Luke 6:25

Luke sets these words straight after Jesus spent the night in prayer and then chose his twelve apostles from among his disciples (Luke 6:12–16). He comes down with them to a level place, where a great multitude has gathered to hear him and to be healed (Luke 6:17–19). The teaching that follows runs to the end of the chapter and is often called the Sermon on the Plain (Luke 6:17–49). It closely parallels the longer sermon that Matthew records on a mountain (Matthew 5–7). The level ground suits a message meant for everyone, and above all for the lowly.

In the words “he lifted up his eyes on his disciples”, the verb epaírō means to raise or lift up, ophthalmós is the eye, and eis (“on”) marks the direction, to or toward. Jesus turns his gaze on the mathētḗs, the learner or pupil, the people who have already chosen to follow him, while the crowd listens within earshot. So the blessings come straight to them, spoken to “ye”: “Blessed be ye poor.” They belong first of all to his disciples, and through them to everyone who will follow him.

Many who stood there were poor. Galilee and Judea had a small, comfortable elite and a large peasant population, much of it living in poverty under Roman occupation and the control of local elites. Prosperity was widely taken as a sign of God’s blessing and righteousness, and poverty could be taken as a sign of sin or of his displeasure. Jesus overturns that assumption with his first sentence.

The blessings and the woes answer each other. Poor stands against rich, hunger against fullness, weeping against laughter, and hatred against the praise of all men, and the prophets of verse 23 stand against the false prophets of verse 26. Set side by side, they show the values of God’s kingdom next to the values the world lives by, and they show a great reversal, in which God lifts up the lowly and brings down those who are comfortable now.

“Blessed” is makários, which means blessed or happy, and by extension fortunate or well off. The New Testament uses it of God himself, “the blessed God” (1 Timothy 1:11). On the lips of Jesus it is a declaration of God’s favour on the people he names.

The people he names are the poor, ptōchós, a word Strong’s traces to a root meaning to crouch. It describes a beggar, a pauper, someone utterly destitute. Strictly it means a person who has to beg, although it can be used more loosely of the poor in general. Jesus begins at the very bottom of society, with the people others pass by.

“For yours is the kingdom of God” gives the reason. Hóti (“for”) here means “because”, hyméteros is “yours”, what belongs to you, and estí is the plain present “is”. The kingdom is theirs now. Basileía comes from basileús, “king”, and means royalty, rule or a realm, so “the kingdom of God” (theós) is God’s reign, his active rule over his people. Jesus brought that rule near in his own ministry, and he taught that the kingdom of God is within you (Luke 17:20–21). It will be complete when Christ returns and the kingdom of this world becomes the kingdom of our Lord (Revelation 11:15). So the poor who follow Jesus belong to his kingdom today and will inherit it in full.

This blessing runs right through Luke’s Gospel. In the synagogue at Nazareth Jesus announced that he had come to preach good news to the poor (Luke 4:18–19), taking up the words of Isaiah 61:1, where the Spirit of the Lord anoints the prophet to preach good tidings to the meek. James says that God has chosen the poor to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom he has promised to those who love him (James 2:5).

To hunger, peináō, is to famish, a word Strong’s links with the idea of pinching toil, and figuratively it means to crave. “Ye shall be filled” is chortázō, a verb first used for giving animals their fodder and then for supplying food in abundance, so the promise is that the hungry will be fed to the full. To weep, klaíō, is to sob or wail aloud, the open grief of mourning set against quieter crying. To laugh, geláō, is laughter as a sign of joy and satisfaction.

Both blessings tie the hardship to the present with nŷn, “now”, and both promises look ahead with “shall”. The hunger and the weeping belong to this time, and the filling and the laughter belong to the time God is bringing. Hunger was an everyday reality for the poor of Galilee, and weeping came with illness, poverty and death, so Jesus is speaking to real empty stomachs and real grief. His words also reach the deep longing for God that only he can satisfy. Matthew records the blessing on those who “hunger and thirst after righteousness” (Matthew 5:6), and Jesus calls himself the bread of life (John 6:35).

This is the reversal Mary sang of when she praised God for filling the hungry and sending the rich away empty (Luke 1:52–53). Jesus later draws it in the parable of the rich man and Lazarus (Luke 16:19–31), where the rich man who lived in luxury ends in torment and the poor man is comforted in Abraham’s bosom. The psalm says of the righteous, “They shall not be ashamed in the evil time” (Psalm 37:19), and Isaiah promises comfort to those who mourn (Isaiah 61:2–3). Revelation shows where it ends, with no more hunger or thirst for God’s people and God wiping away every tear from their eyes (Revelation 7:16–17, Revelation 21:4).

The fourth blessing is the longest, and it names four things done to disciples. Men will hate them, miséō, to detest, a word often used of persecution. They will separate them, aphorízō, to set off by a boundary, to shut someone out. They will reproach them, oneidízō, to defame, rail at or taunt. And they will cast out their name as evil, with ekbállō, the verb for throwing something out, and ponērós, “evil”, which means hurtful or wicked. A disciple’s very name is thrown away as something wicked, and his public standing is destroyed with it.

In first-century Galilee and Judea a person’s standing in the community counted for a great deal, and religious and social life were woven together. Following Jesus meant joining a movement that the religious leaders opposed, and that could bring shunning, ridicule and open hostility. To be separated “from their company” could mean being put out of the synagogue, a heavy blow to someone’s social and religious life. The early church soon knew all of this.

“For the Son of man’s sake” is the reason that makes the suffering blessed. Héneka means “on account of”, and “the Son of man” is the title Jesus most often used of himself. It speaks of his humanity and also of the authority of the one Daniel saw coming with the clouds (Daniel 7:13). The blessing belongs to those who suffer because they belong to Jesus, to his teaching and to his kingdom. So when opposition comes, it is right for us to ask whether it really comes for his sake or from our own faults and unkindness.

Jesus gives the same blessing in Matthew’s account (Matthew 5:10–12), and he warns his followers that the world which hated him will hate them too (John 15:18–20). Paul counts suffering for Christ as something given to believers (Philippians 1:29), and Peter writes to believers about suffering as Christians (1 Peter 4:12–16). The sermon goes on at once to teach disciples how to treat the very people who hate them: love your enemies (Luke 6:27–36).

“That day” is the day of verse 22, the day a disciple is hated, shut out, reproached and slandered for Jesus. On that very day Jesus tells them to rejoice, chaírō, to be glad, the everyday word that also served as a greeting wishing someone well. Then he adds “leap for joy”, skirtáō, to jump or skip. Strong’s notes its use for the stirring of an unborn child, and Luke tells of the unborn John leaping in Elizabeth’s womb (Luke 1:44). It is gladness that shows in the body. Jesus asks his disciples to meet suffering for him with joy, and the apostles did just that, rejoicing in what they suffered for his name (Acts 5:41). Peter later tells believers to rejoice in sharing Christ’s sufferings (1 Peter 4:13).

Two reasons follow, each introduced by gár, “for”, the word that gives a reason. The first is “behold, your reward is great in heaven”. Idoú, “behold”, calls for attention. The reward is misthós, pay for service, hire or wages, and here it is the good pay God gives to the faithful. It is great, and it is kept in heaven, where Jesus elsewhere tells his disciples to lay up their treasure (Matthew 6:19–21). The present pain is real, and the reward is greater and lasts for ever.

The second reason is history: “for in the like manner did their fathers unto the prophets.” The fathers (patḗr) are the earlier generations of Israel, who had a privileged relationship with God and still often mistreated the messengers he sent. Prophets (prophḗtēs) such as Elijah and Jeremiah met opposition and rejection, and some prophets were put to death. A disciple who is reviled for Jesus has company, and it is honourable company.

The “But” that opens verse 24 is plḗn, a strong word of contrast, “nevertheless”. Woe, ouaí, is an exclamation of grief, “alas”, and in Jesus’ mouth it carries both sorrow over people and a solemn warning about where they are heading. The prophets used it the same way, as in Isaiah’s string of woes against injustice (Isaiah 5:8–23).

The first woe falls on the rich, ploúsios, the wealthy, and figuratively those who abound in something. Strong’s describes its parent noun as wealth in the sense of fulness. “Ye have received your consolation” explains the woe. The verb apéchō means to have out, to receive in full, and it was a common word in ancient receipts for a payment received. The consolation, paráklēsis, is comfort, solace and encouragement. Israel waited for the day God would comfort his people (Isaiah 40:1), and the rich who have found all their comfort in their wealth have already been paid in full. They looked for their solace in this life, they have it, and that is the comfort they chose.

The rest of Luke tells the same story in the parable of the rich fool (Luke 12:16–21) and in Jesus’ words about how hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God (Luke 18:24–25). James gives his own warning to the rich (James 5:1–6), and the risen Lord speaks to the church at Laodicea about the riches it trusted (Revelation 3:17–18).

The second and third woes take up the words of the second and third blessings and turn them round. “Full” is empíplēmi, to fill up or satisfy, a different word from the “filled” of verse 21, and it describes people already satisfied, with food or with comfort and success. “Ye shall hunger” uses peináō, the same verb as “ye that hunger” in verse 21. Those who laugh are described with geláō, the same verb as the laughter promised in verse 21, and nŷn, “now”, again marks the present. They “shall mourn and weep”: penthéō is to grieve, both the feeling and the act, and “weep” is klaíō, the loud sobbing of verse 21. Verse 21 promised laughter to those who weep, and verse 25 promises weeping to those who laugh.

The hunger to come is the emptiness of people who found all their satisfaction in this world, and the laughter in view belongs to people at ease, careless of the suffering of others and of eternal things. The woe is aimed at the complacency that comfort can breed, when people feel no need of God and no compassion for those around them.

James uses the same picture when he calls sinners to repent: “Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness” (James 4:9). Matthew’s sermon gives the other side of it: “Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted” (Matthew 5:4).

The last woe answers the last blessing. “Speak” is épō and “well” is kalōs, the ordinary adverb for well, finely or rightly. “All men” means everybody, the world at large. When everyone has only good to say about a disciple, Jesus warns, something has gone wrong.

“For so did their fathers to the false prophets” uses the same Greek words as verse 23, where the KJV has “in the like manner did their fathers”. The pseudoprophḗtēs is a spurious prophet, a pretended foreteller or religious impostor. So the fathers persecuted the true prophets and praised the false ones. The true prophets carried hard messages that called for repentance and warned of judgment, and they suffered for it, as Jeremiah was imprisoned (Jeremiah 38). The false prophets told the people what they wanted to hear. They spoke “smooth things” (Isaiah 30:10), promising peace and prosperity when God had spoken judgment, and rulers and people loved them for it. Paul warned Timothy of a time when people would gather teachers who tell them what their ears want (2 Timothy 4:3–4).

Paul puts the choice plainly: “For do I now persuade men, or God? or do I seek to please men? for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ” (Galatians 1:10). Jesus tells his followers to expect the world’s hatred because they belong to him (John 15:18–19).

People ask whether this woe makes all popularity a bad sign. The woe concerns the praise of everyone, the kind once given to false prophets because they shaped their message to please. A good name earned through faithful witness, integrity and loving service lies outside it. The question is what the praise is for, whether for faithfulness to Christ or for fitting in with what the world expects.

Every line of this passage meets in Jesus himself. Paul writes that Christ was “rich, yet for your sakes he became poor” (2 Corinthians 8:9), and that he emptied himself and took the form of a servant (Philippians 2:7). He hungered in the wilderness (Matthew 4:2), and he wept over Jerusalem (Luke 19:41) and at the grave of Lazarus (John 11:35). He was hated, reproached and cast out. He came to his own, and his own people rejected him (John 1:10–11). Isaiah foretold that he would be despised and rejected (Isaiah 53:3), and at the cross he was reviled and mocked (Matthew 27:39–44). He is the Prophet like Moses (Deuteronomy 18:15, Acts 3:22), and he was treated as the fathers treated the prophets.

He endured it all “for the joy that was set before him” (Hebrews 12:2), and God raised and exalted him (Philippians 2:8–11). So when disciples suffer for the Son of man, they share in his sufferings (Philippians 3:10), and they are heirs with him of the glory to come (Romans 8:17). The great reward is secured by him, for he goes to prepare a place for his own (John 14:2–3).

He is also the answer to the woes. The rich have their consolation now, and Christ promised his disciples the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, who would be with them for ever (John 14:16–17). That title, Paraclete, comes from the same family of words as paráklēsis, “consolation”. Christ is the bread of life who satisfies the hungry (John 6:35), he turns mourning into dancing (Psalm 30:11), and in him the poor in spirit, the mourners and the hungry are blessed (Matthew 5:3–6). His sacrifice opens the kingdom to all who come to him knowing their need, whatever their lot on earth.

These verses show us a God who sees the people the world passes over. The beggar, the hungry, the grieving and the slandered disciple are the ones Jesus looks at and calls blessed, and he gives them a kingdom, a full table, laughter and a reward kept in heaven. The “now” of their hunger and tears is real, and God has set its end.

The woes come from the same mouth, and the word for them is a cry of grief. Jesus speaks them while there is still time, to the comfortable, the satisfied and the admired, so that they may see where their comfort is leading before it is all paid out. To every disciple who comes to him with empty hands, his word stands as he first spoke it on the plain: “yours is the kingdom of God.”