20 And he lifted up his eyes on his disciples, and said, Blessed be ye poor: for yours is the kingdom of God.
21 Blessed are ye that hunger now: for ye shall be filled. Blessed are ye that weep now: for ye shall laugh.
22 Blessed are ye, when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you from their company, and shall reproach you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of man’s sake.
23 Rejoice ye in that day, and leap for joy: for, behold, your reward is great in heaven: for in the like manner did their fathers unto the prophets.
24 But woe unto you that are rich! for ye have received your consolation.
25 Woe unto you that are full! for ye shall hunger. Woe unto you that laugh now! for ye shall mourn and weep.
26 Woe unto you, when all men shall speak well of you! for so did their fathers to the false prophets.
In 1989 Bobby McFerrin won Grammy Awards for Song of the Year and Record of the Year for a song he recorded called, “Don’t Worry, Be Happy.” Twenty-seven times in two minutes he says, “Don’t worry, be happy.” I think you would immediately recognize that is a bit Pollyannaish, or not very realistic. We wish that all there were to life was just to decide we are not going to worry, and that we are going to be happy. But life is much more difficult than that. I think one of the reasons why this little song is so popular is that it expresses the desire and the longing of so many people—people who so want to be happy and to have worry-free lives.
You may be interested to know that our Lord wants you to be happy also. But he knows where real happiness is to be found. One of those places in scripture where he talks about being happy is the passage before us tonight in Luke chapter six, beginning with verse 20. Here Jesus is talking and he lifted up his eyes on his disciples and said, “Blessed be ye poor: for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are ye that hunger now: for ye shall be filled. Blessed are ye that weep now: for ye shall laugh. Blessed are ye, when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you from their company, and shall reproach you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of man’s sake.” Here he is saying, “Blessed are you when you are rejected, when people make fun of you, and when they don’t include you in their little group, rejoice in that day and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven. For in like manner did their fathers treat the prophets.”
Then he continues, “But woe unto you that are rich! for you have received your consolation. Woe unto you that are full! for ye shall hunger. Woe unto you that laugh now! for ye shall mourn and weep. Woe unto you, when all men shall speak well of you! for so did their fathers to the false prophets” (verses 24-26).
I want you to notice that there is a close parallel between what Jesus says on this occasion and what he said on the Sermon on the Mount. Both of them begin with the beatitudes that have the word “blessed” in them. The word blessed literally means “bliss.” It means to be in a state of happiness. So Jesus is outlining for the disciples of that day (and for the disciples of all days) the ways to be really happy. The beatitudes have sometimes been called the “be happy attitudes of life.” They have been called the “beautiful attitudes of life.” They are statements made by Jesus that showed the way of true happiness for all of us. I think you will notice that he sets forth some requirements for happiness in the list that quite simply are contrary to what the world has to say to us about happiness. In fact the people whom Jesus calls happy in these verses of scripture, we would call wretched. And the people whom Jesus calls wretched, we would call happy!
We tend to think that happiness is associated with riches and with being well fed. We think it is associated with an endless round of pleasure so that people’s lives are filled with laughter. We think it is associated with being popular, with being well liked, and with being a part of the “in group.” But Jesus says something quite the opposite to us in this passage of scripture. He says, “Happy are the poor.” He says, “Happy are the hungry.” He says, “Happy are those who are sorrowful.” And he says, “Happy are those who are despised and rejected.”
When Jesus spoke those words, they must have hit the ears of his hearers like a bombshell. It was completely opposite to everything they had always believed, and everything they had always sought after. On the contrary, Jesus said, “Woe unto the rich, woe unto those who are full, woe unto those who laugh, and woe unto those who are popular and well liked, for they shall never find true lasting happiness in this world.” When we see this contrast between what Jesus says is the way of happiness and what we have been taught to believe is the way of happiness, we wonder what Jesus meant. What was he driving at when he said that the poor, hungry, sorrowful, despised, and rejected are the people who are happy?
What Jesus is doing in this passage of scripture is contrasting the now and the then. He is separating the present from the future, and he is talking about happiness here and happiness thereafter. He is saying that the way of happiness in this life does not necessarily lead to the way of happiness in the life that is to come. If you set your sights on happiness in the life that is to come, it may be altogether different from the happiness that you are looking for in this present life. The key verse in this passage of scripture is verse 24, when Jesus says, “Woe unto you that are rich for you have received your consolation.” That word consolation in the original language means “receiving full payment on your account.” It is what the merchant stamps on the bill when you have paid your bill. He stamps on it the words, “Paid in full.” Jesus is saying, “Woe unto those who are rich, for they have received payment in full for their life and for what they have sought after.”
What Jesus is actually saying to us in these verses of scripture is not to set your heart and all of your energy on the things that this world thinks will bring happiness. If you set your thoughts and your energies on money, if you set your thoughts and energies on food, on that which satisfies the physical appetite, if you set your thoughts and your energies on pleasure, that which gratifies the desires of the flesh, or if you set your thoughts and your energies on being popular, then you may gain all of that in this world. But that’s all you will get.
On the contrary, if you bend all of your efforts and your energies to be totally loyal to God and to be true to Jesus Christ, then you may run into all kinds of troubles, difficulties, hardships, and sorrows in this life. But in the life that is to come—when God gives out eternal rewards—you will be sure to find happiness and joy in that place.
So in these verses of scripture the Lord Jesus simply brings us face to face with the eternal choice that every one of us must make. And that is, will we chose happiness, pleasure, and satisfaction now or will we rather invest our lives in that which is eternal, that which is lasting, and that which is permanent? Jesus kept emphasizing the differences between temporary and the eternal all throughout his ministry.
For example, one time he told the story about a rich young ruler who came to him and said, “Good master, what must I do to have everlasting life?” That young man had everything seemingly that a person could want—everything that would make him happy. He was young, rich, a ruler in a place of prominence, and who would not be happy if they had youth, wealth, and popularity among people? Surely a person like that would be immensely happy, but this young man who possessed so much knew that something was missing from his life. He came to Jesus to say, “Good master, what must I do to have everlasting life? Something is missing. I am longing for something I have not yet found.” And Jesus said to him, “If you will be whole, go and live by the commandments.” The man said, “Lord, I have lived by those commandments from the it time I was a little child.” Jesus, then knowing that it was this ruler’s money, his desire for wealth, and his attachment to this world that outweighed his commitment to God said, “You must go and sell all that you have and give it to the poor.” And the Bible says that young man turned and walked away very sorrowfully.
In our mind’s eye he is the ideal young man. He had everything that anybody ought to ever want to make him happy, but he was not happy. Jesus said that the young man was living for this world and for the things of this world. And in the final analysis when his life is over, God will stamp on his death certificate, “Paid in full. You got what you worked for and there is nothing left.”
Jesus told us another story that says essentially the same thing. He said that there was a certain rich man whose land brought forth plentifully. In fact so much so, it was so productive that he had to tear down his old barns and build some new ones. When he had filled those barns with the grain that he had harvested, they were bulging to capacity. With all of that wealth and all of that security for the future he said to himself, “Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry” (Luke 12:19). In short, he said to himself, “Be happy, don’t worry. You’ve got everything a person could ever want. You’ve got security. You’ve got wealth. You have prominence in the community. You have everything a person could ever want. So soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry.”
That very night the angel of the Lord came to him. The man died and went out into eternity and we know from what scripture teaches us that God must have stamped on his death certificate, “Paid in full.” For he lived for money, he lived for the gratification of flesh, he lived for pleasure, he lived for the moment, and that’s all he got.
One time, Jesus asked us this question: “What is a man profited if he shall gain the world and lose his soul?” Or, “What shall a man give in exchange for his soul?” He was saying to us—that spiritual and eternal part of us—is the thing that ultimately matters and we must not sell that short, not for money, not for food, not for pleasure, not for ease, not for popularity, not for fame, not for being accepted in the group. We must ever and always put Jesus Christ first if we want to find true lasting happiness in this life and in the life that is to come.
So the choice that Jesus sets out for us in this passage of scripture is the choice that we must make from the time we are a child until the time that we will die. It is this: “Will I take the easy way in life that leads to immediate joy, immediate happiness, and immediate satisfaction? Or will I take the hard way that oftentimes yields immediate trials and sometimes suffering and difficulty, but eternal rewards?” The question for every one of us is, will we seize the pleasure and the profit of the moment or will we look ahead, look to the future and invest our lives in that which is eternal, that which is permanent, that which is lasting?
Jesus promised his disciples then and he promises his disciples now, three things. He promises that we will be completely fearless. He promises that we will be absurdly happy, and he promises that we will be constantly in trouble. If you follow Jesus Christ you may never find wealth as the world counts wealth, but you will find happiness. If you follow Jesus Christ you may never have your physical appetite satisfied, but you will find eternal satisfaction in him. If you follow Jesus Christ your life may not be an endless round of pleasure, but there will be in you a fountain of everlasting water that deeply satisfies the longings of the human heart. If you follow Jesus Christ you may not be popular with some people—you may not be accepted in some circles. You may not be the most sought-after person on campus, but you will have the favor and the approval of God, and in eternity that’s what really matters.
So we are faced with a choice. Will we take the hard way? Or will we take the easy way? Will we take the way that leads to immediate pleasure? Or will we take that long look that says there is something more important than what I can gain here in a moment?
I think the apostle Paul expressed it so well for us when he wrote in the book of 2 Corinthians 4, “For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.” So, Jesus in this passage of scripture is concerned about our happiness, our real lasting happiness, and his challenge to us is, “Will we be happy God’s way or will we be happy the world’s way?”
There is no doubt that happiness is important to you. It is important to me, and it is important to God. The question is, “Where will we seek it and how will we seek it?” Unless we seek it God’s way, by God’s values, by God’s standards, we will never find that real lasting happiness that is so important to every one of us. Jesus, the one who gives us life everlasting, can also give us life abundant here and now. He will do it when we commit our lives to him, and when we determine to follow him, regardless of the cost and regardless of the sacrifice. If I understand anything at all about a discipleship weekend, it is to bring us to a place of commitment and surrender to the will of God. The weekend is wasted time unless there is in the heart of all of us a lasting permanent commitment to Jesus Christ and a commitment to making him Lord and Master of all that we are and all that we have.
Jesus is saying, “If you want to really be happy, this is the way. Commit your life to me, and follow me.” More than looking at the moment, look to the future. When you make your decisions on the basis of the future, your values will be entirely different. So our Lord says to us as he said a long time ago, “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:28-30). Our Lord invites us to come to him in repentance, in faith, and in confession. If we make that kind of commitment, we find life everlasting and life abundant.