The Woes of Christ's Sermon

      In Matthew 5:3-12, Jesus pronounced eight blessings. The poor in spirit, the mourning, the gentle, the hungry for righteousness, the merciful, the pure in heart, the peacemaking and the persecuted are all blessed. They receive God’s favor and the joy that comes with it.

      Luke records four contrasting curses in Luke 6:20-26. The poor, the hungry, the mourning and the persecuted are blessed. However, the rich, the well-fed, the joyful and the applauded are cursed.

      In Luke’s account, these blessings and cursings seem more materially based. However, Matthew clarifies Jesus’ intent. Further, the biblical context demonstrates Jesus is not so worried about physical hunger, poverty or comfort as spiritual.

      The Laodiceans illustrate Jesus’ message. “So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of My mouth. Because you say, ‘I am rich, and have become wealthy, and have need of nothing,’ and you do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked” (Revelation 3:16-17). They were blinded by their material goods and could not see their spiritual poverty. They thought, “Hey, I’m rich. Look at how God has blessed me. I must be good.” They did not, however, examine the true spirituality of their lives.

      Like the Pharisee in Luke 18:11-12, the cursed believe they have all they need. They don’t need righteousness from God because they have it all. They have no need to even ask for mercy because they don’t need anything. They examine their life to see riches and abundance where there is none.

      The tax collector, however, demonstrated the true blessedness. He was destitute. He mourned his sins. He humbled himself in the presence of God, submitting to Him as master and benefactor. He hungered for the righteousness that came through God’s mercy and through obedience.

      Where are we? How easy it is to “go to church” regularly, “tithe” of all we get and perform some other religious duties and have the idea we are special for our spiritual richness. It is too bad everyone can’t be as good as us. At that point, we believe we are rich and well-fed. We believe we have the righteousness we need and lose our hunger for it. We are doing religious stuff, but are no longer blessed. We are cursed.

      Woe to us if we think God owes us. Woe to us if we think we are the epitome of spirituality. Woe to us if we are resting in our material blessings. But blessed are we when we remember our true spiritual poverty. Blessed are we when we mourn our sinfulness. Blessed are we when we humble ourselves before God. Blessed are we when we hunger for God’s righteousness above all else.

Edwin L. Crozier