How to Understand the Beatitudes in Luke’s Gospel
The words of Jesus are challenging. He’s often mischaracterized as an easygoing, peace-loving figure who simply hands out feel-good slogans and high-fives kids. But his words in the New Testament crunch harder than fortune cookie wisdom and pierce the heart. The Beatitudes, as recorded in Luke’s gospel, might seem like simple blessings at first glance, but they offer a lifeline to followers wrestling with identity and a clear warning to skeptics in the crowd.
If you’re wondering how to understand the Beatitudes, especially as recorded in Luke, the first step is to grasp who Jesus was speaking to.
1. Receiving Jesus’ Comfort as the Overlooked and Oppressed (Luke 6:20-22)
Jesus specifically addresses the poor, the hungry, the weeping, and the excluded. I mention the gospel of Luke in particular because both Luke and Matthew contain the Beatitudes, in slightly differing form. Luke addresses the economically poor. We know this because his first blessing goes to the poor, and His first woe targets the rich. Luke writes primarily for an educated Greek class, as shown by his dedication at the beginning of the book to “Theophilus,” an apparent Greek patron. On the other hand, Matthew’s primary audience consisted of Jewish, probably working-class readers. Where Luke writes with the economic poor in mind, Matthew writes to “the poor in spirit.”
So which is it? Poor in spirit or poor in the pocket? The answer is a resounding “yes.” Both the the poor in spirit and the poor in pocket often go hand in hand. Luke and Matthew each focus on a specific application of Jesus’ message: to give comfort to society’s overlooked and oppressed.
This passage sometimes goes by the name “Great Reversal.” Jesus gives eternal riches to the poor, satisfies the hungry, and comforts the hurting. His promise does not offer a short-term reprieve from suffering, but a promise that it will all be worth it. Yes, some lord their worldly comforts temporarily now. But the reward for Jesus’ followers will last throughout eternity.
2. Why You Can Rejoice in Persecution for Jesus’ Name (Luke 6:23)
The Beatitudes in Luke recognize another kind of suffering for Jesus’ followers beyond poverty, hunger, and hurting: persecution. But Jesus tells His followers to “Rejoice in that, and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven.” This stands as one of the challenging sayings of Jesus.
On the few times I have faced ridicule for Jesus’ name, I certainly didn’t feel like celebrating. And the challenges we face in Western culture today cannot stand in the same arena as Jesus’ followers in the first few centuries. They endured beatings, bloodshed, and murder for professing Jesus as Lord.
In Acts 5, after Jesus’ resurrection and ascension, the apostles suffered beatings for preaching the Gospel. After authorities released them with instructions to “not speak in this name anymore,” the apostles rejoiced at “being found worthy of suffering dishonor for the Name.”
Most Christians will never face atrocities like the early church. Some perhaps will. This year my wife and I attended the Southern Baptist Convention and witnessed the commissioning of dozens of missionaries and families. Probably the most moving moments occurred when families were commissioned behind screens, with only their silhouettes visible to protect their identities as they entered closed countries—places where revealing their identities would mean death for proclaiming the gospel.
My wife sat beside me, brought to tears as families with newborn infants and small children prepared to bear the gospel to parts of the world where Christians face poverty, hunger, weeping, and persecution.
And yet, to these families, Jesus’ words ring out in challenge and comfort: “Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven.”
3. The Warning Against Finding Comfort in Worldly Riches and Approval (Luke 6:24-26)
Jesus does not stop with offering blessing and comfort. For every blessing He gives, He issues a corresponding woe. He favors the poor but pronounces judgment on the rich; welcomes the hungry and condemns the satisfied. He consoles the weeping but censures the laughing. He honors the persecuted but denounces the celebrated.
For much of His ministry, Jesus taught to a mixed crowd. His audience included followers seeking teaching and healing, but He also attracted plenty of criticism and derision. You can imagine the self-righteous Pharisees standing at the back, laughing at what they saw as the foolishness of both Jesus and His followers. They straighten their rich robes, perhaps snack on a piece of fruit, and openly spurn Jesus and those who follow Him. Many of Jesus’ antagonists came from the ruling elite—they embodied everything Jesus pronounced a woe against. You can picture their snickering and laughter as Jesus blessed His followers, only for Him to look up, catch their eyes, and say, “But woe to you who are rich. You have already received your consolation. And you who are laughing in the back? You will mourn and weep.”
But when blessings and pleasures get in the way of His kingdom purposes, He condemns those who become stumbling blocks to His mission.
Conclusion: Finding True Blessing by Clinging to Jesus
The great reversal in Luke 6:20-26 turns the kingdom of the world on its head. The first shall be last, and the last shall be first. To those in the world, the kingdom of Christ—with its values alone—seems quite upside down.
Paul reminds the Corinthian church in 1 Corinthians 1:18: “For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” In other words, the way of the prince of the cross seems foolish to those who refuse to bow at His banner. But those who are saved find comfort and glory in this apparent foolishness—comfort and glory that no other source can provide.
790c8h