Bible Study series. Luke 6:20-26. Jesus begins the Sermon on the Plain. He is teaching his disciples, his kingdom citizens. Get ready for blessings and some tough times and trials.
Friendly greetings and a warm welcome to this Bible study! I write to learn, so let’s learn together.
I also translate to learn. The translations are mine, unless otherwise noted. If you would like to see many others, please click here:
In the next link to the original chapter, I comment more and offer the Greek text. At the bottom you will find a “Summary and Conclusion” section geared toward discipleship. Check it out!
In this post, links are provided for further study.
Let’s begin.
Scripture: Luke 6:20-26
20 And after he made close eye contact with his disciples, he began to say:
Blessed are the poor because the kingdom of God is yours.
21 Blessed are those who hunger now because you will be satisfied.
Blessed are the ones weeping now because you will laugh.
22 Blessed are you when people hate you and exclude you and shame and insult your name as evil because of the Son of Man. 23 Rejoice on that day and leap around, for look! Your reward in heaven is huge, for in the same way their ancestors treated the prophets.
24 On the other side, woe to you rich because you are receiving your comfort!
25 Woe to you who have been filled up now because you shall be hungry!
Woe to those who are laughing now because you will mourn and weep!
26 Woe to you when everyone treats you well! In the same way their ancestors treated false prophets! (Luke 6:20-26)
Comments:
20-21:
So begins the Sermon on the Plain. It resembles the Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 5-7), but there are enough variations and differences between them that some scholars say they are two different sermons, with some overlap, just as professors go over similar material in different semesters but vary their lectures somewhat. I agree.
The grammarians and commentators say we should translate the verb “lifting up” his eyes as “he made close eye contact” It carries the connotation that he was concerned for their specific needs. I like that.
“disciples”: see v. 1 for further comments. He was speaking to a crowd of his disciples and the people. He must have seen that the commoners were not getting rich and feasting on rich foods, like the rich Roman occupiers and the rich Jews who profited from the occupation and from just owning so much of the land.
“kingdom of God”: What is it? As noted in other verses that mention the kingdom in this commentary, the kingdom is God’s power, authority, rule, reign and sovereignty. He exerts all those things over all the universe but more specifically over the lives of people. It is his invisible realm, and throughout the Gospels Jesus is explaining and demonstrating what it looks like before their very eyes and ears. It is gradually being manifested from the realm of faith to the visible realm, but it is not political in the human sense. It is a secret kingdom because it does not enter humanity with trumpets blaring and full power and glory. This grand display will happen when Jesus comes back. In his first coming, it woos people to surrender to it. We can enter God’s kingdom by being born again (John 3:3, 5), by repenting (Matt. 4:17; Mark 1:5), by having the faith of children (Matt. 18:4; Mark 10:14-15), by being transferred from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of the Son whom God loves (Col. 1:13), and by seeing their own poverty and need for the kingdom (Matt. 5:3; Luke 6:20; Jas. 2:5).
It also includes the Great Reversal in Luke 1:51-53, where Mary said that Jesus and his kingdom were to bring it the world. The powerful and people of high status are to be brought low, while the humble and those of low status are to be raised up. It also fulfills the reversal in 2:34, where Simeon prophesied that Jesus was appointed for the rising and falling of many. It is the right-side-up kingdom, but upside-down from a worldly perspective. Jesus would cause the fall of the mighty and the rise of the needy, and the rich would be lowered, and the poor raised up. It is the down elevator and up elevator. Those at the top will take the down elevator, and those at the bottom will take the up elevator.
Here it is the already and not-yet. The kingdom has already come in part at his First Coming, but not yet with full manifestation and glory and power until his Second Coming.
Further, the teaching of the kingdom is to be unfolded as the Gospel of Luke moves along, and the power of the kingdom includes healing and demon expulsion, also demonstrated as the Gospel progresses.
5 The Kingdom of God: Already Here, But Not Yet Fully
Bible Basics about the Kingdom of God
Questions and Answers about Kingdom of God
Basic Definition of Kingdom of God
1 Introducing the Kingdom of God (begin a ten-part series)
“blessed”: it is an adjective or descriptor of who we are in Christ. This section is called the Beatitudes, from Latin beatitudo, “happiness, blessedness.” But Luke wrote in Greek, not Latin. He begins those verses with the word “blessed” for emphasis. The more common adjective, which appears here in vv. 20-22, is makarios (pronounced mah-kah-ree-oss) and is used 50 times. It has an extensive meaning: “happy” or “fortunate” or “privileged” (Mounce, pp. 67-71).
“will be filled” is the divine passive, which is an understated of saying that God is behind the scenes filling people up. God will fill them. Stein: “This is an example of the ‘divine passive, i.e., a means by which the devout Jew avoided the name of God in order to protect himself from breaking the Third Commandment (Exod 20:7). If the passive is not used, one would have to say, “God will satisfy you.” Another way in which the devout Jew avoided using the name of God was by circumlocution, or substituting another word for God” (comment on v. 21)
Marshall: “The underlying reference is probably to the ‘messianic banquet’, the picture of the kingdom of God in terms of a great feast where men can have fellowship with God at his table (cf. 13:28f.; 22:16, 30). The imagery finds concrete expression in the picture of Lazarus, hungry on earth, but sitting in the bosom of Abraham at God’s table (16:20–22)” (comment on v. 21)
22-23:
Exclude you from what? In Jesus’s day it was the synagogue, but in our modern Western world it could be from the coolest parties. In Islamic countries it is the mosque. Fanatical Muslims may even kill the new convert. In Iran and Saudi Arabia, for example, the authorities arrest and reeducate them and possibly execute them. Certainly in prison they will be tormented. In China they arrest them.
“shame”: it could be translated as “insult,” but shame works too. Don’t let people shame you by guilt-tripping you or mocking you for your faith in Jesus.
“insult”: it could be translated literally as “throw out your name,” which is an idiom for “insult” and “slander.” Or it could reference being thrown out from the synagogue. However, “as evil” also implies “demeaning” your name without referring to ejection from the synagogue. In any case, all of this must be done because you belong to the Son of man, not because you turned into a presumptuous fool. The point is that Jesus is preparing his followers for persecution, and they must be ready for it. If they suffer it, they will be blessed.
In fact, you should rejoice and leap around! Is the leaping hyperbole for inner joy? Probably, but what is wrong with leaping around when you are excluded and have your name dragged through the mud? Go for it!
“huge”: it is the standard word for “much” or “many.” My translation is colloquial, but so be it.
The book of Jeremiah is filled with verses about mistreating Jeremiah (see all of Jer. 20). Heb. 11 has a list of patriarchs and prophets who had to go through trials.
“look!” It used to be translated as “behold!” which is very charming. It is the storyteller’s art to draw attention to the people and action that follows. “As you, my audience, sit and listen to me read this Gospel, listen up! Look! Your reward will be very great!” Professional grammarians say that when “look!” introduces a character (or presumably a thing like a reward), then he or she (or it) will play a major role in the pericope (pronounced peh-RIH-coh-pea) or section. (That’s the case here.) Alternatively, when a verb follows “look!” then a significant act is about to take place and the person or people are less significant (Culy, Parsons, Stigall, p. 21).
“people”: in v. 22, it is the Greek noun anthrōpos (pronounced ahn-throw-poss), and even in the plural some interpreters say that it means only men. However, throughout the Greek written before and during the NT, in the plural it means people in general, including womankind (except rare cases). In the singular it can mean person, depending on the context. In Luke 2:25; 4:33; 6:6; 7:8, for example, the context says one man or male. So “person” or “people” or “men and women” (and so on) is almost always the most accurate translation, despite what more conservative translations say.
“Son of Man”: see v. 5 for more comments. It could be translated as Son of Humanity.
24-26:
“on the other side”: the Greek is a strong contrast. Jesus switches up his denunciations and positive pronouncements. In 20-23 he began with blessing on those sitting at the lower end of society and ended with reversals: the lower rise, but the upper fall. Here he begins with woe on the privileged and ends with their downfall. Implied is that the down-and-outers shall rise. The rich are depicted as comforted, implying that they lived in their big houses and ate sumptuous feasts. This is a more specific description of the principle of rising and falling of many (2:34). The kingdom of God is in the process of changing everything, countering the world system. No, the kingdom may not change the entire world before the Second Coming, but it is in progress.
If everyone treats you well, beware! They treated the false prophets really well. Jeremiah competed with them and asked the Lord about them (Jer. 5:13, 31; 6:31; 8:10; 13:13; 14:13-16; 23:9-40, and so on). Why was he mistreated, while they were honored by kings? The Lord answered him that they would soon get their just deserts. When the Babylonians invade and sack Jerusalem, the lying prophets would be abandoned and no one would bury them.
Jesus is speaking in a generic way. He said if “everyone” or literally “all people” (see comments on v. 22) treat you well, then watch out. Surely some people can treat well without raising an inner alarm, but not everyone. Expect criticism when you live in his first-century culture (and in ours). He was in the process of going in a new direction while the Jewish establishment resisted, all the way to executing him.
The rich receiving their consolation or comfort now relates to rich preachers living in big houses, driving luxurious cars, and living extravagant lives, all from the donations of Joe Factoryworker and Jane Shopkeeper. Joe and Jane cannot live like the rich preachers. Joe and Jane need to stop giving the preachers money. They have their rewards right now, but they will get precious little at the Second Coming.
These verses recall this verse in the Magnificat: “He has filled up the hungry with good things and sent away the rich empty” (1:53).
In v. 24, Woe ≠ Curse. Jesus was not pronouncing curses on people.
Instead, Woe = Pity. Jesus was pronouncing pity on people who stand under divine judgment.
Therefore, Jesus was not denouncing all rich people just for being rich. We all know or know about many of the wealthy because they invented and sold a useful and clean product, like computer programs or items for hobbies. They are also very generous with charitable foundations. Instead, in his decade, the rich were either Roman occupiers or landowners who controlled political power to the disadvantage and exclusion of the poor. They did not live in a republic where people can vote out the corrupt. They did not have an economy that fostered entrepreneurship, where people created jobs by building businesses—not on our modern level. We do live in such a wonderful society, so let’s be grateful for that.
GrowApp for Luke 6:20-26
1. The Lord calls you blessed. What does that mean to you in your life?
2. How has the Lord reversed something in your life, turning it from bad to good?
3. Study Jas. 1:2-4. Have you suffered persecution from the privileged and powerful or trials generally? How did you respond?
RELATED
11. Eyewitness Testimony in Luke’s Gospel
3. Church Fathers and Luke’s Gospel
2. Archaeology and the Synoptic Gospels
1. The Historical Reliability of the Gospels: Introduction to Series
SOURCES
For the bibliographical data, please click on this link and scroll down to the very bottom:
Dr. Jim's Essential Bible Teaching 