The Son of Man’s Portrait
Of A Disciple
Luke 6:20-26
Introduction
We have been talking about God’s new Sabbath, God’s new Nation and now we see
God’s new blessing. The old Sabbath was a day of rest. The new Sabbath is a rest in
Christ. The old nation was the nation of Israel. The new nation is the new man, Jew and
Gentile united together in the body of Christ. The old blessing was the covenant of the
Law, the new blessing is Christ—who is the new and living way.
Kent Hughes calls this section “The Sermon on the Level” as opposed to the “Sermon on
the Mount.” Earlier in verse seventeen the passage says, “And He came down with them
and stood on a level place” or on a plain. This is why some people dub Luke’s version
“The Sermon on the Plain”. Is this an abbreviated version of the Sermon on the Mount
(Matt.5:1-7:27)? Perhaps. The sermon takes up the rest of chapter 6. It is similar to
Matthew’s sermon in chapters 5-7. There are some differences. Matthew devotes three
long chapters to Jesus’ sermon, Luke only one. Matthew records nine beatitudes Luke
has four. Luke’s beatitudes do not focus on the positives as do some of Matthew’s like
“blessed are the pure in heart” and so on. The sermon in Luke only includes the
negatives such as poverty and hunger. Luke’s beatitudes are given in the more personal
second person (you) rather than in Matthew’s second person (they). In Matthew’s gospel
Jesus seems to be speaking to the multitudes. In Luke’s gospel in verse 20 it says,
“Looking at the disciples”—which indicates Jesus has something special to say to his
followers.
Jesus drops four theological bombs on his disciples. He talks about the blessings of
poverty, of hunger, of sorrow and the blessing of rejection. In this section Jesus lays out
some characteristics for those who would follow Him. What is the disciple of Jesus like?
Jesus speaks about our attitude in difficult circumstances (vv.20-26); our relationship
with people (vv.27-38) and self-examination(vv.39-45); then Jesus addresses our
relationship with the Lord God (vv.46-49). Jesus suggests there are four essential
elements to the faithful follower of Christ; (1) faith in God; (2) love towards others (3)
honesty within ourselves; (4) obedience toward God (see Warren Wiersbe TBEC Vol. 1;
pp.190-194).
This is radical preaching aimed at those who still have a shallow and superficial
understanding of what it means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ. Carl Hallberg wrote,
“The largest denomination in Western civilization is cultural Christianity.” Jesus speaks
to us to move beyond our cultural Christianity to a life of committed discipleship. Patrick
Morley in his book “The Man in The Mirror” writes; “Cultural Christianity means to
pursue the God we want instead of the God who is. It is the tendency to be shallow in
our understanding of God, wanting Him to be more of a gentle grandfather type who
spoils us and lets us have our own way. It is sensing a need for God, but on our own
terms. It is wanting the God we have underlined in our Bibles without wanting the rest of
Him, too. It is God relative instead of God absolute.”
Profit In Poverty (vv.20, 24)
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The Son of Man’s Portrait
Of A Disciple
Luke 6:20-26
Luke 6:20 (NKJV)
20 Then He lifted up His eyes toward His disciples, and said: “Blessed are you poor, For yours is
the kingdom of God.
For most Jews the word “Blessed” would evoke the same reaction it does in you! When
someone blesses you, or says “God bless you” you think of long life, health, prosperity,
plenty of resources, and defeat for your enemies. Jesus shocks his disciples. His
statements are still surprising, astonishing, stunning if taken in context and applied to our
lives. What Jesus finds important, meaningful and significant is very different from what
the world finds important.
Jesus begins by making the aggressive assertion “Blessed are you poor, For yours is the
kingdom of God.” Being poor does not disqualify from the Kingdom of God. You
cannot buy your way into the Kingdom of God. The presence of riches does not qualify
you for heaven, and the presence of poverty does not insure entrance into the kingdom of
God. Materialism is our bane. Materialism as defined by Webster’s dictionary as “the
theory that physical well-being and worldly possessions constitute the highest value and
the greatest good in life”. But is that true? Do comfort and riches and belongings define
goodness? The answer is no—but we must confess that our lives reveal that materialism
has a hold on us!
Does the Old Testament view poverty as a blessing?
Proverbs 30:8-9 (NKJV)
8 Remove falsehood and lies far from me; Give me neither poverty nor riches— Feed me with the
food allotted to me; 9 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.
Proverbs 10:22 (NKJV)
22 The blessing of the Lord makes one rich, And He adds no sorrow with it.
We know in times past the children of Israel suffered great poverty and times of
prosperity. Human experience points to poverty as being a miserable experience. If
money is power, then the poor are powerless, and the powerless are regularly exploited.
Ask any of the world’s poverty stricken nations if they are blessed. Ask the abused
woman in 1 Peter 3 if she is blessed when her husband hits her! Yet Peter writes “But
even if you should suffer for righteousness’ sake, you are blessed” (1 Peter 3:14).
Who are the blessed poor? Who are the blessed sufferers? In the Old Testament, after
the fall of Jerusalem and the Babylonian captivity, a remnant returned to Jerusalem. The
exiles came to Babylon in poverty. Some remained poor, and some accumulated great
wealth. Many of the wealthy chose to remain in Babylon. Those who compromised,
those who bought into the wealth and economy of Babylon chose to remain citizens of
Babylon. Those who returned—were the poor—those who refused to compromise.
Do you recall when Jesus began his ministry he quoted Isaiah 61:1-2; “The Spirit of the
Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor”—the poor
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The Son of Man’s Portrait
Of A Disciple
Luke 6:20-26
in Isaiah 61—were the exiled people of Israel who had not compromised with their pagan
conquerors”(see R. Kent Hughes p.215). Contrary to the faith teachers, Jesus was not
rich and he did not have designer robes and pedigreed camels to ride. Jesus said of his
life, “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to
lay his head” (Luke 9:58). Paul said of Jesus, “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus
Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through
his poverty might become rich” (2 Cor.8:9).
Jesus’ disciples are generally poor—though sometimes God allows some of them
material riches. Jesus’ disciples are to have an attitude about wealth and poverty
consistent with Christ. We do not compromise with a fallen culture to accumulate
wealth. We believe a fallen world’s only hope is Christ Jesus. We believe Jesus is the
only way to the Father. Whatever wealth we have does not come through ethical
compromise. We do not love money—we love Christ. We do not hold our earnings
exclusively for ourselves, because we know Jesus has given us the ability to make
money. Max Lucado calls this blessing—“The Applause of Heaven”. The poor reject
materialism. The poor understand their utter helplessness and impoverishment before the
Lord. The poor are those who look to the Lord solely to meet their need. The poor are
those who know that the only thing needed to have a right relationship with God now and
forever is relationship with Christ. The poor are those who confess their utter lack of
superiority and spiritual deadness before God, those who know that fame, fortune and
power make no one better and possibly worse—since fame, fortune and power become
powerful insulators, protectors against humilty.
The poor turn their attention away from this world knowing nothing there is nothing—
that can make him or her spiritually rich. We turn attention to the Lord and His
Kingdom, knowing that God alone can make us rich in the spirit.
Ephesians 1:3 (NKJV)
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every
spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ,
Luke 6:24 (NKJV)
24 “But woe to you who are rich, For you have received your consolation.
Who are the rich? Realistically, in comparison to what the rest of the world, a rich
person is anyone who has anything to put back beyond meeting the true needs of his own
family (see Mk. 12:41-44). Is it a sin to be rich? It can be. There are two ways of being
rich. One is to have all you want, the other is to be satisfied with what you have.
“John D. Rockefeller made his millions in oil, but if a benevolent God had not put the oil
in the ground, and hadn't endowed man with the sense to refine it and market it, there
would be no fortunes in oil”(Billy Graham). The rich sometimes take credit for their
success instead of giving God the glory. Some people view their possessions as the apex
of their achievements, the icon of their identity, the end to which they aspire. They might
as well be pagans—for God detests idolatry.
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The Son of Man’s Portrait
Of A Disciple
Luke 6:20-26
We are kidding ourselves if we think that the Bible does not warn the rich over and over
again. Why are the rich warned? Because sometimes riches draw us away from the
Kingdom of God. We are tempted to forget there is a Kingdom of God. The rich
sometimes depend on their prosperity instead of Christ.
Does wealth sometimes feed self-esteem? Does wealth boost the ego? Does wealth
promote the big “I”? The wealthy are usually esteemed, honored, envied.
Sometimes riches make a person selfish. We live in the lap of luxury and forget about
the needy in this age. Sometimes wealth causes us to attach ourselves to this world.
Does Jesus intend to comfort the poor? Yes. Does Jesus intend to jar the rich into
rearranging their priorities? Yes. No this is not a communist or socialist plot to
redistribute wealth, nor is it a political call to arms. Jesus is talking to you about your
attitude concerning wealth. Should you feel guilt over prosperity? No—God is not
looking for guilt—Satan wants to poison your spirit—rather—you must realize that God
is at the root of your blessing. Instead of feeling guilty over abundance, find God’s
purpose for it. Be grateful not guilty.
“For you have received your consolation”.
The word ‘consolation’ is the same word used in Luke 2:25 “The consolation of Israel”.
Simeon was waiting for the consolation of Israel—Messiah—the rich are waiting for
what riches provide—deliverance from poverty.
Ahab sold himself for a vineyard; Judas, a bag of silver; Achan, a wedge and a garment;
Gehazi, silver and raiment. Are you for sale?
Orin Philip Gifford (B. 1847)
“There is a burden of care in getting riches; fear in keeping them; temptation in using
them; guilt in abusing them; sorrow in losing them; and a burden of account at last to be
given concerning them (Matthew Henry 1662-1714).”
Honor In Hunger (vv.21a, 25a)
Luke 6:21 (NKJV)
21 Blessed are you who hunger now, For you shall be filled.
Hunger often follows poverty. Jesus is speaking of spiritual hunger.
Is it really blessed to go hungry? The hunger Jesus speaks of should not be restricted to
the physical kind, but also refers to spiritual longing. Jesus is speaking to the spiritual
appetite. For you shall be filled or satisfied!
Matthew 5:6 (NKJV)
6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, For they shall be filled.
One Bible teacher expressed this relationship rather eloquently; Leonard Goppelt writes;
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The Son of Man’s Portrait
Of A Disciple
Luke 6:20-26
“The hungry are men who both outwardly and inwardly are painfully deficient in the
things essential to life as God meant it to be, and who, since they cannot help themselves,
turn to God on the basis of his promise” (see C. Marvin Pate’s Commentary Luke who
quotes Goppelt from Peinao 6:12-22.18).
David wrote, “As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God.
My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God?” (Psalm
42:1,2). “O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you, my body
longs for you, in a dry and weary land where there is no water”(Psalm63:1). David aches
for the Lord. Life apart from God is dry, parched. God promised Israel, “You will seek
me and find me when you seek me with all your heart”(Jeremiah 29:13).
When Jesus came to the planet earth he became the source of all spiritual satisfaction.
Jesus told the woman at the well, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again,
but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him
will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life” (John 4:13,14). We
might say the filthy water this world gives us—gives us Satan’s revenge. Drinking this
world’s water is like being stuck on a boat surrounded by miles of ocean water, and
drinking that water leaves us with an everlasting thirst, a never satisfied thirst.
The promise is temporal and eternal—what does that mean? We can know hunger and
satisfaction. My wife leaves those little bite size almond joy bars in the candy dish. I
want one. I eat one. I am happy. I want more! The sublime cycle—hunger—
satisfaction—hunger –satisfaction. Paul knew the blessing of the paradox; He wrote to
Timothy “I know whom I have believed” (2 Tim.1:12) Yet to the Philippians he
expressed a profound hunger for Christ “to know Christ and the power of his resurrection
and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his
death”(Phil.3:10). The key is to keep on hungering—Soren Kierkegaard illustrated this;
“A duck was flying with his flock in the springtime northward across Europe. During the
flight he came down in a Danish baryard where there were tame ducks. He enjoyed some
of their corn. He stayed, for an hour, then for a day, then for a week, then for a month,
and finally, because he relished the good fare and the safety of the barnyard, he stayed all
summer. But one autumn day when the flock of wild ducks were winging their way
southward again, they passed over the barnyard, and their mate heard their cries. He was
stirred with a strange thrill of joy and delight, and with a great flapping of wings he rose
in the air to join his old comrades in their flight. But he found that his good fare ahad
made him so soft and heavy that he could rise no higher than the eaves of the barn. So he
dropped back again to the barnyard and said to himself, “O well, my life is safe here and
the food is good.” Every spring and autumn when he heard the wild ducks calling, his
eyes would gleam for a moment and he would begin to flap his wings. But finally the
day came when the wild ducks flew over him and uttered their cry, but he paid not the
slightest attention to them.”
Has sin domesticated you? Are you so well fed that you never hunger for the life above,
for the things above, for heaven?
Luke 6:25 (NKJV) Woe to you who are full, For you shall hunger.
Or you will go hungry.
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The Son of Man’s Portrait
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Luke 6:20-26
Why are the full warned?
Who are the full? The full are the opposite of those who ‘hunger now’ those who long
for righteousness. The full are full of themselves. The full are those who indulge all the
world has to offer them now. Full of their own desires, urges, cravings. They have no
hunger for righteousness.
Their judgment—you will go hungry. They will leave all that filled them behind.
Shall have no desires fulfilled in the next life. They shall have nothing to delight them
throughout eternity. They shall starve for what is good (righteousness) and for the good
things throughout eternity.
Revelation 3:17; Revelation 3:17 (NKJV)
17 Because you say, ‘I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing’—and do not
know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked—
Delight In Distress (vv.21b, 25b)
Luke 6:21 (NKJV); “Blessed are you who weep now, For you shall laugh.
Luke 6:25 (NKJV)
25 Woe to you who laugh now, For you shall mourn and weep.
Do you want to be rich? Invent a bathroom scale that lies—convincingly.
Does Jesus hate laughter? Does he despise a sense of humor? I don’t think so. Some
preachers think it is there lot in life not to make people laugh. Spurgeon was once
accused of bringing to much levity to the pulpit. Spurgeon told the woman, “If you only
knew how much I leave out.”
Humor and laughter are a part of life. Solomon said, “a cheerful heart is good
medicine”(Proverbs 17:22). Abraham Lincoln said, “If I don’t laugh, I would die”. The
need for laughter is outlined by the missionary statesman Oswald Sanders,
”Should we not see that lines of laughter about the eyes are just as much marks of faith as
are the lines of care and seriousness? Is laughter pagan? We have already allowed too
much that is good to be lost to the church and cast many pearls before swine. A church is
in a bad way when it banishes laughter from the sanctuary and leaves it to the cabaret, the
nightclub, and the toastmasters.”
“What Jesus assaulted is the superficial, shallow mirth that characterizes the world—the
inability to weep at the right things, and the ability to laugh at the wrong things” (R.Kent
Hughes; p.219). “Woe to you who laugh now” refers to those who have no sense of sin,
no sorrow or regret over evil and suffering, no brokenness over the cross and their own
sin. Their joy is carnal and sensual. Laughing now—refers to those who are laughing it
up in the world with all its comfort and ease, pleasure and stimulation, recreations and
pastimes. Their joy is the indulgence and entertaining of their flesh (all we are apart from
Christ). The warning and judgment to the merry is mourning and weeping. They are
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The Son of Man’s Portrait
Of A Disciple
Luke 6:20-26
doomed because they refuse to face the reality of a world lost in sin and evil, a world that
needed their attention and help. They refused to help the needy, those who suffered so
much in this world, so they are left alone in the next world, to mourn and weep over their
great loss.
Rejoice In Rejection (vv.22, 26)
Luke 6:22 (NKJV)
22 Blessed are you when men hate you, And when they exclude you, And revile you, and cast
out your name as evil, For the Son of Man’s sake.
This is the fourth ‘beatitude’ Jesus gives to his disciples.
Expect people to hate you, expect people to exclude or reject you, expect people to revile
you and cast you out.
The Shemoneh Esreh or the Eighteen Benedictions date back to the late first century.
A curse was designed to weed out the minim or the heretical “Nazarenes” (Jewish
Christians) from synagogue worship. It reads, “For the renegades let there be no hope,
and may the arrogant kingdom soon be rooted in our days, and the Nazarenes and the
minim perish as in a moment and be blotted out from the book of life and with the
righteous may they not be inscribed. Blessed art Thou, O Lord, who humblest the
arrogant”.
“and cast your name as evil, For the Son of Man’s sake.”
The idea is to have your name rejected as evil for the sake of the Son of Man, not with
the emphasis on your individual name—but rather to the name or identifier that links
your name to the name of Christ.
Luke 6:26 (NKJV)
26 Woe to you when all men speak well of you, For so did their fathers to the false prophets.
“It warns against gauging one’s character by the standard of reputation. People who
enjoy widespread praise of men may find themselves in the same company of the Old
Testament false prophets who, because they told the people what they wanted to hear,
experienced great popularity” (Moody Gospel Luke Commentary; C. Marvin Pate;
p.156).
The warning is to the proud and the compromising—these are the opposite of the people
who are persecuted for Christ’s sake. The people in the world are willing to speak well
of the Christians who live according to their worldly standards. Those who speak as they
speak, live as they live, who compromise, who seek their company and approval who
never point out the truth of sin and death, judgment and hell.
Conclusion
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The Son of Man’s Portrait
Of A Disciple
Luke 6:20-26
Blessings of Poverty, hunger, sorrow, rejection. Riches, fullness, comfort,
acceptance.
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