“Our True Blessedness in Jesus’ Kingdom”
(Luke 6:20-26 – Epiphany 6 – February 16, 2025)
Luke 6:20-26 – 20Then He lifted up His eyes toward His disciples, and said: “Blessed are you poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. 21Blessed are you who hunger now, for you shall be filled. Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh. 22Blessed are you when men hate you, and when they exclude you, and revile you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of Man’s sake. 23Rejoice in that day and leap for joy! For indeed your reward is great in heaven, for in like manner their fathers did to the prophets. 24But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation. 25Woe to you who are full, for you shall hunger. Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep. 26Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for so did their fathers to the false prophets.”
Dear disciples of Jesus Christ, who are truly blessed in His Kingdom:
Computer software has become pretty advanced. You can put on virtual reality goggles and enter a seemingly real world. It begins to feel real as you move through a 3D environment, interacting with people and things. Many enjoy virtual reality games as a way to escape on adventures they could never take in the real world. Others use it to train for dangerous situations without the possibility of getting hurt.
But Satan has designed a kind of false reality, by which he seeks to bring harm. He uses false teachings to present an illusion of reality, to lure people into deceptive worldviews and sin. He did this when he tempted Adam and Eve to forsake the truth of God and find escape, promising that if they ate the forbidden fruit their eyes would be opened to a whole new and exciting world. But we know what happened when they had to take off those false reality goggles. They had to face the reality of God’s warning and feel the wages of sin in death. Ever since, the sinful nature in humans is prone to falling for Satan’s lies. How often haven’t we felt that deception within, and sought sinful adventure in ways that only brought real harm to ourselves and others?
But Jesus Christ, the Son of God, came into the world to destroy the devil’s work (1 John 3:8). He came to take our sins to the cross and suffer the real punishment for us, and deliver us from the dominion of Satan, death, and hell. He came to win for us eternal life in His kingdom. In our text, Jesus reveals the true reality and blessings He gives us as believers, in contrast to the false reality and woes of those led by Satan’s lies. Let us see: “Our True Blessedness in Jesus’ Kingdom.” 1) We have His true riches, fullness, and joy; 2) We have His true acceptance and reward.
1) We have His true riches, fullness, and joy
First, Jesus describes the contrast in verses 20, 24: “Then He lifted up His eyes toward His disciples, and said: ‘Blessed are you poor, for yours is the kingdom of God…. But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation.”
How many souls Satan tempts away from God and His truth through false riches. Many look at the world through Satan’s false reality goggles and see gold that glitters and wealth that satisfies and think: “Here is fullness of life! Here is a virtual heaven on earth!” Whether rich or poor by anyone’s standards, one may put misplaced faith in the money, possessions, success, and happiness he hopes to gain for himself in this life. If he thinks beyond the grave, he may proudly believe that the richness of life he lives here will follow in the afterlife. Again, Satan will tempt us through our sinful nature, too, to try to lead us on that path of seeking false riches in this world.
But we hear Jesus’ sobering words to those who feel rich in themselves, apart from Him. The only consolation they have is in what is passing away. When the false reality goggles are removed and all that glitters in this world fades away, their woes will be eternal. We remember Jesus’ account of the rich man and poor Lazarus. In the moment of death, angels carried poor Lazarus to heaven; but the rich man found himself in the fires of hell. When he begged that Lazarus be sent with a drop of water to cool his tongue, he was told: “Remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things; but now he is comforted and you are tormented” (Luke 16:25).
Jesus is not teaching that some go to heaven because of earthly poverty and others go to hell because of earthly riches. The difference is spiritual – faith versus unbelief. As Jesus put it in Matthew 5:3: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” By this, He describes the heart of penitent believers, whether rich or poor in this world. As God in His Word opens our eyes to the reality of our condition as poor sinners, we confess that we have nothing to offer Him deserving any blessing. His Law demands perfect obedience, but all we have to offer is a life of sin. In our spiritual poverty, we bow as beggars pleading only His mercy and forgiveness for Jesus’ sake.
In this light, Jesus says: “Blessed are you poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.” The kingdom is ours, not by any merit we bring to God, but by the riches of His grace in Christ. Jesus has infinite riches in His heavenly kingdom. Yet He humbled Himself and became poor for us (2 Corinthians 8:9), suffering the full punishment of our sin and dying on the cross for us. Now Jesus lifts us up in His boundless forgiveness. Through His gift of faith, He gives us the incomparable riches of eternal life in His heavenly kingdom.
Jesus continues to reveal our true blessedness in His kingdom in verses 21, 25: “Blessed are you who hunger now, for you shall be filled. Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh.” But by contrast: “Woe to you who are full, for you shall hunger. Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep.”
How many souls Satan leads away from Christ by an illusion of fullness and satisfaction of life. Looking through those false reality goggles, many are so absorbed in the cares of this life to care for Jesus’ words of eternal life. We remember Jesus’ parable in which He describes many like seed sown among thorns: “they are the ones who hear the word, and the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things entering in choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful” (Mark 4:18-19). Like a sponge so full of water that it cannot soak in any more, many feel too full with all that they have going in this life; and they feel no spiritual hunger for the Bread of Life Jesus gives in His Word. They feel too satisfied with their own goodness of life to feel any need for Jesus’ words of forgiveness and eternal life.
And how many, having left behind the truth of God’s Word for Satan’s lies, laugh as they live how they please. Like Adam and Eve eating the forbidden fruit, they indulge the desires of the flesh in sinful lifestyles. They may laugh at Christians as party-poopers who are stuck in outdated ways of thinking and losing out on life. Again, Satan tempts us through our sinful flesh to try out those false reality goggles, to seek false satisfaction and embrace new worldviews as we are surrounded by a culture in rebellion against God and His Word.
But again, we hear Jesus’ sobering words to the impenitent: “Woe to you who are full, for you shall hunger. Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep.” How horrible are the hunger pangs of the damned! Never again will they experience any good that God gave in this world; they are forever empty of meaning and hope! Never again will they laugh or feel any joy, but only horrific sorrows in that outer darkness, where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth (Matthew 13:27).
By contrast, Jesus says: “Blessed are you who hunger now, for you shall be filled. Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh.” As believers, what do we hunger and weep for? As Jesus put it in Matthew 5:6, we “hunger and thirst for righteousness.” As we see the reality of a fallen world through the lens of God’s Word, we weep for sin and its effects; we long for things to be right. We feel our own emptiness as we sin and fall short of God’s glory. But then, this is why we hunger for Jesus’ Word and Sacrament. For here, He forgives our sins and fills our account with His own perfect righteousness. We cling to His promise as we “look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells” (2 Peter 3:16). For there, all our longing will be filled. We will be perfectly righteous and free of sin and laugh for joy in His eternal glory!
2) We have His true acceptance and reward
By the Holy Spirit and faith, Jesus has rescued us from Satan’s dominion and opened our eyes to our true blessedness in His Kingdom (Colossians 1:21). Now, as He wants all people to be saved and know His truth, so do we (1 Timothy 2:3-4).
But as we speak God’s truth in love, many living by Satan’s lies will not love and accept us. Jesus pictures this in verses 22-23, 26: “Blessed are you when men hate you, and when they exclude you, and revile you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of Man’s sake. Rejoice in that day and leap for joy! For indeed your reward is great in heaven, for in like manner their fathers did to the prophets…. Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for so did their fathers to the false prophets.”
Like updates to false reality software, Satan sends his prophets to preach the latest thing itching ears want to hear, giving the impenitent an illusion of spiritual security. They may preach in the name of love, and many may speak well of them; but by Satan’s lies they lead many blindly in the broad path to hell. Yet God continues to send faithful preachers of His Word. They speak His truth in love, even when it is not popular. They lead sinners in true repentance and faith to Christ, in the narrow path to heaven.
How often, this divide is felt in persecution. Many Christians suffer hatred, rejection, slander, imprisonment, and even death for Jesus’ sake. Unbelief takes offense at the Gospel by which Jesus seeks to save the lost. We remember when Stephen was put on trial for preaching repentance and faith in Jesus at Jerusalem. As he spoke the truth in love, his accusers gnashed their teeth at him in rage. But Stephen, “being full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God, and said, ‘Look! I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!’” As they cast him out of the city and stoned him to death, he prayed: “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” As the stones hit him he cried out: “Lord, do not charge them with this sin.” Then he fell asleep in Christ (Acts 7:55-60).
Here we see our true blessedness in Jesus’ kingdom. Even if the world under Satan’s delusion rejects us, we have acceptance with God in Christ. No persecution, not even death, can separate us from His eternal love (Romans 8:35). Therefore Jesus says: “Rejoice in that day and leap for joy! For indeed your reward is great in heaven.” Like Stephen, even in our moment of death we will commit our spirit into the hands of Jesus; and He will open our eyes to the reality of His everlasting heavenly glory.
Let us rejoice in our true blessedness in Jesus’ kingdom! As we kneel before Him in our spiritual poverty, He lifts us up in the riches of His grace and forgiveness. As we spiritually hunger and weep in this world, He fills our hearts with true hope and joy. His love moves us to share the same riches of His grace and forgiveness and hope of eternal life with others – yes, even with our enemies. We pray that by His Gospel, the Holy Spirit will open the eyes of many to see the true blessedness of His Kingdom that together we may rejoice and say:
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be. Amen.