Audio Transcript

To live in the West is to be immersed in a world obsessed with wealth, status, money, greed, gambling, and luxury. That’s why we’ve dedicated so much time here to discuss money, shopping, the prosperity gospel, and what it means to live a wartime lifestyle in the midst of such a money-loving culture. These perennial topics take up as much space in the APJ book as any other, for that reason. See my summary digest on pages 95–121.

And if you are reading your Bible with us, using the Navigators Bible Reading Plan, Saturday we will read Jesus’s woes to the rich and well-fed and comfortable in Luke 6:24–26. So, is this a condemnation of the comforts of our own middle-class Western life? It’s a great question, and it comes from Lee in North Carolina.

“Dear Pastor John — and Tony! — I’m a longtime listener of the podcast and want to thank you for providing ten minutes of spiritual nourishment during my hundreds of morning commutes. It has literally changed the course of my days as I drive to work. This morning, I was reading through the beatitudes in Luke 6:24–26. They struck me like never before. Verse 24 says, ‘Woe to you who are rich.’ I am rich by all global standards. My wife and I do not live beyond our means or spend frivolously; however, we do have good incomes and savings. Verse 25 says, ‘Woe to you who are full now.’ I have never been truly hungry in my life apart from voluntary fasting. Verse 25 says, ‘Woe to you who laugh now.’ I have a joyful life and try to laugh often.

“Can you help put Jesus’s woes into perspective, especially as they seem directed at my life? Can you contrast Luke’s account with Matthew’s, which says, ‘Blessed are the poor in spirit,’ ‘hunger and thirst for righteousness,’ etc? I desire the blessings of Luke 6:20–22, but I’m unsure how to reconcile all of this with my physical life. Matthew seems more focused on my spiritual life.”

Let me read the text in just a second. And then, in case it’s just not obvious, point out what the problem is as we compare Luke’s so-called beatitudes and woes with Matthew’s beatitudes. But let me preface it with a method.

I don’t think it’s a good method to try to force similar sayings in two different Gospels to mean exactly the same thing, because Jesus spoke similar things in many different settings and meant different things by them — not contradictory things, but different things. So, my approach (and I think it’s wise and honoring to the inspired writers) is that we let each Gospel writer report what he knows in a way that makes clear a particular meaning about those, rather than saying, “Well, Luke’s has to be what Matthew meant,” or “Matthew’s has to be what Luke meant.” And, I would say, “No, that’s not the case.” They just don’t contradict each other, but they might be different, significantly different, which they are here.

Sweeping Blessings and Woes

So, everybody knows Matthew’s “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven,” or “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted” (Matthew 5:3–4). Here’s Luke’s version (I’ll read the whole thing):

[Jesus] lifted up his eyes on his disciples, and said:
“Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.
Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you shall be satisfied.
Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh.
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.”

I mean, that just seems over the top. Leap for joy when you’re slandered?

“But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation.
Woe to you who are full now, for you shall be hungry.
Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep.
Woe to you, when all people speak well of you, for so their fathers did to the false prophets.” (Luke 6:20–26)

So, this is one of the classic places where Jesus speaks in a sweeping and extreme way and leaves you gasping, wondering if he could possibly mean what he seems to say in such a sweeping and seemingly unqualified way. For example, he said, “Blessed are the poor” — no qualifications. “Blessed are the hungry now” — no qualifications. “Blessed are the weeping now” — no qualifications. “Woe to you rich” (which is the opposite of poor) — no qualifications. “Woe to those who are full” (opposite of hungry) — no qualifications. “Woe to those who laugh” (just laugh) — no qualifications. What in the world are we to make of this?

Here we really wonder, Well, are there no qualifications? If there are no qualifications, then the wicked poor and the wicked hungry and the wicked laughing will all be blessed by God. And if there are really no qualifications, then there are no godly rich, and everyone with a full stomach or who laughs at a baby’s giggle is cursed.

Clues in the Context

Now, I think our approach should not be first to say, “Well, he just can’t mean that. I mean, he just can’t mean that,” and call it exaggeration or a literary device or something like that. Rather, I think we should look for clues in the context. Look very carefully. Stare until we see them, which he expects us to find so that we can know there are qualifications. Not all the poor are blessed. Not all the weeping are blessed. Not all those with a full stomach are cursed. Not everyone who laughs is under judgment.

How do we know that? “I mean, there you go, laying your predisposition, Piper, on top of the text and won’t let it say what it wants to say.” Well, I hope not. Here’s the clue. Jesus says, in Luke 6:22–23, that when people hate you “on account of the Son of Man,” you should rejoice on that day and leap for joy. Picture yourself leaping for joy. What does it sound like out of your mouth? There’s laughter and shouting. So, Jesus is saying, loud and clear, that in this age there is a time and a place and a circumstance for great rejoicing and leaping for joy. It’s not the place that the world expects, but a real time and real place for much joyful leaping and laughing — namely, when you are persecuted for the Son of Man.

“If we are not devoted to the Son of Man, no riches, no fullness, and no laughter can keep us from condemnation.”

When he gets to Luke 6:25 and says, “Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep,” we know he must mean a kind of laughing that isn’t the same kind as the joy and the leaping that he commanded in Luke 6:23. He doesn’t speak out of both sides of his mouth. He’s not confused. He’s not schizophrenic. When he says, “Leap for joy,” and then condemns laughter, we know one of them is different from the other. There’s a distinction being made. That’s the clue, at least one, that he wants us to pick up. There are others.

We should apply the same thing to the poor and the rich. Is it all poor (just like all laughter)? No, it’s not all poor, just like it was not all laughter. All the rich are condemned? No, not all of the rich. Each one we pick up on and apply the same clue that we saw with regard to laughter.

So, what’s the key that makes some laughter blessed and some woeful? The contextual answer is this: Are you laughing or leaping on account of the Son of Man? Because that’s the criterion for the first command for joy: when it is done in response to living according to the Son of Man. Is your poverty an expression of your devotion to the Son of Man? Is your hunger an expression of your love and devotion to and following the Son of Man? Are your riches owing to indifference to the teachings of the Son of Man? If so, you’re under a woe. Is the fullness of your stomach evidence that you are for or against the Son of Man?

Are We Devoted to Jesus?

My answer to Lee’s question is that Jesus has given us clues in Luke’s text to keep us from treating these beatitudes and curses in an unqualified way. Poverty and riches, hunger and fullness, weeping and laughter may be signs of blessedness, or they may be signs of condemnation, depending on how they relate to our devotion to Jesus.

If we are utterly devoted to him, no poverty, no hunger or weeping can steal our blessedness. I think that’s what he means by the blessings: “If you’re my disciple, and you are acting in accord with your love for the Son of Man, you may be poor, you may be hungry, you may be weeping, but you are blessed.” And if we are not devoted to him, not following the Son of Man, no riches, no fullness, no laughter can keep us from condemnation.