S7E12 - Luke 6:17-26 - Luke’s Beatitudes: Why The Last Come First

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What if our culture’s picture of the “good life” is the very thing keeping us from real life? We take you onto the level place in Luke 6, where Jesus looks past the buzzing crowd and speaks straight to his disciples: blessed are the poor, the hungry, the weeping, and the hated. Instead of abstractions, Luke gives faces—newly chosen disciples, curious onlookers from Judea and Jerusalem, and Gentiles from Tyre and Sidon—so the Beatitudes hit real people with real stakes.

We unpack why “blessed” in Scripture reads like an observer’s verdict on a life well-lived, then follow Jesus’s reversals one by one. The kingdom is yours now when you have empty hands. Hunger and tears remain, but they carry a promise that you will be filled and you will laugh. And when rejection comes because you bear the name of the Son of Man, it’s not a detour—it’s the prophetic path, the same road walked by Isaiah and Jeremiah. Along the way, we push back on prosperity shortcuts and unpack the now-and-not-yet tension that grounds honest hope without glossing over pain.

Then we turn to the four woes, where Jesus exposes the counterfeit comforts: wealth that buys insulation but not joy, fullness that dulls holy hunger, laughter that numbs lament, and broad praise that echoes the flattery of false prophets. It’s a tough mirror for a status-obsessed age. Luke closes the loop with Jesus’s building metaphor: hear these words and do them, and your life stands when the flood rises. Ignore them, and collapse is only a matter of time.

If you’re hungry for a faith that can outlast applause and withstand storms, this conversation will help you trade surface wins for a deeper, sturdier blessing. Listen, share with a friend who’s wrestling with comfort and calling, and leave a review to help others find the show.

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Transcript

Welcome Back And Set The Scene

SPEAKER_02 0:15

What's up, Life Talk family? Welcome back to the Life Talk Podcast. And we're it's almost the end of March. How did that happen? Like, you know, spring is coming to an end, and you know, flowers will be coming out, and man, it'll just be April before you know it, and hopefully finally some warmer weather, you know. So, but it is great to be just podcasting today, joining everybody as we continue through the book of Luke and continue with the good news, bad news bears here gathered around the podcast table and soldiering on, have an abandoned uh ship this month. So we got Jason back with us. Jason, good to have you here. Yeah, and Jarvis. Jarvis took us last episode through uh the Sabbath and fasting, and Rico keeps his streak going. We'll see if he's here in April or if he uh buzzes out or gets injured. So happy to be here. Thank you. Thank you. But as we seriously move on, Jason's gonna lead us through. We're we're continuing through Luke as we are this year, and just the verse-by-verse journey brings out so much, and so we're gonna see what Luke has to tell us about uh really the Beatitudes, a little briefer than Matthew, but still so much here. So, Jason, take us through these these verses.

Luke’s Setup: Reactions To Jesus

SPEAKER_00 1:32

Yeah, hey, I think we're gonna split this into kind of two pieces. We'll just start with verses 17 to 19 and bring some context, and then we'll dive into the the four blessings and four woes that we see in a bit. So I'm just gonna dive in and read. Starts like this after coming down with them, and this is coming down from the mountain where he had called his disciples a couple a couple podcasts ago. We saw Jesus like selecting his disciples. They were up on the mountain. So this is immediately after that. After coming down with them, he stood on a level place with a large crowd of his disciples and a great number of people from all Judea and Jerusalem and from the sea coast of Tyre and Sidon, and they came to him to hear and to be healed of their diseases, and those tormented by unclean spirits were made well, and the whole crowd was trying to touch him because power was coming out from him and healing them all. So we see again another place where large crowds are gathering, and Jesus is about to uh present them with a teaching, but uh we also saw that his disciples had just been selected. And so before we move into his actual teaching, I just want to zoom out for a second. Like in the immediate context, right here in this block, we see people flocking to Jesus because they want to hear him and be healed. Those are the two things that scripture calls out why they were gathering, to hear him and be healed, right? They wanted to see and experience the miracles that Jesus was doing, but they also wanted to hear him. They had been hearing about him, but now they wanted to hear him. They want to hear the words that he's actually speaking. I'm sure all these people have heard about him, but they wanted to hear his actual words. And so that's kind of that's the immediate context, but really that idea is something that Luke has been setting up now for several chapters. If you go all the way back to Luke chapter 4, verse 14, this is when Jesus comes back out of the wilderness and he goes into their synagogues and he starts teaching. And from that point on, Luke just keeps dropping these nuggets of places where people are hearing Jesus and then are responding. And we see all those different responses, right? Some of them in the synagogue, actually, it's the very first one. Luke presents this beautiful example of Jesus goes into the synagogue and people hear him, they're amazed, they're talking well of him, and then he says one other thing that bothers everybody, and then they get all mad, right? And they want to like throw him out of town. And so we see how how shaky the ground is. How are people going to receive Jesus and his teachings? And then from that point forward, move moving on, we see him teaching in uh 416 to 30 in Nazareth. That that's where his hometown, and and that's that's where things go a little wonky. And then in Luke 4, 31 to 37, he's in Capernaum, and people are relieved, uh, amazed, and they're left wondering about Jesus. Uh, we read a couple podcasts ago, Luke 5, 1 to 11 at Lake Genesareth. Um, crowds are pressing in to hear God's word, and then that's when Jesus calls Peter, he gets into the boat, but they were pressing in to hear Jesus' words. Notice that at this point, we haven't really gotten to hear Jesus' words. A little bit in Nazareth, he read from the scroll of Isaiah at that point. That's when he reads and and and people are amazed at his teaching. And then he tells a little parable about two times where a non-Jewish person gains favor from God and everybody gets all upset. But that's that that's a separate kind of story. But it's really important to see that Luke is just putting these opportunities out there where Jesus is speaking. In Luke 5, 12 to 16, uh, the man that's healed from leprosy, right? Large crowds were coming to hear him and be healed. Again, and then and then here in 5, 17 to 26, again, that was one of the previous episodes. He heals, forgives the man on the stretcher. Everyone's listening in, but the scribes and the Pharisees were thinking evil of Jesus, even in those moments, based on what he was saying and doing, they had a very different response from some of the other people. So up to this point, like what we're doing is we're just seeing Luke present all of these different places where Jesus has been doing and saying, and everyone that's been around has kind of been put to a decision, right? What are we gonna what are we gonna think about this guy? Like, who is this guy? And everyone has their own thoughts. And Luke is really, really strategic about kind of enticing us as a reader to then have those own thoughts. Like, what do I think about Jesus up to this point? Right? What do I think about him picking heads of grain while he's walking through the fields or you know, not fasting when everybody else is fasting? Who is this guy? Like, what do we think about him? So I think it's really interesting that Luke is building a case up to this point, but he hasn't really presented Jesus' teachings yet. He's only been presenting us with what everybody else has been thinking about him, right? And now we finally get to this place where he's actually gonna like open up and tell us the things that Jesus has been teaching. So I'll just pause and let you guys kind of like join in the conversation up to this point. What do you guys think?

Diverse Audience On The Level Place

SPEAKER_03 7:06

I I think it's it's great. Let me jump in because where you you brought us back to Luke 4, and I remember that that was the part of the teaching that we did last month, in where I was I was in that session in where, oh man, this was the first time that he addressed that we hear Jesus speaking who he was, what he was made for. Right. But wait a minute, now they rejected him. So and through all the podcasts, we can see that their heart was already dark. They didn't care what he came here to do. They were gonna challenge him, they were gonna go ahead and debate everything that they he said, that he do, right? And I I just have to acknowledge the way that you set it up, just for not just for us, but for the listeners, that this is what we get to hear what Jesus is being saying that look is gonna put into the atmosphere for us to see. So that would that was very clever.

SPEAKER_02 8:09

Yeah, I think too, just as you pointed out, you know, and we see in 17, it's a great crowd of his disciples and other people. So there's a lot of people who are are kind of in, but some people are still kind of looking, and then you know, it says kind of their reasons, some to hear, some to be healed. You know, people are seeking Jesus for different reasons. So I think really setting up the the teaching, like you're gonna say, of those who are coming to listen, and now we really get some depth of what Jesus is is preaching. We've seen him doing a lot of good things, and of course, telling us things by his interactions. Luke's been showing that, but now, like, all right, let's just hear what Jesus is gonna teach us is pretty deep.

Reading The Four Blessings

What “Blessed” Really Means

SPEAKER_00 8:49

Yeah, and Luke has given us a really good like sample set of the different people that have heard Jesus. And I I I completely agree, Nate. We see this is probably the most diverse crowd that he's given us so far, right? We have his his inner group, his disciples, he just chose 12, plus a large group of his other disciples, ones that have already been following him, hearing his teachings. But then we have all other people who have just been coming from Judea and Jerusalem, other other probably Jewish people that have heard about Jesus and want to experience him for themselves. And then you also have the people from Tyre and Sidon who would have been like Gentiles. So we have this incredibly diverse group of people that have all come to hear Jesus. And up to this point, the sample set that have been given to us by Luke is everyone from scribes and Pharisees to the the well-to-do people, maybe in the synagogues that have been hearing him. But then we also have the guys that like broke through the roof with a stretcher. The guys that they couldn't get in. They didn't have the social status to be the first ones in the door. You know who was sitting in in there with Jesus, had the best seats in the house? The scribes and the Pharisees. You know who didn't get in? The ones who were marginalized. And those were the guys that that dropped the guy through the roof. So those were the people that were demonstrating large faith, right? Peter, just a a fisherman who would not have been high status, right, in that culture. Fishermen would have been pretty low on the totem pole. And yet it's Peter who responds in this great faith, right? Now we talked about him starting with fear, but like he's one of the 12. Like he got there, right? He's he's in. So the people who have been responding thus far have been kind of on the fringe, right? The marginalized, the outcasts, the the ones that maybe others wouldn't have selected. And the ones who are rejecting him are the ones that, in the world's eyes, would have been like the the upper echelon, you know, the the well-to-do, maybe the wealthy, the ones that have a little bit more power and influence. And those are the ones that seem to be rejecting Jesus. And man, Luke just tease it up because he's given us all these different people from all these different backgrounds, and now he's going to dive in and talk about those who are poor, hungry, those that weep, those that are rich, right? Those that are filled with joy right now. So we're gonna read that. But he's already set the stage for all these different people groups that are going to fit the mold of these things he's about to say. That's good. Which is beautiful. Okay, final thought. We're gonna dive into the Beatitudes, but any other thoughts before we read this next section? Okay, well let's go. All right, so I'm gonna read the first set. I want to play them off of each other, but just for the sake of being able to not bite off more than we can chew, I'm gonna read 20 to 23 in Luke chapter six, and we'll just spend a few minutes talking about these four, and then we'll move into the the four woes afterwards. So starting in verse 20. So then looking up at his disciples, he said, Blessed are you who are poor, because the kingdom of God is yours. Blessed are you who are hungry now, because you will be filled. Blessed are you who weep now, because you will laugh. Blessed are you when people hate you, when they exclude you, and insult you, and slander your name as evil because of the Son of Man. Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, take note that your reward is great in heaven, for this is the way their ancestors used to treat the prophets. So we get four blessed are statements. And as we take a look at that, I want to make sure that we understand what Jesus is saying and don't miss the point here. Whether it's the Greek word that's being used here or the same Hebrew word that would have been used in the Old Testament, and we know which word that would be because like the Septuagint, which is the Greek translation, uses this word for the Old Testament, right? So we know that these two words mean the same thing essentially for Hebrew and Greek, and it's a way of adding commentary, you're observing someone's life, and then you're making some kind of commentary or observation about their current situation. That's that that's what the word means, right? So like I might look at Rico and and I see him in this amazing house driving this wonderful car. I'm just making all this up because I have no idea what you drive. And and he's got on the fancy clothes. And I turn to Nate and I'm like, man, Rico must have an amazing life. Like I'm making this outside observation, right? Just based on your situation, your circumstances. I I'm making an outside observer's viewpoint of how nice your life must be, just based on your your situation's circumstances. And that's the word that's being used here, right? And and so famously, Psalm 1.1 opens with this same word. It's the same word which says, How blessed is or how happy is the one who does not walk in the advice of the wicked or stand in the pathway of sinners or sit in the company of mockers, right? So Psalm 1 just opens up with this idea, right? Life is really good for this kind of a person, right? And so Jesus is using that word, but it doesn't sound right, because he says, Life is great for those that are poor. You're like, excuse me, what? Excuse me? What do you mean life is great for those that are poor? And he gives us the reason because the kingdom of God is yours. Now, also, let me point out in verse 20, we have this huge crowd, we just talked about a diverse crowd of people that are gathered. But Luke says he looked at his disciples and said, So Jesus is focused on his disciples, and the rest of the crowd just gets to listen in on the conversation. So he looks directly at his disciples and says, Blessed are you who are poor, because the kingdom of God is yours, not will be yours, is yours. Jesus is saying something pretty profound here in this first blessing. Poor, as Jesus uses it, could also be translated oppressed or powerless, those that have no social status or standing, right? That's the that's the kind of person that Jesus is talking about. Now, some of the people that he called, some of his disciples were already in that state, right? Like they had no power. They were powerless, especially in Roman culture and government. Like they had nothing. And others others kind of started to get some footing in Roman culture, right? We think about Levi from a couple episodes ago, the tax collector. He was starting to kind of make his way up the ranks in Roman society. He was he was getting in with the Romans, collecting taxes, maybe building his social status. But when Jesus called him, the phrase that that sticks to what Levi did was leaving everything, he followed Jesus. So Levi had that, he was like making ground in this like social status ranking system. And he's like, you know what? I'm just gonna trash it all. And all of a sudden, right, leaving that scene, he would have had any kind of social status he had would have tanked. And now Levi would have been at the bottom of the list again, right? Bottom, probably even worse because he just dropped out of helping the Romans, right? Like they're not gonna think very well of him. The Jews didn't think very well of him because he was like a tax collector. He had nobody. He would have been, he would have been an outcast from the Roman side and an outcast from the Jewish side. So I imagine Jesus is looking Levi square in the eyes and saying, Blessed are you. Life is good for you. You gave up everything. You are now you are now poor and powerless. You've got nothing, but you do have the kingdom of God, and that trumps everything else. So I see Jesus flipping this idea on its head. What what makes life good? Right? You could go ask anybody on the street. Like, go, go, go, go out to the mall, right, and survey some people. Hey, uh, what would it take for life to be good? Right? What would what would it require for you to say, man, my life is good right now? Just see what they say. And you're you're probably not gonna get, well, when I lose all power and authority and when I'm poor, right? No one's gonna say that. Life is really good when I don't have any money, when I don't have any status. Yeah. Thoughts on this first one?

Blessed Are The Poor: Kingdom Now

SPEAKER_02 18:09

Yeah, and I think too, just I think worth pointing out here as we're journeying through Luke, and you're bringing up many things, but worth pointing out Luke's how Luke shows us the Beatitudes a little different than Matthew, and I think that goes all the way back to something we talked about in January that shouldn't give us doubt on the scripture, but Luke is really focusing on the humanity that, and I think as Jarvis took us through the Sabbath, like we care about people over, you know, kind of programs and rules. And so Jesus really, what Luke's saying is Jesus in his message really cared about people and not possessions and things like that. So I would just highlight, especially as you were walking through that, reminded me, like, you know, Matthew tells us some other things because he wants to bring out Jesus as the king and and speaking to Jews and really fulfilling all of that. But Luke wants the average run-of-the-mill guy to get like, hey, just because you're poor, just because you're hungry, doesn't mean you're you're not good enough for Jesus. So I think that's worth adding into I love that what you're saying there as well. I love that.

SPEAKER_03 19:08

I I like the simplicity of it, of the meaning of scripture, and I I love how Luke set it up here, but more importantly, the posture of how Jesus started informing what he started. He didn't look at the crowd, he looked at his disciples. He wanted disciples to understood vividly what he was saying. And knowing scripture, what scripture meant, how we do uh in in our studies, exegetical way, the poor, the the the hunger, the ones who weep, the ones who are being hated, these are the individuals who didn't have that they were hated, they were excluded from the people. And for our culture, is almost the same way. We judge you mentioned it earlier, we judge people how how they look, what they drive, and that's how the pen is gonna go the conversation. Just because you have the status who I should talk to you in a different way, more politely per se. And I think this is so vividly for us because the way that he set it up, he already put in their hearts, and listen, just because you're not being accepted, just because you are being uh excluded, do not feel that way because you have everything in the kingdom of God. So that's knowing scripture, understand the scripture, it is set up it's set up the uh the the structure on how we should not just want to interpret scripture, but how to live in a what he meant.

unknown 20:48

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 20:49

I mean, I think too, just thinking about you know that that following like yours is the kingdom of God. Just I mean, I think we see it, just the benefit of Jesus. You know, like you don't have anything, but man, you have Jesus. What a blessing that is to know, like that our our possessions on earth are just momentary, right? They, you know, they'll be here today and gone tomorrow. But like the the fact that Jesus is our king, right? Revelation 21, we're will be restored in the new heavens and new earth, will be no more death or mourning or crying or any of those things, but we'll have the kingdom of God. Like, what a joy that is to just to know that, like, man, this life will fade, but the eternity with Christ will never. And I think that's you know, a huge touch point, like you were saying to Matthew and also to Luke, like they're communicating that same the kingdom is yours very similarly, like in that like Jesus, that's what we're that's what we cling to, that's what we look to. So, yeah, that's that's good.

Hungry And Weeping: Hope Later

SPEAKER_00 21:41

Yeah, all right. Well, um, that's the first of four. And Nate, I agree. It's it's really important to at least recognize that Luke is giving us a block of teaching of Jesus. It sounds similar in many ways to what we see in the Sermon on the Mount, right? Here he's on a plane, they're not necessarily the same place. And I don't think it's worth spending time trying to figure out is it the same sermon? Is it like two different ones that sound the same? Because like whether it is or isn't, Luke is presenting us with a block of teaching of Jesus that he has placed here for a really specific purpose. And even if the wording is a little different, like the point is that Luke wants us to hear the words of Jesus, and whether it's four beatitudes and four woes, or whether it's nine in a row, like that that is beside the point, right? Matthew is giving us Jesus' teachings for a purpose. And we read that in the context of Matthew's gospel. And here we read what Luke has given us in the context of Luke's gospel, and he he's writing with intentionality. And so we're just going to take what he's given us and see why this fits with the rest of what Luke is giving us. And so I'm just going to read the next two, which is verse 21, which says, Blessed are you who are hungry now because you will be filled, and blessed are you who weep now because you will laugh. Notice there's a subtle difference from the first one, right? The first one, just blessed are you who are poor. It doesn't say are poor now, because the kingdom of God is yours, but for these next two, blessed are you who are hungry now because you will be filled, and blessed are you who weep now because you will laugh. There's like a future hope that Jesus is presenting here, right? There's a there's a now-ness, and there's also a future hope. The first one, the kingdom is yours now, because Jesus was bringing a kingdom, it was fulfilled in Christ, and he's building a community that is going to live and look differently, right? His kingdom and his people were going to live radically different from what everybody else looked like. That is the kingdom. The kingdom of God is filled with people, right? The kingdom of God is not a place. You can't go and find it somewhere. The kingdom of God is filled with people. Jesus wanted to fill his kingdom with people, and so that kingdom, that community was being built right then and there, and they got to be a part of it. Front row seats, right? First ones in. They were usually last ones, or they didn't get in. And now they're the first ones in, right? They get to be a part of this kingdom that Jesus is building. So that's like, yes, we're in. But then these next two are, but you're still hungry, right? And you still weep. There's still problems on this earth, right? Just because you're in, just because you're a part of the kingdom, does not mean that all of a sudden, like, you know, your table's gonna be full every night. And you're not gonna have struggles, and you're not gonna like find yourself weeping over different situations. You are but there is hope in a future comfort because like the here and now is not the end of it, right? So I think I think what Luke is strategically doing is showing us a picture of God's kingdom, but then also insets these next two, which are like the the waiting pattern, right? Like we do have to go through the hunger and the weeping with hope, right? So I'll pass it back to you guys for those two.

SPEAKER_02 25:17

Yeah, I like that a lot, and just reminding us that the the temporal things are not what define us, you know. So like I think that's a really good connection of even kind of identity and and a lot of senses when we come to Christ, and you know, those status things are not what are going to ultimately be where our worth is, and we have a savior who does care, you know, like he sees this, right? He cares about that affliction and is not indifferent to those things.

SPEAKER_00 25:47

So I think it's pretty much he sees that they're hungry, he sees that they're weeping, so like he's he's not indifferent or ignorant.

Hated For The Son Of Man

SPEAKER_03 25:53

The misconception of thinking that we're gonna come to Jesus and everything's gonna change in one, two, three. And I think for for you for you guys that are listening, this is so rich to us, especially if you are a new believer. You was back with a prize, knowing that you're still gonna go through trials and tribulations, yet you can see the hope that he provides. Yet, you know that you have the kingdom of God in you, yet you know that he's going to be with you, and there's nothing greater. I tell uh this is so vividly for me because I I remember when I gave myself to the Lord, I I knew for that moment, I knew that regardless what the Lord does for me or he doesn't do, the most important thing is that my name is written in the book of life, and nothing is gonna get me more happier, nothing's gonna get me more saddest. I'm already included in the kingdom. So regard and I think that's the misconception a lot of people get when they read the scriptures, and you you're doing an amazing job just pausing and expository explaining that the hey, listen, you it blessed are you that you are crying now. You you it's happening now. It's not that you're gonna stop. You still gonna go through it, you still gotta go through fire. But you blessed are you. So I I just I just want to not bypass that and re reiterate that to the hearer that you might be going through something right now, knowing that yes, your new your name is written in the book of life, but there is hope that regardless what you go through, you can still find joy find joy.

SPEAKER_01 27:46

Yeah, I I think it reminds me of similarly to what you're saying, Rico, but just the idea of almost like the prosperity gospel, right? That like, man, health, wealth, and success is my is mine in Christ Jesus. And it's like, well, you know, like the prosperity gospel is not not it. But I think what it's relaying is this aspect that like it reminds me of Romans 8.28, right? Like God will work together for good for those who love him and called according to his purpose. Like that's what we see outworking, I think, in these moments is like, man, like blessed are those, right? Like, yeah, you might have this situation and the status now, but man, that won't be the case forever. Remember that he's working it out, and it and he's you know, it's good, you know what I mean?

Reading The Four Woes

SPEAKER_00 28:26

But okay, well, we got one to go, right? And then we'll hit the woes, and that'll that'll kind of wrap up pretty quickly. This last one is uh I think just following in line, we see we see those that that have come to him, his disciples, have inherited the kingdom. They will struggle, though, in this life. And then Jesus is is giving them like each one of these has kind of been flipped on its head, and then this one is probably the most the most shocking, right? Because maybe people are following along and going, okay, I get it, it's not everything's not gonna be perfect when I come to you. Thanks for letting me know. But then Jesus goes on to say, and life is really good for you when people hate you. Like, what when they exclude you when you don't get the invite to the party, man. When they insult you, right? When they slander your name as evil because of the son of man. Now now we've seen this a couple times, right? Jesus is dropping the son of man language. When these things happen to you, man, life is really good. And again, it's a head scratcher. And I'm sure people listening in, like his disciples, maybe they're picking it up. And the other people listening in are like, this guy's crazy. Like, what is he talking? Life is not good when you're insulted and excluded and hated, and like, like, that's not a good thing. And then he he does give us the why, right? Rejoice, leap for joy. I mean, it's not even just like like knuckle down and get through it, right? It's actually rejoice, le jump and leap for joy because your reward is great. Because actually, this is the way they treated the prophets as well, right? And his disciples listening in would have been Jewish, they would have known the scriptures, they would have known that the prophets were the ones that heard God's voice, but like no one got them, right? They they oftentimes listened to what the prophets were saying and then rejected it, right? If at best they just kind of said you're crazy, at worst, they were persecuted, right? Killed. So Jesus is saying, look, you're following in their footsteps. You guys are hearing the words of God, and it's ultimately going to be rejected by this world. So just be ready for it, right? And you get to rejoice, you get to leap for joy because you are literally walking in the same footsteps as the prophets that you know of, that you've read, right? These big name guys that everybody like wants to be, right? I would love to hear from God like a Isaiah, like a Jeremiah, like a Moses. He's like, you are. You're gonna you're gonna be like one of them, right? That that's gotta be comforting knowing that this is coming.

SPEAKER_02 31:23

Very important perspective so that we can really when those trials hit, because you know, Christ says trials will come your way, and you will. The world hated me, it's gonna hate you. So I think that's yeah, encouragement for us to understand that well and not won't be unexpected, and we'll know how to deal with it, right? So yeah. Okay.

Comfort Now, Emptiness Later

SPEAKER_00 31:48

Well, then let's turn our attention to the woe. So there's three, three are four things that Jesus says life is really good for these people the poor, the hungry, those that weep, and those that are insulted, slandered, hated because of the Son of Man, right? And they're all kind of weird reversals. And then he actually says, but woe to those that are rich. So I'm gonna read verse 20. I'm just gonna read them all, and then we'll just kind of quickly, because they're they're inverses of what we just read. So starting in verse 24, woe to you who are rich, for you've already received your comfort. Woe to you who are now full because you will be hungry. Woe to you who are now laughing or joyful, for you will mourn and weep. And woe to you when all people speak well of you. Because this is the way that their ancestors used to speak of the false prophets. So all four of those statements are reversals of the first four, right? Instead of poor, now he's saying, Woe to you who are rich. Instead of hungry, now it's woe to you that are full full. Instead of the weeping, now it's woe to you who are laughing now. And finally, when everybody speaks well of you, and instead of insulting and slandering and hating and um speaking evil of you, when everyone's speaking well of you, that's the way they spoke of the false prophets. So Jesus is flipping this on its head and saying, look, the worldly mindset is get rich, be full and satisfied, right? Get all the things that will satisfy you, right? Laugh it up, have joy find joy, find laughter, right? Find find entertainment. These are the things that will that will fill you. And when you're doing all these things, everybody's gonna say, Man, that guy's got it great. When everyone's speaking well of you, Jesus says, That's that's the way they spoke of the false prophets. So he flips every single one of the first four on its head and says, Man, if that's the way your life looks like now, and not just right, Jesus isn't just saying, if you're if you have money, if you're wealthy, then man, you have it, you have it really bad, right? What he's trying to get at is the nature of God's kingdom. Being rich doesn't do you any good in God's kingdom. You can be generous, you can help the poor, that's awesome, but being rich doesn't buy you the kingdom of heaven, right? And most of the time, what Jesus has seen and what Luke is presenting us with is that those that are rich have no need for Jesus. They don't care. It's those are the ones that are rejecting Jesus. It's not that being rich is like a bad thing, it's that that that mindset of wanting to get rich is what oftentimes keeps them from wanting Jesus. So just thoughts on all four of the woes there.

SPEAKER_02 34:46

No, I agree. And you ask earlier, like if we went to the mall, you know, what would people say was a good life? All of these things. And especially, I think, of our culture and context, like all of these are how people would view success and and those kind of really materialistic and status type things. Even that last one hits hard. Like if everybody's singing your praises, like you should probably be worrying, you know, because man's empty praise. You know, that's something we know is is an issue of something we seek rather than true faithfulness to God. So I think, yeah, some really important things there.

SPEAKER_03 35:21

I I think this for me was my the eye-opener for me. This this is what if if you listen to to my testimony, uh, it's I'll know, but it this is something that I experienced myself. Jarvis, you make you mentioned about the prosperity gospel, money preaching, right? And this is something that I was introduced to. And it this specific thing, it it hits my core because I was living for that. And I was living to if I'm in Christ, I supposed to be rich. I supposed to have this, I supposed to have my belly full, I supposed to, and that's what the prosperity is. Meaning that automatically in my heart, my posture is that okay, since my name is written in the book of life, I should have all the riches and glory, and so wrong I was because that did never came. It was some popularity came, some some finances came, but at the same time, I was spiritually empty. So, this right here, for anybody who's listening, do not confuse these words into the literal sense that just because you have something to bath for, it's not that he's not gonna he's giving it to you, but it's the pastor or have you view those things that you need to be control observation for yourself.

SPEAKER_01 36:44

Yeah, yeah. I mean, I I think yeah, as this is this is good. I mean, I think through just like that first one, I think like the lens of these are all like when you forsake Christ, like when you forsake the kingdom and you're not thinking in the in the realm of that. But Matthew 19, we see, I mean, he says, like, it's easier for a rich person, uh, it's easier for the camp for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God, like for the reality that, yeah, like their mind is not fixed on God. And like when things are going well, their minds aren't fixed on God, when things are you know thriving and right and good, and things aren't fixed on God, you know. And I I think you see that through uh you see that right in the the book of Ecclesiastes, right? This reality that you try everything, but yet none of it's the fulfillment that we find in Christ, right? That you can do all the work, all the money, all the you know, women or whatever the thing is, right? You can have it all, but yet that's not the thing that that gives you what Christ can give you. And I think that's what we see here in the in the last four woes, is like those things won't matter in your fulfillment overall.

False Praise And False Prophets

SPEAKER_00 37:45

Yeah, this is just remember, this is just the very first. Like Luke is presenting a teaching of Jesus. This is just the start. There's more. Talks about loving your enemies and do not judge, and he ends like when Jesus has finished his teaching, and I know I'm gonna step on somebody's toes, I don't know who's doing it, but I'm gonna do it anyway. I don't care. Um, he Jesus finishes this whole thing off. Luke ends Jesus' teaching with him saying, Why do you call me Lord, Lord, and don't do the things that I say? I will show you what someone is like who comes to me, hears my words, because remember, Luke has been just put putting in front of us people who wanted to hear Jesus' words, and then there's a big question mark. How do they respond? Right? He says, I'll show you someone who hears my words and acts on them. He's like a man who builds his house on the rock. I'm just paraphrasing. But the one who hears my words and does not act on them is like the man who built his house on sand and the waters come and the house has this great collapse. So, like Jesus ends his teaching by saying, Look, you've now heard my words. And I think Luke is actually wanting us to hear that from Jesus, right? We are left at the end of this block of teaching with Jesus saying, You have now heard my words for yourself. What are you going to do about it? Heavy.

SPEAKER_03 39:02

That's good.

SPEAKER_02 39:03

Yep. I think that is good. And yeah, I'd love you telegraphing a future episode and keep people coming back because come back for more. Yeah, it'd be an important thing we'll talk about next time. So, man, Beatitudes so deep. And Jason, thanks for leading us through that. Uh, listeners, hope you really catch on to just how different. I think Jarvis, we talked about that and uh talking about the fasting, seeing things differently, and and how Christ really calls us to that. So, listeners, we hope you uh pick up that message. Hopefully you're enjoying this journey of Luke with us, and we will look forward to seeing you guys next time. Thanks for tuning in to the Life Talk Podcast. If this episode encouraged you, please be sure to like, comment, subscribe, and leave a review so others can find this content as well. And we'll look forward to seeing you next Monday for another great episode.