Luke 6:20-26

Luke 6:20-26 Looking at his disciples, he said: “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you who hunger now, for you will be satisfied. Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh. Blessed 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. “Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, because great is your reward in heaven. For that is how their fathers treated the prophets. “But woe to you who are rich, for you have already received your comfort. Woe to you who are well fed now, for you will go hungry. Woe to you who laugh now, for you will mourn and weep. Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for that is how their fathers treated the false prophets.

In this passage, we have eight promises from God, four positive and four negative, but all are promises. They will come to pass. If we qualify for any of the first four, we should rejoice and be extremely happy because our reward is great, for God will do what He says He will do. He is not a liar. If we Christians fail to rejoice and believe when we are struggling or troubled, we are standing in unrighteousness, for we are not believing God's Word that He will bless us. Anything that is not of faith is unbelief, sin. We are then like the people who would not dance that Jesus refers to in Matthew 11:17. We played the flute for you (told you of your coming reward), and you did not dance; we sang a dirge, and you did not mourn. Otherwise, we are unmoved by God's words. I find myself there sometimes. I want more. I want more proof that God is with me. I want to WALK BY SIGHT AND NOT BY FAITH. I want good feelings, not bad circumstances. Nevertheless, if the promises in the above passage are not true, then nothing in the Bible can be trusted. Jesus said emphatically, God is going to bless greatly the poor, the hungry, the sad, the excluded. He is going to bless them because they are his dependent, righteous children, those He bought with his own blood.

But to those who are comfortable, well-fed, full of smug laughter, esteemed by the world, they will receive the judgment of God. A judgment that will be certain, for God has promised it through Jesus Christ's mouth. The self-sufficient, the well-off, will someday know that God is God and that all knees will have to bow to him. Sadly, their self-sufficient, status-seeking attitude will not withstand God's promise of judgment. THEY WILL BE JUDGED FOR THEIR UNRIGHTEOUSNESS ATTITUDE OF NOT NEEDING GOD IN THEIR LIVES.

Serving God is a dependency on him. Faith in God is a dependency: denying yourself and putting your whole trust in God. Why are the poor, disabled, troubled, ignored, and forsaken blessed by God? Probably, because they are the most dependent on God for everything in their lives. Their focus in life, their hope, has shifted from this world to a better world, a place where God exists: a place of justice, of no tears, of rest from worries. The self-sufficient, the rich, the healthy, the well-fed, the revelers: all those who are truly without a heavenly Father as their focus and hope rest in this world and in themselves. Jesus says, Woe to you. He says, without a heavenly Father you are lost in eternity; you have no home. Your reward for living will be this life and nothing else, for judgement will follow.

But we Christians are not fatherless. We have placed our whole trust in Jesus Christ through faith in him and his works. Therefore, Christians should not walk in unrighteousness, which is the attitude that God will not do what He promised. Yes, God blesses us, not only in the future but in the now; his very presence, the Holy Spirit, is a continual great blessing, and we have other blessings too many to count. Therefore, rejoice, let us sing wholeheartedly, let our feet dance, let praises be on our lips, for we are the redeemed. We are the dependent; Christ is our life. We are the blessed; we are God's children.