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Nov 18, 2025 06:00am

Walking Through Luke: Blessings and Woes

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I have been blessed in my life to rarely go without something I need. Growing up, I did know what it felt like to be poor, in relative terms. Poverty looks different to people in different places, of course, but strictly speaking based on the dollar amount we brought in each month, we were poor. I don’t say that to complain. There were, and are, others far worse off than we were. I also know that there are many who are far better off than we were, too—people who never have to worry about food or money or anything like that. People who can get whatever they want, whenever they want. We fell somewhere in the middle, but somewhere more toward the low end of the middle.

Despite that, I never felt poor. At least, not like the poor people I saw depicted on TV. My family was blessed in many ways by donations or gifts that always meant we didn’t go without food, clothes, or other essentials. We always had a vehicle. When it broke down, we were always able to get it fixed. We very much had to do with the bare minimum at times, though.

In one case, I remember that we had recently moved to a new town and were in need of a second vehicle. My dad had to take the car to drive to work—half an hour away, in the city—so my mom had to walk my brother and me to school in the mornings. On a Sunday afternoon, we were invited over for lunch to the house of a Christian family. When we left their house that evening, it was with an old white car that they sold my dad for $1.

Beginning in Luke 6:20, Jesus preaches what is often called the Sermon on the Plateau. It shares much in common with the Sermon on the Mount. It is possible that these sermons are actually one and the same, or that Jesus taught variations of that same sermon multiple times, but there is not enough evidence to know for sure. Either way, they share much of the same doctrine.

In this sermon, Jesus called the poor “blessed.” It sounds odd to say, because most people don’t feel blessed when we’re poor. But He says, “yours is the kingdom of God.” This doesn’t mean that all poor people automatically go to heaven. What it means is that heaven is open to them. Common teaching in Jesus’ day was that wealthy people were more blessed and favored by God, and thus primed to enter His kingdom. Meanwhile, they believed the poor must have done something sinful to earn their circumstances. By recognizing that the poor were able to inherit the kingdom of God, Jesus revealed that this skewed worldview was absolutely untrue.

Then He said that those who are hungry will be satisfied. He was not talking about having their physical hunger satisfied, although He can certainly do that. Instead, He is saying that those who come to Him seeking will find satisfaction. They may be physically distressed, but they can be spiritually filled. (I would note here that the Bible does tell us to feed the hungry—and we should—but their spiritual need is important, and Jesus saw that.) Jesus offers satisfaction beyond the temporary.

He told His listeners that those who weep will one day laugh. Depression and sorrow are so prevalent today. Sorrow happens. But Jesus sees our sorrow, and when we bring it to Him, He can comfort us, even heal us, so that at a time when we feel like we have nothing to live for, He can give us the joy to laugh again.

Even when we are hated specifically for our faith in Jesus, there is blessing. Jesus said that He, too, was hated, and that we should rejoice because we will be greatly rewarded for remaining faithful and enduring the hatred and judgment of others for our faith. This does not mean that we should act snobbishly or legalistically and then become upset when unbelievers don’t want to associate with us. Rather, it is referring to genuine and heartfelt faith that is scorned and rejected. While that can be hard to live through, we have been promised a reward so much greater than the comfort we would receive for simply giving up and blending into the crowd.

Following the proclamation of His blessings, Jesus unleashed a series of woes: warnings. He warned the rich that they have their reward. Inversely to His commentary toward the poor, this is not a condemnation that all rich people cannot be saved from their sins, but rather that those who trust in their riches rather than in Jesus have placed their faith in the wrong thing. Their money might serve them during this life, but it does nothing to prepare them for eternity. Again, this contradicted common understanding that the wealthier someone was, the more spiritually blessed they were.

He warned that those who are “full now” would go hungry. This is not to say that someone who has plenty to eat will be punished. I think the warning is twofold: first, anyone who has plenty but gorges themselves and chooses not to share with the needy will suffer the consequences of those actions; and second, anyone who feels spiritually satisfied by their own goodness and morality, and not seeking for something to satisfy the emptiness within all of us, will find themselves lacking in eternity.

“Woe to you who are laughing now, for you will mourn and weep” (Luke 6:25b NRSVUE). This declaration is a bit harder to understand, but it seems to refer to those who laugh at sin rather than simply having a good sense of humor. They have no conscience surrounding wickedness and no grief over injustice. They have their fill of levity and amusement while never showing concern for those who are suffering or for the wrongs that are being done in the world. In other words, laughing is not the problem—rather, they are laughing while the world weeps. They will suffer the consequences of their attitude.

Finally, Jesus warns those who are well-liked by men. This is not to say that you should be an unlikeable person. Having friends and being well thought of is not a sin. Rather, this is speaking of those who will hide the truth, hide their faith in Jesus, and keep quiet about the Gospel for the sake of being liked. This is talking about those who will water down truth so that they don’t raise controversies. And specifically, He mentions false prophets. If we are not teaching truth, then we are teaching falsehood, and if that is the case, then while we might be accepted by men, we will be rejected by God.

We all fit into these categories. Are we those who recognize our spiritual poorness and need for Jesus, or do we rely on our own righteousness to get by? Do we hunger for truth, or satisfy ourselves with temporary pleasure without thought for spiritual concerns or the needs of others? Do we weep over our own sin and the pain we see in the world, or do we laugh and make merry while the world burns around us? Our response to these questions determines which response we would receive from Jesus: a blessing or a woe. And only we can take stock of our individual hearts to determine the truth.