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Luke 6:21a, 25a
“Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you shall be satisfied” (v. 21a).
Continuing our look at the beatitudes and woes that Jesus gives in His Sermon on the Plain, we find in today’s passage two conditions that are related to the contrast between poverty and riches that are given in the first beatitude-woe pair (Luke 6:20, 24). Hunger is associated with poverty, and Luke 6:21a says that those who are hungry now will one day be satisfied. Fullness goes with wealth, and Luke 6:25a indicates that those who are full today will one day be hungry.
As we saw in our look at Jesus’ contrast between poverty and riches in the first beatitude-woe pairing, His words cannot be limited to specific material conditions, and neither can they be entirely divorced from them. Many of the people to whom Jesus first spoke lived in a condition of material poverty that resulted from their leaving everything behind to follow Him. Even Jesus Himself had no permanent home (see Luke 9:58). Because the original disciples of Jesus lacked physical resources, they suffered from physical hunger at times. But this physical hunger resulted from their deeper spiritual hunger. Their ravenous appetite for the things of God led them to leave their livelihoods behind, creating conditions of physical hunger when they suffered deprivation for abandoning their previous occupations. They hungered and thirsted for righteousness, and physical hunger was a consequence. Jesus, of course, does not mandate that everyone leave his station in life when he comes to faith in Him, so not everyone loses his livelihood for following Christ. Paul indicates that normally, a person will “remain in the condition in which he was called” when that person trusts in Jesus (1 Cor. 7:20). Following Jesus will not produce physical hunger in every believer, but every believer must hunger and thirst for righteousness. Jesus promises that this hunger and thirst will be satisfied by God Himself (Luke 6:21a; see Matt. 5:6). Those who deeply hunger for the Lord find Him more satisfying than the best that this world offers.
The woe that Jesus declares in Luke 6:25a on those who are full now likewise has connections to both spiritual and physical realities. Those who are full now are those who falsely think that all their needs have been met, that they have satisfied every necessity simply because they have this world’s goods. They pay no attention to spiritual matters or the Lord’s truth. Often the rich are susceptible to this because they have all that they need in material terms, but those who are not wealthy can be guilty of not hungering for God as well.
Coram Deo Living before the face of God
Do we hunger for righteousness, for the things of God, as we should? Because sin abides, our hunger is never what it should be and always has room to grow. Let us ask the Lord to increase in us the hunger for His Word, and may we seek to satisfy our deepest needs by feeding on Him by faith.
for further study
- Isaiah 40:10–11
- Ezekiel 34:11–24
- John 4:1–42
- John 6:22–59
- John 21:15–19
the bible in a year
- Joshua 5–6
- Luke 2:1–21