6th Sunday after Epiphany

Pastor Kenneth W. Wieting
Text: Jeremiah 17:5-8; Luke 6:17-26

JESUS SPEAKS BLESSINGS AND WOES!

In the name of Jesus. Dear blessed ones: Good news or bad? It’s not always so easy to tell. A classic Chinese tale helps illustrate, describing a man who had one son and one horse. When his horse broke out of the fence and fled to the hills, his neighbors said, “that’s bad news”. How do you know asked the man? Sure enough, the next night the horse returned for his normal feeding leading twelve wild horses with him. The son slipped out, locked the gate and suddenly they had thirteen horses instead of one. What good news said the neighbors when they heard of the increase. How do you know asked the man? Sure enough, a few days later his strong young son was trying to break one of the wild horses. He was thrown to the ground severely breaking a leg. The neighbors came by that night and again quickly passed judgment. Your son broke his leg – that’s very bad news. How can you be sure of that asked the father? Sure enough, a few days later a Chinese war lord came through the region conscripting every able-bodied young man taking them off to war. They never returned. The tale ends with this man’s son being saved from a brutal end because of his broken leg. Seemingly bad news turning out to be good! It provides a reminder of our tendency to make snap judgments about whether an event or circumstance is good or bad. Truly, things are not always what they seem.

Dear Christians, what do you think of Jesus’ system of blessings and woes? Weeping is elevated over laughter. Poverty is superior to riches. Hunger is healthy while being full and satisfied is harmful. Being hated, excluded, reviled and spurned on account of the Son of Man is reason to leap for joy. Having all people speak well of you as they did of the false prophets is reason for weeping and mourning. Truly, when it comes to blessings and woes in the kingdom of God, things are not always what they seem.

These words from Jesus are not for everyone! While all the crowd sought to touch him and be healed, when He spoke these blessings and woes, he lifted up his eyes on his disciples. In other words He spoke to His followers telling them that this is what they are in Him, the “poor”, “hungry”, “weeping”, and rejected. Yet at the same time they are also blessed! So Jesus speaks to His church today. So Jesus speaks to you today. Concerning blessings and woes, it doesn’t work in the kingdom of God like it does in the kingdom of the world. Jesus turns our natural way of thinking upside down and inside out.

The prophet Jeremiah said it this way, “Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart turns away from the Lord.” “Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord.” Those who turn from the Lord are like a shrub in the desert. Those whose trust is the Lord are like a tree planted by water.

As Jesus speaks the last blessing and the last woe in each list we are helped to understand the central meaning of them all. “Woe to you when all people speak well of you…” is opposed with “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! He is the key! Jesus! The Son of Man and the Son of God! The Word made flesh! Blessed is the man whose trust is the Lord. Everything spoken here is on account of the Son of Man.

Those who are rich are those who are full of themselves, who trust in their own strength and standing and service to others. Those who are full now are those who feel they can take or leave the healing touch of Jesus’ word and Jesus’ nourishing food. It all depends on their appetite and whether they feel the needs of the moment are satisfied or not. Those who laugh now are those who block out eternity in their daily perspective and find all they need in the things and the relationships of this passing world. For there is plenty of activity and physical blessings to keep us amused and entertained! Woe to those who turning from Christ are rich and full and laughing.

Jesus was right to speak His words directly to His followers. He was saying in detail what Jeremiah said in general. “Cursed in the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength…” Dear Christians, the twelve were doing this all the time. They kept vying for earthly position. They kept depending on their own strength. They kept trying to redefine the work of the Messiah to focus on earthly needs and power. They kept judging by what they saw and felt. So do we all the time, without even trying. We judge by outward beauty or the relief of stress or the temporary satisfying of a felt need or the good opinion of others. Try as we might we can never completely free ourselves from these imprisoning perspectives.

You see, when Jesus said “woe to you who are rich…and full and laughing now,” He wasn’t just speaking condemnation. The word for “woe” in the Greek is also an expression of pity for those who stand under judgment. This is not just a warning from Jesus but also a lament expressing compassion for us sinners! “Woe to you…” Jesus said in sorrow for us who so readily find our strength in ourselves and the shifting sand of our surroundings.

Yet to these same ones Jesus also said “Blessed are you…” The word “blessed” means fortunate in the highest degree. It is the best that God can give you! When Jesus speaks a blessing, His word conveys what He says. His primary intention here is to bless and comfort believers in affliction, to assure them that God knows their lives and their struggles and the opposition of the world. Yet in Him, they enjoy the full blessing of God.

They may weep now over the sin-sickness of the world and of themselves and of those they love, but they will laugh. Sowing with tears they will reap with songs of joy (Psalm 126:5). They may hunger now for more love in the church and more joyful confidence in the resurrection and more faithfulness to God’s will and worship, but they will be satisfied. The verb here is passive. This is something God will do. He will completely fill them with good things. They may be hated and reviled and excluded now for confessing Christ and His Word, but their reward is great in heaven. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied. But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep.

Beloved, Jesus speaks here to bless and comfort you! Hang in there! Press on! Continue to pray for all! Continue to speak the truth in love! God disciplines those He loves! God uses trials as refining fires! God’s strength is made perfect in weakness! God works everything for the good of those called according to His purpose, those who love Him. It is now and will always be a mess in this passing world. No Christian gets a free pass. Yet great suffering is to be considered the ground for great joy. Really! Truly! This is how God sees blessings and woes. Therefore never make it your chief goal to be spoken well of by all. Always make it your chief goal to love all in Christ.

The reaction to you personally at any given moment is not the main concern. This is not a popularity contest. How much more clearly can Jesus tell you that confessing Him and His words can sometimes lead to a negative and ugly reaction to you? The welfare of your neighbor for unending moments is the real issue, not your popularity. What appears hateful and negative for you at the moment may be eternally positive and full of future healing for your neighbor.

A person was living in sin, that is openly, willfully and continuously setting aside God’s commandment. A younger family member spoke to him of God’s will. None of your blankety-blank business, he replied. Yes it is, she said, because God loves you and so do I. She didn’t feel blessed, but she was! Blessed are you when people revile you and spurn your name as evil, on account of the Son of Man! Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy…

Joy is different than happiness which is controlled by our emotions. Joy is God’s gift and it isn’t always felt in the face of hatred or exclusion by others. But there is eternal joy in Christ, whatever the thoughts or actions of others. We tend toward pessimism in trials and thereby aggravate our misery. Our flesh judges by feelings. But here again Christ comforts us, calling us to live by faith, not by sight!

Good news or bad? It’s not so easy to tell. Jesus entered Jerusalem amid shouts of Hosanna and blessed is He. It sure looked good! But soon He hung poor and hungry and naked and cursed; for cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree. Good news or bad? Nothing could have looked worse! But things are not always what they seem. His cross of death is our tree of life! By God’s grace, all of our woes became His and all of His blessings became ours. He is like a tree planted by streams of water, whose leaf never withers, whatever He does prospers. Through your baptism into His death and resurrection you are also planted in the blessed stream that comes from His pierced side. Blessed in the man whose trust is the Lord.

So which is it for you, blessings or woes? The things you lack at the moment; the recognition of your weakness and your sin and its wages of death; the desires and yearnings of your heart for God’s blessing and healing for yourself and for all people; the struggles of life that make you weep inside or openly sob in sorrow for others in love; those times of drought and the hour of your death when everything feels like it will dry up and blow away? Which is it for you, blessings or woes?

It is not always so easy to tell, so Jesus stands in your midst again today to tell you and to heal you with His touch. “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.

In the Name of Jesus, Amen.