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Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father, from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
The text that serves as a foundation for our sermon for today are the first couple verses of Psalm 119 from our introit, “Blessèd are those whose way is blameless, who walk in the law of the LORD! Blessèd are those who keep his testimonies, who seek him with their whole heart” (Psalm 119:1-2).
My dear brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus,
What does it mean to be blessed? What does it mean to have woe? Our world has many ideas what it means to be blessed or to have woe. Great wealth makes one blessed. To live in poverty makes one blessed. To have wealth means to have woe. To have poverty means to have woe. Ask a dozen people and you’ll get a dozen different answers as to what it means to be blessed or to have woe. Even in the church, there are plenty of ideas of what it means to be blessed or to have woe. Today, as we look throughout our readings, we see this theme pop up again and again. Today in our readings, we learn that God says that those who are blessed are those who keep his word.
Let us pray: Almighty God, our Heavenly Father, this world has many ideas what it means to be blessed and to have woe, and what the world says is twisted by sin. May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in Your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer, so that by hearing Your word and following it we may receive from You true blessings, no matter what the world would say about us; through Jesus Christ, Your son, our Lord, we pray. Amen.
No matter what the answer is, our world counts blessings by something that you do or something that you have. In Jesus’ day, it was commonly thought that you were favored by God or favored by the gods, if you had great wealth and a good life here and now. If you did things right, if you did what the gods commanded you to do, if you made the right sacrifices, well then, they would bless you. They would give you great wealth. They would give you plenty of food. They would give you good life and much joy and merriment in the here and now. It was believed, even among the Jews, that those who were blessed by God had great wealth and riches, food and joy here in this life.
We’re not really much different in our society today. Look around and if we put Elon Musk and a homeless person from off the street, which one would our society say was blessed by God? If we just judged, took a blind polling of who was blessed and who had woe, 99.9 times out of 100, the vote for blessed is going to go to the rich person. That’s how our society judges blessing—by what we have or don’t have.
Even in the church, there are many false preachers who are well spoken of, vainly saying that God is blessing you if you have great wealth and a good life. And that if you want to have God’s blessing on your side, well, then you just have to do the right things. Give all your money to their church. And see, God is clearly blessing this ministry here because I’ve got six jumbo jets and ten mansions spread throughout the US and a few overseas in bank accounts where there’s no extradition practices. Even in the church, just turn on the TV, turn on the radio, look at the popular Christian section in the Barnes and Noble, and you’ll find plenty of well-thought-of Christian (using that term loosely) preachers (using that term loosely) who will say that to be blessed by God means that you will have great wealth in the here and now, that you will have plenty of food in the here and now, that you will have much joy and laughter in the here and now, that people will like you right here, right now, as people like them.
But before we get too far ahead of ourselves, we should actually look at what God says because He speaks directly to those people. Jesus says in our gospel reading, “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” (Luke 6:24-26). Oh! That throws things in a completely different light. That throws things into a completely different way of thinking. Jesus is warning against finding our blessing in what we have. Note, He doesn’t say, “Cursed are you who are rich. Cursed are you who are full. Cursed are you who laugh. Cursed are you when people speak well of you”. No, that’s not the parallel He’s drawing here. Elsewhere in our reading, certainly, God speaks curses against people, but that’s not what He’s doing in our gospel reading. He says, “Woe”. What’s the difference? Well, to be cursed is to have God’s judgment against you, but to have woe is a word of warning. He’s not saying that just because you are rich doesn’t mean that you won’t receive heaven, just because you are full does not mean you won’t receive heaven, just because you are joyous does not mean you will receive heaven. No, but He is cautioning against it. He’s telling us don’t get comfortable with the her and now. And certainly those who have great wealth, those who have great food, those who have great joy, it can be hard to rely on God. I won’t ask for a show of hands, but I’m sure you would all raise your hand. When’s it easier to pray? When things are going really poorly and you don’t know how you’re going to get out of a situation? Or when everything’s going hunky-dory and you don’t need any help at all? I know I find it much easier to pray when things are going poorly. And I know you do as well. God’s not saying that we are cursed by riches, but He is saying, ”Woe! Woe to you!”. Be on the lookout. Because our sinful flesh, and as we pray, we just leave so for the consequences of our sin, our sinful flesh wants nothing more than to see our riches, see our own wealth, and trust in that. Our own sinful flesh wants to see the great amount of goods that we have, the great food, the great joy, whatever it is, how well people speak of us, and trust only in that. And then when we do that, when we trust in our own strength, when we trust in our own abilities, our own riches, our own power, then Christ does have a curse. We heard it in our Old Testament reading, “Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart turns away from the LORD. He is like a shrub in the desert, and shall not see any good come. He shall dwell in the parched places of the wilderness, in an uninhabited salt land” (Jeremiah 17:5-6). The people who trust in their own riches, trust in their own abilities, God does say, “Cursed are they”. Of course, because we are in the sinful flesh, we all have those tendencies.
And God knew this. And so Christ became a curse for us, so that through His death and His resurrection, we may receive blessing. Christ is the one who was poor, born to a lowly virgin in a manger stall. Christ is the one who had no home, who was hungry, who wept. Christ is the one who was persecuted. He is the very Son of God through Whom everything was made, and without Whom was not anything made that was made, and yet, He became weak, He took on mortal flesh. And people uttered all kinds of revilings against him. And yet He bore that for us. He lived that life for us. And then Christ did that which we needed most. Bearing the sin of the world, He became a curse for us by hanging and dying on the cross. Scripture says, “Cursed is anyone who hangs on a tree”, and Christ did exactly that for you and for me. Christ became a curse and hung on the tree for you and for me, bearing your sins, my sins, the sins of the entire world, so that we may be mercifully delivered by His goodness, so that we could receive from him the blessings that we so desperately need. First and foremost, the forgiveness of sins, which is only ours through his death on the cross. This is, as Saint Paul says, the “first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures” (1 Corinthians 15:3-4), because death couldn’t hold Him. The Son of God could not be cursed forever. He defeated the curses. And so on the third day, He rose again victorious over sin and death, never to die again. And now Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of all those who have fallen asleep.
Therefore flowing from Christ’s resurrection, Christ pronounces words of blessings to those who follow Him in faith to give them hope in this life. We hear Jesus say this. “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God” (Luke 16:20). That’s an important one. Notice which verb tense Jesus uses there. Yours is the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God is yours right here, right now. Yes, you will have to wait to experience all the blessings of that kingdom, but right here, right now, the kingdom of God is yours. That was promised to you first through the waters of Holy Baptism. That continues to be promised to you through the Word read and proclaimed. The kingdom of God is yours now. He continues with the blessing. “Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you shall be satisfied. Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh” (Luke 6:21) Elsewhere He says, “Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, whose trust is the LORD. He is like a tree planted by water, that sends out its roots by the stream, and does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green, and is not anxious in the year of drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit” (Jeremiah 17:7-8). We receive these blessings now even in the face of hardship, even if we suffer poverty, even if we suffer hunger, even if we suffer sorrows, even if we are persecuted and hated by the world—and trust me God promises that all who believe in him will be persecuted and hated by the world—God promises that we are blessed. Not because of what we do, not because of anything in ourselves, but because of who God is and the blessings that He won for us on the cross. And thus, because we know that we are blessed, even in the face of persecution, we are able to rejoice and leap for joy for we get to share in Christ’s sufferings. The killed Christ. Rejoice and leap for joy that you get to share in that.
My dear brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus, don’t listen to the world. What it says it means to be blessed. It’s not what God says. What God says is to be blessed is often what the world says it means to be cursed. So go with what God says! Even if the world mocks, criticizes, persecutes, or even kills us, go with what God says! They did the same to the prophets, and even more so, they did the same to Christ himself. May God continue to enable you to rejoice in your blessings, whatever that looks like here on this earth, for you have been blessed by God. Amen.
Now may the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
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