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Luke 6:21b, 25b
“Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh” (v. 21b).
The third pair of blessings and woes in Luke’s Sermon on the Plain contrasts those who weep today with those who laugh today. Those who weep in the present will one day laugh, but for those who laugh today, the present is their only time of joy. They will mourn in the age to come (Luke 6:21b, 25b).
As with the first two beatitude-woe pairs (Luke 20–21a, 24–25a), there is an interplay of physical and spiritual realities here. Having a true heart for God will invariably lead to mourning. Those who know the law of the Lord and its beauty, when they see others flouting His commandments, cannot help but weep deeply for the souls of lawbreakers and the havoc they wreak on creation (Ps. 119:136). When fellow believers die, those who know the Lord grieve profoundly for no longer being in conscious fellowship with them, even though this grief is mixed with the hope of the resurrection (1 Thess. 4:13–18). Following Christ in this present fallen world produces sadness in the hearts of His followers because we know the good news of the gospel that impenitent sinners refuse to heed and the consequence of eternal separation from God’s grace if they never believe. This is the fundamental spiritual weeping that Jesus is talking about in today’s passage. For Jesus’ original disciples, there was a physical connection as well, since the material impoverishment they suffered for becoming disciples of Jesus brought with it sad conditions that those who never have to worry about where they will get their next meal do not face. Again, not every follower of Jesus will suffer such material impoverishment, nor are they required to, but all believers will find themselves sorrowful for the effects of sin on the world when they follow Jesus. The good news, of course, is that this sorrow is only temporary, for Christians will enjoy eternal life in a new heaven and earth where there will be no sorrow or pain (Rev. 21:1–22:5).
Things will be different for those who laugh now, for they will experience eternal mourning and weeping (Luke 6:25b). Certainly, Jesus is not saying that merely experiencing any kind of joy today puts a person on a path to hell. Joy, after all, is part of the Christian life, even when it is tempered by mourning for the effects of sin on the world, since joy is one fruit of the Holy Spirit (Gal. 5:22–23). The laughter condemned belongs to those who live only for the present. These joyful feelings will not endure into eternity.
Coram Deo Living before the face of God
Scripture does not condemn joy. In fact, in one sense Christians should be among the quickest to laugh. Christ has overcome death, so in an ultimate sense, we can laugh at anything that opposes Christ and His people. Scripture is against laughter in the frivolous sense, against a worldview that finds joy only in present things and pays no heed to eternal realities. Christians are those who take joy in the eternal things revealed by God.
for further study
- Psalm 30
- Isaiah 65:17–25
- Matthew 5:4
- Luke 16:19–31
the bible in a year
- Joshua 7–8
- Luke 2:22–52