Fourth Pass at Bible Lessons for November 4

[To see the first three passes at the lesson for November 4, All Saints Sunday, go here, here, and here. The first of those links explains what these "passes" are all about.]

The Gospel Lesson: Luke 6:20-31
(Verse-by-Verse Comments)
20Then he looked up at his disciples and said: “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.
(1) Contrary to our usual thinking, Jesus says that the poor are the blessed ones. Conventional Jewish thought held that the wealthy were especially blessed by God and that poverty was a sign of God's displeasure. (We tend to think the same things today.) Jesus turns that thinking on its head.

(2) The "poor" to which Jesus refers here are the absolute poorest of the world.

(3) Jesus uses the present tense here to say that the poor are now in the kingdom of God. In the beatitudes which follow, Jesus uses the future tense. Jesus seems to be making several points:

• a. God's kingdom has already invaded our world. The term, kingdom of God (basileia tou theou, in the original Greek), can more accurately be called, "the reign of God." Irrespective of outward circumstances, despite intense poverty, people may live under the reign of God. There is an "already/not yet" quality to God's Kingdom. Through Jesus, God has already established His Kingdom in the hearts and lives of those who follow Christ. But we await its completion with Jesus' return at the end of history.
• b. Will the Kingdom of God be composed only of the poor? If that were the case, Abraham, the patriarch of Old Testament faith, wouldn't be in the Kingdom. Nor would Joseph of Arimethaea, who donated his tomb for Jesus' burial. Jesus is engaging here in what I would call "accurate hyperbole." As I mentioned in yesterday's pass, wealth is an impediment to faith in Christ because it can delude the wealthy person into believing themselves to be self-sufficient, in no need of God. The poor find it easier to believe that there's Someone bigger than them, Someone they need to follow.

21“Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be filled. “Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh.
(1) The filled here in the original Greek is related to the term chortazo. That's the same word used of the prodigal son looking longingly at the pods being eaten by the pigs after he'd left his father. The same word is used of the fictional Lazarus in Jesus' parable about a poor man who would have gladly eaten the scraps from the rich man's table. Chortazo is usually used of an animal eating its feed. So, the idea here, is of a poor person, perhaps dehumanized and ignored by the world, who is desperately hungry.

Mary uses the same term in the Magnificat, the words she speaks after being told that she will give birth to the Messiah:

...he [God] has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty. [Luke 1:53]

(2) The word Jesus uses here for weep describes a deep, mournful, agonized wailing. The person who weeps in this way is suffering from a deep, inconsolable grief.

(3) Notice that Jesus uses the future tense to describe the blessedness here. As long as we live in this world, the possibility of suffering is with us. We aren't guaranteed that in this life we will go without hunger or intense sadness. But we are promised that if we will follow Christ, we will be part of the Kingdom of God forever. The apostle Peter writes:

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By his great mercy he has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who are being protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

In this you rejoice, even if now for a little while you have had to suffer various trials...[1 Peter 1:3-6]

(Peter goes on to suggest that some trials may be allowed to come our way by God as a way of increasing the strength of our faith. This is a tough idea for us to accept. Tough for me to accept.)

22“Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you on account of the Son of Man.
(1) This may be topsy-turviest of the beatitudes Jesus presents here. Don't we associate popularity with being blessed? But Jesus is saying here that if people turn on us because we follow Him we are blessed. Present tense again.

23Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, for surely your reward is great in heaven; for that is what their ancestors did to the prophets.
(1) An extension of the previous verse, Jesus moves here to describe future blessedness because we steadfastly follow Christ in spite of those who hate and revile us for our faithfulness to Christ.

24“But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation. 25“Woe to you who are full now, for you will be hungry. “Woe to you who are laughing now, for you will mourn and weep. 26“Woe to you when all speak well of you, for that is what their ancestors did to the false prophets.
(1) These woes basically reverse the blessings of the previous verses.

(2) Dictionary.com defines woe as "grievous distress, affliction, or trouble."

(3) "False prophets" are those who claim to speak in the Name of God, but overlook sins that God doesn't overlook. A prophet, whether entrusted with words of encouragement or condemnation from God, is always to deliver God's counsel to God's people. The prophet is to remind people of the consequences to their relationship with God when they are faithful and when they are unfaithful. The false prophets mentioned in the Old Testament were popular because, like pandering politicians, they always told people what they wanted to hear. The true prophets got into trouble because sometimes God tells us what we don't want to hear, such as our need to repent for our sins.

27“But I say to you that listen, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, 28bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. 29If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also; and from anyone who takes away your coat do not withhold even your shirt. 30Give to everyone who begs from you; and if anyone takes away your goods, do not ask for them again.
(1) Here, Jesus outlines the radical ethic that flows from a dependence on the grace of God granted through Him. These words may be even more stunning than the beatitudes that precede them.

(2) I like what Brian Stoffregen says about these verses:

I think that the theme...is that we are not to let others determine our actions. As Jesus' disciples we are to love, do good, speak well of, and pray--regardless of how others treat us. [When I let bullies speak ill of me or act unkindly toward me] I am not letting them control my life...

This, of course, is precisely what Jesus did when He went to the cross.

This is harder than we can imagine...and I pray that under the most adverse and dire of circumstances I would heed Jesus' words and be faithful to Him!

31Do to others as you would have them do to you.
(1) Jesus' Golden Rule. It describes how I want everybody else to treat me, but I always seem to have excuses for why I can't or shouldn't always behave this way. I can only pray for forgiveness for my failure to obey Jesus' command to love God and love neighbor unstintingly.