20250309 Luke 6:17-26 What is the good life?

What is the good life? How we answer this question determines every choice we make. Our values determine our decisions. For Christians, God must define what is “good” and what is “the good life.” Christians must learn to value what God values. With time, as we devote ourselves to God, his idea of a good life will become our idea of a good life. The decisions we make as we mature in Christ will more and more instinctively, be the will of God.

Erle Frederick Rounds believed that the good life was to take the love of Christ to unreached areas of the world. He went to the rugged mountains of the Philippines. In 1941, hours after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the Japanese invaded Manila. With these events, Rounds and his family could not leave the Philippines. He continued to bear witness to the good news of the forgiveness of sins in Christ. The Japanese started executing Christian missionaries. Rounds was losing many friends.

In one of his last letters, he wrote to missionaries captured by the Japanese, “I believe the missionaries are going to see real persecution before the thing is over… But it is one of the greatest privileges, I can think of to be here as a missionary … We hope to see you all again, but, if we should be denied that blessed joy, we can meet again in a land that is fairer than day.” In 1943, the camp, where Rounds was with family, was attacked, and they were executed.[i]

What is the good life for you?

The letter Rounds wrote reflects the teaching of Luke 6:17-26. Our text introduces the Sermon on the Plain.[ii] Jesus teaches us the values of the kingdom of God. In a counter-cultural way, Jesus teaches us what is the good life. It is a life in which we possess him and are blessed whatever our circumstances may be. The good life is to possess Jesus.

In this message, we will look at tips to interpret Luke 6:17-26. Then, we will look at how the poor, hungry, sad, and excluded can be blessed.

First, we look at clues to interpret this strange text.

The first clue to understanding the text are definitions of blessings and woes.

Our text is strange, we do not talk like this. But you are not crazy, you heard Jesus correctly. In Luke 6:20-26, there are four “Blessed” statements and four “Woe” statements. The word “blessed” can mean “happy” or express “How good is life”, or “congratulations.” The word, “Woe” suggests the opposite. It is a commiseration. It expresses, “Oh how pitied.”

The second clue to interpret the text are the reversals Jesus promises and warns about. These reversals show that Jesus is teaching a spiritual lesson.

The shock value in this text is that Jesus is teaching us to value what we would naturally reject. He also teaches us to reject what we typically want. The reason he gives is the great reversal. The poor, hungry, weeping, and excluded are blessed because they will be rich, satisfied, laughing, and included. The rich, the full, the laughing, and the accepted will be poor, hungry, weeping, and condemned.

The reversals reveal that Jesus is teaching a spiritual lesson because these reversals do not generally occur in this life. Jesus’ teaching goes deeper than how much money is in our bank account, or when we had our last meal. Jesus is teaching about true food, true wealth, true joy, and the acceptance that matters the most. The reversals show us that Jesus is teaching spiritual lessons.

Third clue is the proper context for this text. The proper context is Christian discipleship.

Jesus speaks a good word to the poor, the hungry, the sad, and the excluded but this is not a celebration of these things. They are all results of the fall in some way. What is shocking is Jesus includes those society is quick to exclude. The blessing Jesus pronounces is for the lowly who find their life in him. This point is made most clearly in Luke 6:22, when Jesus refers to those who are hated on account of him, “the Son of Man!”

Jesus is not making statements about all the poor, hungry, sad, and hated. It is through the lens of discipleship that his statements make sense together. To be a disciple can entail the loss of earthly possessions and security. Hunger can be the result of religious persecution. The poor and hungry are also sad because of the strain of life. Because of the public nature of religion, pledging allegiance to Jesus meant exclusion from the majority religion, Judaism. When Christians are poor, hungry, sad, and excluded, they still know that they are blessed because they have Jesus.

With these three clues, we can conclude on the goal of this text.

The four blessings offer a portrait of those for whom God has compassion. The woes describe the group of people who will see judgments. This text contrasts two philosophies of life. There are two responses to Jesus’ message, “either wholehearted commitment to the kingdom of God, with all the hardships that may bring, or continued pursuit of the way of the world, putting present satisfaction before the will of God and its ultimate rewards."[iii] Jesus commends the first and condemns the second.

This text serves as an invitation and a warning to those listening. It is an invitation to suffer for Jesus and warning to those who persecute Jesus’ disciples.

That was the big picture, now we look at poverty, hunger, sadness, and exclusion.

Second, now we look at Poverty, Hunger, Sadness, and exclusion.

In Luke 6:20, 24 Jesus addresses poverty and wealth.

He says, “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. (6:24) “But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your comfort."

Jesus is using poverty and wealth to offer a spiritual lesson.[iv] Jesus promises the kingdom of God to the poor. It is a spiritual reward so Jesus is teaching a spiritual lesson. Jesus is not saying that if our bank balance goes under a certain amount, we directly receive divine favor. Rather the blessing is for the “pious poor.” Ps 25:9 reads, “[The Lord] leads the humble in what is right, and teaches the humble his way.” Jesus ministers to the poor to find pious poor. It is possible to spend seasons of poverty in sinful jealousy of others and reject God's words of blessing.

The rich are singled out negatively even though the rich also respond positively to the gospel in the Bible. This was the case of Zacheus, perhaps Lydia, and Joseph of Arimathea. Jesus warns of the danger of wealth if that is our reward. Wealth can create a sense of independence that results in distance from God and callousness toward others. The folly connected with wealth is that we can want it so badly and yet, we do not take it with us in the grave and beyond.

Luke 6:20 is an invitation to all the socially and economically marginalized among Jesus’ hearers to take advantage of their socio-economic poverty. They are unencumbered by the trappings of position, power, and possessions to join Jesus. Those who do are truly blessed, they may be deficient in material goods, but have God himself.

For all of us who wished we had more money, hold that thought and hear Jesus' words - “blessed are you,” “How good is your life!” or “congratulations!” if you follow Jesus, yours is the kingdom of God. Let us treasure Him above all else.

In Luke 6:21, 25, Jesus addresses hunger and satisfaction.

Luke 6:21 reads, “Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you shall be satisfied. (6:25) “Woe to you who are full now, for you shall be hungry.

Jesus uses food to teach about true nutrition. We can be fed and miss the kind of food that we need most. These are the words in Amos 8:11, “Behold, the days are coming,” declares the Lord GOD, “when I will send a famine on the land— not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but [a famine] of hearing the words of the LORD ”

Jesus speaks of physical food and hunger to teach a spiritual lesson. The hungry will feast in heaven if they have Jesus, and the full will starve without Jesus. Will we choose earthly satisfaction over eternal satisfaction?

In my last year of High School, all I thought a lot about being done. I spent much time thinking of the freedom after completing my final exams. I remember when I was done, feeling empty. This feeling came back every year in university when I finished the year. I had put so much hope in the freedom from school. When I got it, it did not mean much. The contrast between my hopes and the reality made me feel down. I heard that divorce rates increase in the two years following the completion of a doctoral dissertation. When we put so much hope in any earthly thing, it will disappoint us and can leave us unsatisfied in life.

Whether hungry or full, our true food has to be Jesus and our true goal must be to feast with Jesus. If we place too much hope in other goals, they will leave us empty. Even those who are physically hungry are blessed if they hunger for the right kind of food.

In Luke 6:21, 25, Jesus addresses sadness and laughter.

Luke 6:21 reads, “Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh.” “Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep."

Later, in Luke 7, Luke writes of a widow who just lost her husband. Jesus tells her, “Weep no more.” He turns to her dead husband and says, “Arise.” 15 And the dead man sat up.” In Luke 7:36-50, a sinful woman was weeping at the feet of Jesus, and he told her, her sins were forgiven. Jesus turns sadness into joy. In the face of our sins he offers forgiveness and in the face of death he offers resurrection.

On the other hand, those who laugh now will weep. They are those who are unable to weep because they are out of touch with the depth of their sins and the suffering in the world.

Those who mourn and those who laugh have contrasting eternal destinies.

Let’s not take quote these verses out of context or try to turn them into absolute truths. Joy is a fruit of the spirit so all laughter is bad. We must understand the blessing of mourning when we have Jesus in contrast to laughing apart from Christ.

I hope you will all experience laughter in this life around people who treasure you.

We can also take Matt 6:21 seriously. When we suffer as Christians it is a grace to continue to smile because of our hope in the gospel. The Christian life can have many highs but Christians are also a weeping people, we are a lamenting people. Some of us will endure the horrors of betrayal by Christians, a miscarriage or more, a loved one who is not a Christian that we truly care about will die tragically…. For these, there are no satisfactory words. The gospel does not always make sense in our despair. And Jesus says, “Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh.” This blessing statement comforts us in our despair. Even when we see no light at the end of the tunnel, Jesus calls us blessed. When we see no light, Jesus assures us that the light is there. We may struggle to believe this, but we can trust Jesus in our despair. “Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh.”

In Luke 6:22-23, 26 Jesus addresses the Outcast

John shows in his Gospel that following Jesus led to exclusion from the synagogues (John 9:22; 16:2). In Luke 6:22-23, Jesus says, “22“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! 23 Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven; for so their fathers did to the prophets.” 26“Woe to you, when all people speak well of you, for so their fathers did to the false prophets.

No one wants to be excluded or rejected. But Jesus says that when we are rejected because of him, we are in great company. We are among those faithful servants of the Lord who were excluded in the OT.[v] If Jesus includes all the excluded then in Him, there is no true exclusion. Being included by Jesus, means we need to sometimes accept the exclusion of others.

I want to apply this teach for the church and individuals.

Churches need to be careful of seeking the approval of the world. In the first century, the church looked radically different from the culture. Today we need to be careful not to gain the world by becoming like the world. The church is God’s set apart community. We can’t ever be in the business of satisfying paying customers. We do not try to entertain nor do we adapt our views of morality to match the world's. A faithful church does not try to be rejected, but faithfulness to Christ will offend the culture at times and be rejected.

We can also expect to be excluded personally. A Christian woman who wanted to repair complicated relationships with her unbelieving parents. When her siblings heard that she expressed ways her parents had hurt her and voiced that she wanted to forgive them, they started to spread a narrative that he was ungrateful child who demanded that her parents would apologize to her. This Christian was honoring her parents and was seeking gospel-like reconciliation. Christians who suffer exclusion from their family may continue to struggle but for now, hear the words of Jesus, 22“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! 23 Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven.

Conclusion

So, what is the good life? A good life is a life with Christ. When we are in Christ, money, food, sadness, acceptance still matters, but even without them, we know that what Christ has for us is better.

God affirms the dignity of those we reject, neglect, look over. The poor, the hungry, those who mourn, those who are rejected hear words of blessing that are available for them in Christ.

Words like the rich, the full, the joyful, the “included” probably refers to most of us. It is our duty to affirm the dignity of the poor, hungry, those who mourn and the rejected. If God accepts them, we must receive them. We need to accept that our worldly comfort can hinder our enjoyment of God’s blessings on earth if our priorities are not his priorities. We need to learn to accept earthly deprivation and hardship for the sake of ultimate satisfaction in God.

We can turn the other cheek, be generous to those who cannot be generous in return, treasure the acceptance that comes from The father. This is the good life.

Jim Elliot (1927–56), a famous missionary to Ecuador who was killed by the Auca people, said, “He is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.”[vi]

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[i] R. T. France, Luke (Teach the Text Commentary Series), ed. Mark Strauss and John Walton (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 2013).

[ii] It is a shorter and similar to the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew’s Gospel. Both sermons begin with beatitudes and end with the parable of the two houses. Jesus is speaking to his disciples but the crowd was also made up of a multitude from Judea, Jerusalem, and the Gentile regions of Tyre and Sidon. The last two locations would suggest that Gentiles were among the crowd as well as Jews. Perrin – Luke 6:17 - “In any case, Jesus is with a great crowd of his disciples together with a great multitude of people. Such phrases draw attention not only to Jesus’ increasing popularity but also to the geographical diversity of his following, perhaps invoking the ethnically ‘mixed crowd’ (epimiktos polys) of the exodus which had followed Moses out of Egypt (Exod. 12:38).38 They come from all Judea and Jerusalem to the south, as well as from the coast cities of Tyre and Sidon to the north. The presence of inhabitants from these two major coastal cities would not only further confirm the presence of Gentiles (cf. Mark 7:24–30) but also suggest that Jesus is – so to speak – conquering hearts from the boundaries of the land promised to Israel (Deut. 1:8). The responsiveness of crowds from these two cities here is likely related to Jesus’ later remarks regarding their relatively superior receptivity, at least in comparison to Chorazin and Bethsaida (10:13–14).”

[iii] R.T. France, Luke.

[iv] This is how “poor” is used in Luke’s Gospel (Luke 1:52-53; 4:16-20; 7:22; 14:13, 21).

[v] The most notable rejected prophet from Jeremiah who was imprisoned for announcing the coming judgment on Judah. The authorities wanted a more uplifting message so he was imprisoned. Jesus says if the world rejects us, we are in the company of the faithful Jeremiah.

[vi] R.T. France, Luke.