Who are the blessed? The word “blessed” generally refers to being a “privileged recipient of divine favor.” [1] Conversely, an experience of “woe” is “pain or displeasure,” so the exclamation in the midst of crisis, “alas!” [2] Well, some might suppose the blessed are those who got it made. They have money to pay the bills, they can eat and drink to their satisfaction, they always have happy thoughts, and they are respected by others. But woe to those who are poor, hungry, and downtrodden.
Mr. Utility wants to go for the gusto in the pursuit of wealth, happiness and respect. A hedonistic maximization of pleasure and minimization of pain to put it succinctly. But he knows the gusto needs to be attenuated to a kind of “sweet spot.” He regulates his quest for the good things of life —wealth, happiness and respect — but simultaneously tries to navigate away from anything that might diminish pleasure and increase pain. But nothing is off the table with respect to the suffering of others. Mr. Utility is still fine with a few folks or even a child being tortured so long as it never interferes with his maximum pleasure of wealth, happiness and respect. This has to be, for he very well knows that any attention to these tortured souls on the margins would most certainly diminish his pleasure and increase his pain. Mr. Utility finds it best to keep them out of sight and out of mind. His rational is that few eggs need breaking to make an omelet. He has no belief in any moral absolutes, nothing is really right or wrong, but it is about maximizing pleasure and minimizing pain. [3] Yet is this really what having a blessed life is all about?
Jesus Christ in the Sermon on the Plain[4] directs us to a different way of understanding those who are the blessed and those who experiences woes:
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.
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! Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven; for so their fathers did to the prophets.But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation.
Woe to you who are full now, for you shall be hungry.
Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep.
Woe to you, when all people speak well of you, for so their fathers did to the false prophets (Lk. 6:20-26)[5]
The point is easy to figure: “Together with the following woes these beatitudes make a mockery of the world’s values. They exalt what the world despises and reject what the world admires.”[6] Our Lord speaks of a reversal of things wherein the last go first and the first go last. He takes the worldly understanding of blessings and woes and turns them upon their head.
There is simply less material clutter to obstruct the poor from seeing the way the God cares for the birds, which neither sow nor reap nor gather into storage units, but they are fed nonetheless. They can see just how God makes paints every field with beautifully colored flowers though the flowers know nothing about sewing and fashion design. Christ thus reminds the poor: “Do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat, nor about your body, what you will put on” and “do not seek what you are to eat and what you are to drink, nor be worried. For all the nations of the world seek after these things, and your Father knows that you need them. Instead, seek his kingdom, and these things will be added to you” (Lk. 12:22, 29-31). Inasmuch as food and clothing are important, the grand quest is finding the kingdom of God.
The poor are in fortunate circumstances for in their lack of material possessions they can easily understand their greatest need to be wholly dependent upon the Lord and that their Heavenly Father knows what they need. The rich are in unfavorable circumstances for in their material abundance obstructs their eyes from seeing Lord who is the source of all good things (Deut. 6:10-12; 8:11-20). Note that “the ‘woes’ in verses 24–26 are directed toward the rich, the well fed, the happy, and the popular. Jesus’s point is that these people derive all their satisfaction from this world. They feel no need of God, nor do they look forward to his future kingdom. This world is their heaven. Jesus pronounces a woe on such self-satisfied, prosperous, and smug people because a day is coming when fortunes will be reversed.”[7]
Nevertheless, the poor can still exacerbate their misery in looking for that big score that will set them on easy street. They too can be caught up in the futile quest for wealth, happiness, and respect. This is chasing after the wind. As such, Jesus warns: “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matt. 6:19-21).
Trust in earthly treasures ends in woe, because they are temporal, and subject to devaluation, desiccation, and destruction. Even though cash rules everything around me, the dollar can still lose its value in a recession. When this happens, those who trust in riches are left only with the woes.[8]
We are better off agreeing with the prayer Augur the son of Jakeh:
Two things I ask of you;
deny them not to me before I die:
Remove far from me falsehood and lying;
give me neither poverty nor riches;
feed me with the food that is needful for me,
lest I be full and deny you
and say, “Who is the Lord?”
or lest I be poor and steal
and profane the name of my God (Prov. 30:7-9).
Jesus speaks of the blessed being poor, hungry, and downtrodden, it is more than just shedding oneself of material possessions. Put it another way: “Jesus is not teaching the virtue of poverty as such; he is saying that the poor, hungry, sad, and persecuted are blessed if they have given their allegiance to the Son of Man.”[9] Whether in abundance or need, spiritual bankruptcy affects us all. Thus, Matthew recalls Jesus’ beatitudes started with “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 5:3). Those who understand nothing in this world can truly satisfy their deepest needs are ripe for the kingdom of heaven.
Who then are the blessed? The blessed are heavenly people. Whereas they may be beggars in the city of man but they are truly the blessed in the city of God. Despised by the godless, they are dependent upon God. Salt of the earth, light of the world, they are the people without whom culture collapses.[10]
God’s kingdom is setup for the poor, hungry, and downtrodden and this is why they are blessed. Despite being the least, lost, and lowly of world, they are valued by the Heavenly Father. It is within God’s kingdom that the poor, hungry. and downtrodden find satisfaction, laughter, and vindication from all injustices inflicted upon them. Whether we possess a little or a lot, we all need to understand that regardless of our portfolio size, assets, or net worth, we are but destitute so long as we are estranged from the one true Triune God of the universe. Riches will ultimately fail the rich and the rich will only be left with woes.
— WGN
[1] William Arndt et al., A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000), 611.
[2] Ibid., 734.
[3] For a critique of hedonism, see C. Wayne Mayhall, “Leaving Omelas: The Failure of Utilitarian Hedonism,” Christian Research Journal, 32, 5 [2009]: https://www.equip.org/articles/leaving-omelas/ and Melissa Cain Travis, “Using NBC’s The Good Place in Conversational Apologetics,” Christian Research Journal, https://www.equip.org/articles/using-nbcs-the-good-place-in-conversational-apologetics/
[4] It is possible that the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5 is the same occasion as the Sermon on the Plain in Luke 6. The former is then giving an expansion of the latter. Matthew and Luke have their own sources on the words of Jesus, and both present the essence of the message. The Gospels often recount the same event in Jesus’ life in a different way, but these nuances are really a testimonial to the authenticity of the eyewitness sources used by their respective authors. In The Case for Christ, Lee Strobel observes, “Ironically…if the gospels had been identical to each other, word for word, this would have raised charges that the authors had conspired among themselves to coordinate their stories in advance, and that would have cast doubt on them,” to which New Testament scholar Craig Blomberg replies, “That’s right…if the gospels were too consistent, that in itself would invalidate them as independent witnesses. People would then say we really only have one testimony that everybody else is just parroting” (Lee Strobel, The Case for Christ: A Journalist’s Personal Investigation of the Evidences for Jesus [Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1998], 45). Nothing subtracts from the accuracy of Matthew and Luke. Still, a better answer is that Jesus preached many, many sermons to people and repetition is the best way to remember a message when oral communication ruled the day. No smartphones to record audio/video soundbites, but good attention and open ears. It is common knowledge too that “Preachers usually make use of the same or different matter in different sermons, especially if they speak without a written script. This habit of preachers seems a better explanation of the combination of resemblances and differences that extensive editorial activity” (Leon Morris, Tyndale New Testament Commentaries: Luke, vol. 3 [Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1997], 138). So, two viable options exist for why the two gospel writers differ on this point but nothing to suggest any distortion upon the message of the historical Jesus.
[5] All Scripture cited from The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), unless noted.
[6] Morris, 139.
[7] Thomas Schreiner, The Baker Illustrated Bible Commentary, ed. Gary M. Burge and Andrew E. Hill (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2012), 1073.
[8] It is chilling to imagine what will happen when the day of reckoning comes and those who invested all their efforts into acquiring riches for happiness and respect. James prophesies to such a calamity: “Come now, you rich, weep and howl for the miseries that are coming upon you. Your riches have rotted and your garments are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver have corroded, and their corrosion will be evidence against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have laid up treasure in the last days. Behold, the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, are crying out against you, and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts. You have lived on the earth in luxury and in self-indulgence. You have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter. You have condemned and murdered the righteous person. He does not resist you” (Jas. 5:1-5).
[9] Ibid..
[10] Bible Answer Man, “Sermon on the Mount: ‘Blessed Are the Poor in Spirit” Matthew 5:3 (Bible Study with Hank Hanegraaff),’” https://youtu.be/EeK6ZcMKevI
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