“The Four Woes”

Luke 6:24-26

4. Sermon on the Plain

XXXIX. Expositions of the Gospel According to Luke

February 19, 2012

Jesus, in the “Sermon on the Plain,” has painted a beautiful picture of the character of His disciples, though it’s not a picture that the world would appreciate. “Blessed are you,” meaning “favored” or “approved” of God, who are “poor”, who “hunger”, who “weep”, who are persecuted. His disciples are characterized by spiritual poverty and humility, by spiritual hunger and thirst for God and His righteousness, by sorrow for their sin and the evil in the world, and by hatred and persecution by the world. They are the blessed of God. To them belongs the kingdom of heaven. Though they hunger, they will be satisfied. Though they weep now, they shall laugh. Though they are persecuted now, they will be rewarded in heaven. In summary, Jesus’ disciples are longing for the eternal, not the temporal; the heavenly, not the earthly; the spiritual, not the material. They are otherworldly in their outlook and priorities. What the world scorns they treasure. What the world treasures, they scorn.

Jesus sharpens the meaning of His teaching by pronouncing four “woes” upon the opposites of the beatitudes. Morris calls the woes “the natural correlative to the beatitudes”.[1] Jesus through the woes condemns “qualities and states which men have universally regarded as desirable.”[2] What is better than to be rich, well-fed, good humored, and well-liked? As with the beatitudes, these qualities are to be spiritually understood. In their we should understand them as devoid of the spiritual. Jesus warns of riches, fullness, laughter, and popularity enjoyed in this world only, or on the terms which the world requires. When relied upon, trusted in, settled for, or indulged in a life without God, these are a curse. “It is the folly of carnal worldlings,” says Matthew Henry, “that they make the things of the world their consolation, which were intended only for their convenience.”[3] Jesus pronounces “woes”, defined by Morris “an expression of regret and compassion, not a threat”[4], and by Marshall as “an expression of pity for these who stand under divine judgment”.[5] It signals the calamity of God’s disapproval and judgment for those who have chosen the temporal over the eternal, the material over the spiritual, the world over God.

The Rich

But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation. (v. 24)

The rich, then, are those who are rich in the things of this world. They are contrasted with those who are poor “in spirit.” They are the opposite of the humble. As a class they would encompass the proud, the self-sufficient, the powerful. Literal wealth comes into view because of the temptations that accompany the accumulation of worldly riches. Wealth can create the illusion of self-sufficiency. The rich tend to rely on their wealth. The poor cry out to God because they may not know where their next meal is coming from, or if they can keep a roof over their head. Not so the rich. Their wealth provides for them. It protects them. Wealth can also create the illusion of superiority. They attribute their success in this world to their superior intelligence, work ethic, taste, or judgment. They are wiser and more industrious than others, they think, ignoring the multiple providences that have made their accomplishments possible. They think they have no need of God. This is why the Apostle Paul warns Timothy to instruct the “rich in this present age,” “not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy” (1 Tim 6:17). The wealthy are warned not to be “conceited” (NASB) because this is their temptation. He warns them not to trust “the uncertainty of riches” because that is their tendency, to trust their wealth and not God.

Those who do so have no future in eternity. They are receiving in the world all the “consolation” or “comfort” (NASB, NIV) they will ever receive. They are being paid “in full.” Apechō is used in accounting, meaning “paid in full.” It indicates that “the person has no further claims on the debtor”.[6] The only “consolation” they will receive is that which money can give them in this world. They will receive no divine or eternal comfort. This is the money trap. This is why Jesus warned that one cannot serve God and mammon (Mt 6:24). One will pursue one or the other. One will trust one or the other. One will rely on one or the other. Wealth does not always destroy the soul of its possessor. Abraham, Job, Joseph of Aramithea, and Lydia, the seller of purple, assure us of that. The Christian church of the early centuries often met in the large homes of its wealthy members. Money doesn’t always corrupt, but often it does. Often it leads to pride. Often it leads to trust in it, to reliance upon it, rather than the trust and reliance upon God that is crucial for spiritual well-being. Only those who humble themselves, who acknowledge their weakness and foolishness, who out of poverty of spirit cry out to God’s in Jesus’ name and humble themselves at the foot of the cross can escape the woes of divine judgment and enter into the blessings of salvation.

Full   

Woe to you who are full now, for you shall be hungry. (v. 25a)

The word translated “full” in the ESV can mean to “fill up” or “satisfy.” Given the contrast of hunger (v. 21), the NASB translates it “well-fed,” but the application is broader. It speaks of those who are filled-up with the commodities of this world. They have satisfied their sensual and material appetites. They may have done so with  food, or sexual matters, or pretty things, or exciting events, or exotic journeys. The Apostle Paul identifies such as those “whose god is their bellies” (Phil 3:19). Morris defines them as those “who allow material possessions to be all-in-all and who think they have no need of God.”[7] The world is enough for them. It satisfies them. They live according to the Epicurean creed, “let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die” (1 Cor 15:32). The world’s goods can easily become God-substitutes, false gods, and idols. They provide temporary fullness, superficial satisfaction, and perhaps external happiness. We concede the “passing pleasures of sin” (Heb. 11:25). One can be “well-fed”, fat and happy in this world. However, that will be the end of it. Hunger will follow. “You shall be hungry.” “Jesus is referring to ultimate reality,” explains Morris.[8] Eternity will be empty. Dante portrays Francesca and Paolo, adulterers in this world, spending eternity in a wind-swept desert landscape, wandering endlessly, unable to satisfy their lust forever and ever. They were “full” through adultery in this world. Their eternity without God will be empty, lonely, and without satisfaction. Their lust will burn eternally, but their capacity to satisfy their lust will vanish. Jesus seems to be saying this about out appetites. They remain. Some will be hungry in eternity. Those who satisfied their appetites without God, or made a god of their appetites, will hunger forever. The lust for food, for sexual relations, for sleep, for power, for fame will all continue. The itch will remain forever, with no ability to scratch it. Only Jesus, the bread of life, can satisfy the hunger and quench the thirst of the soul (Jn 6:35). The god-substitutes never will.

Laughter

Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep. (v. 25b)

Green points out that in the LXX (Greek Old Testament) gelaō, “to laugh”, “is usually ironic or flippant, even haughty or foolish”[9]. Marshall describes it as “an evil kind of laughter,” that delights in the fate of one’s enemies.[10] Morris understands the laughter of which Jesus disapproves to be “a laughter that is the expression of superficiality” and “shallow merriment.”[11] It is, in a word, carnal laughter. This is not the laughter that arises out of the fullness of life with God, but laughter that mocks virtue, that mocks God, that scorns the things of God. The world not only laughs at evil, as we discussed last time, but it ridicules those who refuse to join its parties. Popular culture portrays anyone with a strand of moral conviction as prudes and scolds. The Apostle Peter warns of this. He writes,

For the time that is past suffices for doing what the Gentiles want to do, living in sensuality, passions, drunkenness, orgies, drinking parties, and lawless idolatry. (1 Pet 4:3)

He doesn’t stop with his exhortation to give up this way of life, but warns of the world’s ridicule.

With respect to this they are surprised when you do not join them in the same flood of debauchery, and they malign you. . . (1 Pet 4:4)    

They “malign.” They mock those who will not indulge “the same flood of debauchery,”  “the same excess of dissipation” (NASB) as they do: those who won’t get drunk, and doped, and promiscuous, and out of control, and over the top.

In eternity, they’ll have nothing to laugh about. “You shall mourn and weep,” and that unrelentingly. Jesus described the place of the damned as a “furnace of fire,” of “weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Mt 13:50), “where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched (Mk 9:48) and of “outer darkness” (Mt 8:12). Nothing about evil will be funny then. Nothing about sin will be humorous. Nothing in their existence will provide an occasion for laughter or rejoicing. True joy, deep joy is found, life that is abundant is experienced only in Christ. (Jn 10:20; 15:11).

Popular

         Woe to you, when all people speak well of you, for so their fathers did to the false prophets. (v. 26)

Some people make being liked by everyone their chief aim and ambition. They want to be popular. They want everyone to admire them. Everyone must consider them wonderful. Jesus warns that “when all people speak well” of us, it is not a good sign. Here’s why. We cannot have all people speak well of us “apart from some sacrifice of principle,” explains Morris[12]. It is one thing to have “a good reputation with outsiders,” which the Bible commends. (1 Tim 3:7) We take this to mean that unbelievers ought to have a high regard for the integrity of believers. It does not mean that believers will be universally popular. The desire to be liked by everyone can be an emotionally crippling and more importantly a spiritually fatal character flaw. In order to enjoy the favor of everyone compromise is necessary. It requires that one say what others wish to hear, and so, that one constantly change what one is saying. One is kept in constant turmoil trying to please this one and that one. Fear of displeasing others can be a kind of bondage. One is controlled by the expectations of others. One becomes their slaves, racing to retain their good favor by pleasing them. Besides ultimately it is futile. It can’t be done. However, the attempt to be liked can paralyze spiritual growth. Why? Because the gospel offends. It is foolishness to Greeks and offensive to Jews (1 Cor 1:18ff). It stirs up the animosity of the world (Jn 15:18-27). It always has. The Apostle Paul says of believers, “we have become as the scum of the world, the dregs of all things.” (1 Cor 4:13). True prophets are persecuted. False prophets, Jesus reminds us, are flattered. They were well-liked. They were popular. All men speak well of them. Persecution, on the other hand “authenticates one’s identification with God’s purpose.”[13] It places one on the right side of history.

The Apostle John will later say: “don’t love the world and the things of the world.” Don’t be seduced by the lust of the eyes, and of the flesh, or “the boastful pride of life.” (NASB, 1 Jn 2:15-17). Live not for the pay check, nor for the weekend party, nor the key to the executive washroom, nor for the acclaim of the crowd. We should be content with God’s approval, that He should speak well of us, and pay little attention to what anyone else has to say. If God is pleased it is enough. If all the world speaks poorly of us but God will say, “Well done, good and faithful slave” it is enough. (Matt 25:21, 23).