Blessings and woes (Lk. 6:20-31)
This life is full of blessings and woes. Every day, we experience both highs and lows, sometimes in quite extreme ways. One minute, we can feel on top of the world, and the next, we want to run away and escape it all. Dealing with the good and the bad in this life can be emotionally exhausting and spiritually challenging, particularly if we experience more of the bad during a given day or week.
It seems as though Jesus is quite aware of the ups and downs of this life. In a way, he might even be taking some responsibility for it. Today, he addresses life’s blessings, woes, and the love we experience through it all. These all come from God, and they are all good for us.
The blessings
According to Jesus, the most blessed people in this life are poor people, hungry people, sad people, and abused people. It doesn’t sound like there’s a whole lot of blessing going on, is there?
By baptism we are made holy and, therefore, become God’s saints. As we celebrate All Saints, we remember the saints we knew that have died in the past year or so.
We also remember those throughout history who have shown extraordinary faith in some way. These are people that we look to as examples in the faith. We praise God for all of his saints today.
Some of the most well-known Saints of the church are:
The Twelve Apostles and others who knew Jesus (e.g. Peter, Mary, John the Baptist)Key New Testament people (e.g. gospel writers, Paul, Stephen)
The Church Fathers (e.g. Cyril of Alexandria, Augustine of Hippo)
Most of these people of faith suffered greatly during their lives. Some were imprisoned and many of them were killed in horrible ways because of their faith and became martyrs.
Jesus says that the same happened to the prophets of the Old Testament. Many of them were abused, rejected, arrested, and even killed because of what they preached about the God of Israel.
“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.
Luke 6:22,23
God’s blessing is not in the exclusion and abuse. Rather, we who are blessed with the hope of our heavenly reward, produce these kinds of responses in people.
But all these things they will do to you on account of my name, because they do not know him who sent me.
John 15:21
People can’t help but feel threatened when they are faced with something unfamiliar or unknown. We all freak out when we have to deal with something for the first time. I freaked out when I was handed a puppy that we’d just bought. How do I hold this thing? What if I do it wrong and injure it? What if it relieves itself on me?
This past year has been first thing after first thing for Olivia and I. After a while, you have no choice but to roll with the punches (maybe a bad choice of analogy) and trust that everything will work out in the end.
When was the last time you did something for the first time? When was the last time you were completely fresh to something and had no previous experience to fall back on? Maybe you haven’t had to deal with that for some time. Maybe the past few years have forced us to get used to feeling like that with technology, for example.
It’s very difficult for us to imagine what it would be like to be completely unaware of the Christian faith and unfamiliar with the idea that there is a God who is all-powerful and all-knowing. If that was the case for someone, it’s likely that they would feel threatened by this mysterious and seemingly very powerful God.
How do people respond when they feel threatened? Usually one of two ways: fight or flight. Here, we’re talking about the fight response.
If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you.
1 Peter 4:14
People will insult our faith and the church we’re a part of because they don’t know the God we worship. People will criticise us because they don’t understand why we do any of this. So, what can we do?
We can try our best to include people in our community, whether they come to worship or not. We can offer to help those in need, regardless of their faith background. We can teach each other what we know about the faith so that we can all know God better and feel less threatened by him.
The insults, rejection, and abuse will come our way, either as individuals or as a community. We don’t ask for it to happen, but we know that despite what the world says, we are known and loved by God who made us and sent his Son to give us new life and new hope. Knowing this God and being saved by Christ is the great blessing we have obtained. Therefore, even in the worst of life —poverty, hunger, and weeping—we are blessed to be God’s children and receive everything that comes with that.
The woes
The general gist of the blessings is that the less we have, the more we have in Christ. The woes, then, say that the more we have in this life, the harder it’ll be.
Having a good spring clean is always a very liberating experience. When you sort through your wardrobe and throw out or donate a bunch of stuff, we tend to find that freeing. Or, even if you tidy up the house after a busy week and put away all of the clutter that has accumulated on the kitchen bench, it feels better.
Or, if you’ve ever bought a new car you probably made a rule that no food or drink would be allowed inside it. That probably didn’t last very long, but you get the point. We get protective over what we own, particularly when it is worth a lot of money or has a high value to us.
Owning stuff is a burden. We want to look after what we have and we don’t want to waste our money. Yet, life is always better when we have less. The simple life is more enjoyable than a messy one. We don’t always have a choice in that, particularly in family life. Yet, we should be careful that we don’t place our self-worth and sense of fulfilment in our full schedules.
God gives us plenty in this life, like the land we live in and the produce we have access to. It is good to enjoy these things as gifts from God. Our human nature so easily forgets the source of these gifts and isolates the gift from the Giver. What happens then is an empty trust in temporary things.
Praise and encouragement from each other is the same. God has given us families and communities to be a part of for our benefit as we build each other up in faith and love. Yet, when we build ourselves up too much, we neglect to give the glory to God. We take the glory for ourselves and that’s all we’ll ever get.
What causes us woe is our sinful human nature. It distorts the world we live in to make ourselves the centre of it all. It separates God’s gifts from God. It takes God’s glory for itself.
What do we do about this problem we have? What do we do with the woes we experience?
Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
Matthew 11:28–30
When we come to Jesus and hand over our guilt, pride, and shame, he reminds us of the blessing that was lying underneath it all, all along. Life’s woes remind us of our complete and utter dependance on God because without him, that’s all our lives would be.
The love
Jesus commands us to love our enemies, do good to those who hate us, and pray for those who abuse us. Being his saints means that we will experience these things.
How do you think those well-known Saints of the church got through it? Some of them faced intense persecution, unfair imprisonment and even death sentences. Yet, as he was being stoned to death, St. Stephen had the strength and the boldness to say, “Lord, don’t hold this sin against them.” Jesus had a remarkably similar boldness upon his own death on the cross.
Showing genuine love to those we know well is one thing. Loving the people that you don’t see eye-to-eye with is another.
Doing good to those who do good for us is one thing—that’s just repaying favours. Doing good to those who actively treat us poorly is another.
Praying for those we know and love is one thing, and we find that hard enough at times. Praying for those who abuse and insult us is another.
Our strength to do these things does not come from ourselves, just as the real blessings in this life are not a result of our own great achievement. All blessing, all hope, all strength, all truth, and all love come from the one who loved us first.
All glory be to our Father in heaven and our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.