Disclaimer: About This Blog

THIS BLOG IS: my personal journey of how I am rethinking some of my spiritual beliefs.
THIS BLOG IS NOT: intended to point fingers at people who I think are wrong.
I do not believe the final judgement will be based on how many correct answers we get on a theology exam. I believe many people throughout history have had genuine relationships with God, despite holding questionable beliefs and practices. I make no claim to having it all figured out or being your judge. If we end up disagreeing over these topics I pray we can find a way to demonstrate grace.

Friday, March 20, 2009

I don't understand Luke 6:24


Luke 6:20-21 (NIV)
"Looking at his disciples, he said:
"Blessed are you who are poor,
for yours is the kingdom of God.
Blessed are you who hunger now,
for you will be satisfied.
OK, I think I get this. Those (of His disciples ?) who were hungry would be blessed later.

Luke 6:24-25 (NIV)
But woe to you who are rich,
for you have already received your comfort.
Woe to you who are well fed now,
for you will go hungry.
Yikes, I'm not feeling so good about the sounds of this part.

Were these words written directly to me? Or is this a record of Jesus' words to His 12 disciples and some other specific rich people in that audience?

I'm hoping Jesus was talking about some other rich and well fed people - not directly to me!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

It looks like Jesus said a lot of things that are what we would call, "hard teachings."
What He said here was not so nice as what Matthew recorded, was it? There aren't any 'woes' in the Beatitudes.

And, here's a question: why would the Holy Spirit see to it that these words of Jesus were preserved for posterity if they were not meant for future generations? The very last verse in John indicates that there was lots of stuff that Jesus did and said that were not recorded. So why did the Holy Spirit want these particular teachings of Jesus recorded in Luke saved?

These are thorny issues aren't they Jon? Thanks for bringing them up. It's things like these that need to be discussed in the church today.
Blessings.

Jonathan said...

Thanks Jeraldd. Yes these teachings are both hard to understand, and difficult to apply.