesus says, “Rejoice!” “Leap for joy!” When people do that to you, they are doing what they did to God’s prophets. They are doing what they did to Jesus himself. There is no greater example of one who was hated and insulted and excluded without reason than Jesus. He lived a perfect life, spotless and faultless, but was persecuted and rejected all the way to his death. And in that death, in the most unlikely of places, on a torturous cross, we find the greatest blessing the world has even seen or known. In that death the sins of the world saw justice and punishment. In that death the punishment that we deserved was placed on someone else, on Jesus. And that death of Jesus the Son of God was precious enough to pay for every last sin. And he rose from the grave to proclaim that we, too will rise. That’s what flips our perspective upside down. Without Jesus, the best we have is the good in this life, the things that we enjoy in this world. Without Jesus, our lives can be no richer than what we own and what we eat and what we have to entertain ourselves. And without Jesus, the pleasures of this world are all we have, and what comes next is horrific because it is what our sins deserve. Does that help us redefine blessings? Blessings aren’t those things that make us happy right now. They are those things that God uses to bring us closer to Jesus and those things that he uses to keep us close to himself. And, yes, absolutely at times those things seem painful or unpleasant. You heard in our Second Reading about Paul’s thorn in the flesh. This was something painful. It was something that bothered him and troubled him. He begged God to take it away. He did so again and again. And God said no. Paul could have shaken his fist at God and said, “Clearly you don’t love me. You are unfair. Look at all that I have done for you and this is how you repay me?!” But he didn’t. God led Paul to understand that all he needed and all he had was God himself. And that thorn in the flesh was a valuable reminder. In his weakness, Paul had no choice but to rely on God. And so Paul could rejoice in his suffering. He could rejoice in his weakness. He could rejoice when he was persecuted. He could rejoice because he had God. He had his Savior. He had all the strength he needed. And even now he enjoys the glory of heaven. That’s what Jesus wants for you. So to drive home that point, he takes all four blessings and turns them around. “Woe to you who are rich…well fed…Woe to you who laugh now…Woe to you when all people speak well of you.” And yes, I get it. There is a part of us that cries out and says, “If only I had such a curse!” But a curse is exactly what it is. If we think that we have all we need without Jesus, one day our comfort will be gone. One day our laughter will turn to mourning. It ought to capture our attention that the people who were constantly welcomed and praised and beloved were not the true prophets of God, but false messengers, prophets of their own imaginations. Jesus defines blessings differently. Jesus talks about blessings that we hesitate to want. He talks about curses that sound incredibly good to our sinful natures. He calls us to reassess. Have we found comfort places we should not? Do we feel secure because our bank account grows and our health is good and our friends and family members are happy? Do we think it’s a curse when we get sick or when a loved one is taken away from us? Out there in the world, for people who don’t have Jesus, the worst possible thing imaginable is that the end of their life will come. And sometimes that sort of thinking sneaks into our lives, too. It’s not the truth. Our Savior turns that notion completely upside down. The things that feel to us like curses are really blessings when they bring us closer to our Savior and when they remind us to rely on his strength. And the things that often come to the top of our list when we think about blessings—those things can actually draw us away from him and his love and salvation. Jesus defines blessings differently. And he wants us to be truly blessed. Let us rejoice in his love.
The Text: Luke 6:17–26 (EHV) 17He
went down with them and stood on a level place with a large crowd of his disciples and a large number of people from all Judea and Jerusalem, as well as from the coastal area of Tyre and Sidon. These people came to listen to him and to be healed of their diseases. 18Those who were troubled by unclean spirits were also cured. 19The whole crowd kept trying to touch him, because power was going out from him and healing them all. 20He
lifted up his eyes to his disciples and said:
Blessed are you who are poor, because yours is the kingdom of God. 21Blessed are you who hunger now, because you will be satisfied. Blessed are you who weep now, because you will laugh. 22Blessed are you whenever people hate you, and whenever they exclude 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 of this: Your reward is great in heaven! The fact is, their fathers constantly did the same things to the prophets.” 24But
woe to you who are rich, because you are receiving your comfort now. 25Woe to you who are well fed now, because you will be hungry. Woe to you who laugh now, because you will be mourning and weeping. 26Woe to you when all people speak well of you, because that is how their fathers constantly treated the false prophets.