Luke 6:12-26

The Twelve Apostles

12One of those days Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray, and spent the night praying to God. 13When morning came, he called his disciples to him and chose twelve of them, whom he also designated apostles: 14Simon (whom he named Peter), his brother Andrew, James, John, Philip, Bartholomew, 15Matthew, Thomas, James son of Alphaeus, Simon who was called the Zealot, 16Judas son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor.

Blessings and Woes

17He went down with them and stood on a level place. A large crowd of his disciples was there and a great number of people from all over Judea, from Jerusalem, and from the coast of Tyre and Sidon, 18who had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases. Those troubled by evil spirits were cured, 19and the people all tried to touch him, because power was coming from him and healing them all.
20Looking at his disciples, he said:
"Blessed are you who are poor,
for yours is the kingdom of God.
21Blessed are you who hunger now,
for you will be satisfied.
Blessed are you who weep now,
for you will laugh.
22Blessed are you when men hate you,
when they exclude you and insult you
and reject your name as evil, because of the Son of Man.

23"Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, because great is your reward in heaven. For that is how their fathers treated the prophets.
24"But woe to you who are rich,
for you have already received your comfort.
25Woe to you who are well fed now,
for you will go hungry.
Woe to you who laugh now,
for you will mourn and weep.
26Woe to you when all men speak well of you,
for that is how their fathers treated the false prophets.


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Jesus' ministry is really growing by this time, and you can see that large crowds of people want to be near him. They want to "hear him and be healed of their diseases." Power was coming from him and people just wanted to get close enough to touch him.

Jesus begins to preach a lengthy (and oft-quoted) sermon here, known to some as the "Sermon on the Plain." It is also possibly the same sermon as referred to as the "Sermon on the Mount" in the book of Matthew. Since Jesus often preached the same themes, it's hard to tell if these are definitely the same sermon or not.

He begins by using opposites to illustrate a point -- Those that are blessed by God are often not what the world would consider something to strive for. He's saying that God is among the poor, the hungry, the sad.

Verses 24-26 are kind of scary to me. I live in a time and in a country where we're nearly ALL rich and well-fed. We face very few "real" trials and tribulations -- at least not compared to the ones faced by people 2000 years ago. We're quite spoiled, and yet so many of us American Christians complain about being "persecuted." How can we be blessed?

Maybe the better question should be -- How can I go about bringing a blessing to those around me that are poor, hungry, mourning, or hated?