Or, He Who Has the Last Laugh
Scripture: Luke 6:17-26
Date: October 25, 2026
Speaker: Sean Higgins
This is the most well-known sermon of all time. It’s a sermon from Jesus.
Jesus preached this sermon so that we could be like those whose house is built on rock no matter what happens (Luke 6:48). He preached so that we would not get caught building on sand to our everlasting ruin (Luke 6:49), ruin for ourselves, ruin all around us. He preached so that we could be blessed not wretched.
Luke 6:17-19 sets up the sermon context. Jesus spent an entire night in prayer on a mountain, the next morning He came down the mountain from prayer and chose 12 men among the larger group of disciples to be His apostles, and now, apparently later in that same day, a crowd has gathered to hear him and to be healed of their diseases (verse 18). People had come from all around, not just from Jerusalem and Judea but from Tyre and Sidon, pagan places. This means that the audience likely included Jews and some Gentiles, as well as the healthy and the sick and spiritually attacked.
That perhaps explains some of why Luke’s sermon notes are different than Matthew’s sermon notes and what they both highlight. It also explains a little bit about why Luke’s audience, even for his book, was a Gentile. So this sermon, as Luke gives it, is on behalf of even people like us, people who come from pagan backgrounds, not just those who were from among Israel.
Luke calls it a level place (verse 17), and that sounds different than what we have called this sermon our entire lives, which is the Sermon on the Mount. Matthew said “he went up on the mountain” (Matthew 5:1). It’s just as likely that Matthew and Luke are describing the same place from different angles; it’s the same sermon. Luke sees it as Jesus speaking to people on a plain. Matthew sees it as Jesus going up on the mountain to stand in a higher spot for the sake of being seen by the people.
But Matthew’s sermon notes make for three chapters (Matthew 5-7). Luke only has it from verse 20 to the end of this chapter. Matthew’s version also brings out a lot more connection to the Mosaic law; the rest of Matthew 5, after the beatitudes and the salt and the light, is a focus on the comparison between “you have read in the law, but I say to you.” Luke’s notes also start with beatitudes, but add woes, and have nothing directly to say about the law. There’s also a lot that’s similar, including starting with beatitudes and ending with building on the rock or on the sand.
Jesus was regularly teaching, and He could have used similar but different points to different groups, just like a politician would give the same basic speech to a bunch of different groups. I actually think even for the differences, it’s more likely that Luke just pulls out some of the sermon notes that he thinks would be most beneficial to give certainty for those who have been taught the things about Jesus (Luke 1:4). There’s nothing that contradicts between Matthew’s sermon notes and Luke’s sermon notes. Either way, Luke says that people wanted to hear Jesus’ teaching.
The sermon has three parts, like any good preacher would have: verses 20-26 is a pronouncement on two types of persons, the blessed and those who are getting woes; verses 27-36 are instructions for how Christ’s disciples love even their enemies, and that will distinguish them, they’ll be known as Christ’s disciples by how they love; and verses 37-49 are analogies for how Christ’s disciples live together in community.
Here’s the point for today: on account of the Son of Man, the needy are blessed and reviled like the prophets, and the comfortable are warned like the false prophets. The blessed get the last laugh.
The sermon is mostly for His disciples: he lifted up his eyes on his disciples (verse 20). This is not just the disciples that He called to be apostles, because He chose them out of a larger group of disciples, though clearly the twelve would have been there. The message is about following Him, for those who want to hear what He has to say, but also perspective that His apostles would need when doing their own ministry. As we will see by the end of the sermon, the ones who have their house built on rock are those who don’t just hear, but also do.
Jesus begins with the blessed, or if you’re super spiritual, the bless-eds. Matthew has eight blesseds (or nine, depending on how you count), Luke has four, and their order is different. Luke also has four woes to correspond with each blessed, and Matthew doesn’t mention the woes. Matthew also narrows the blesseds; reading Luke may sound more economic/social only, though the context gets us over the same target; it’s more than just economic surface level considerations about what’s in their bank account. Luke also goes for the throat using the second person (compared to third person in Matthew).
The first three of the four blesseds are a progression. If you’re poor, what is probably the next biggest problem? You’re hungry. And if you’re poor and hungry, you might be sad about it. But the fourth one is completely different, because then you’re getting reviled, criticized by other people because you’re living in the name of the Son of Man. The first three each get their own sentence, they each get their own blessed, so the separate emphasis is in Jesus’ preaching.
Last thing before looking at each one. We call these the beatitudes, and maybe even your Bible has the heading over top of it, because the Latin word for blessed/happy is beatus, and -tudo is a suffix that turns an adjective into an abstract noun (if alt-i-tūdō is high > height and fort-i-tūdō is strong > strength then beātitūdō is happy > happiness; (Cicero coined and used beātitūdō as early as 45 BC.) He was using it to describe what the gods had, the favored gods.
The Greek word is makarios, and it’s not just a Bible word. Pagans used it about men that were favored by the gods, given good things, well-off. The opposite is a combination of lamentable and miserable and pitiable. This is an identity of those who have a favored-from-God sort of happiness that they know, even though other people wouldn’t say that they do, just looking at their life situation.
The poor are the Have-nots. The difference between the haves and the have-nots works for us especially in our modern Marxist sort of worldview that a lot of people have. A lot of the world divides people into just these two categories: rich or poor. Lazarus was poor (Luke 16:20-22); he had nothing, he was a beggar outside the gate. So was the widow with only two mites (Luke 21:2-3). Jesus came to preach good news to the poor (Luke 4:18).
Matthew famously has “poor in spirit,” and that immediately makes you think spiritual rather than any kind of physical or temporal issue, but Jesus is addressing the ones who know they are needy, who know that they don’t have what is necessary. It’s not just limited resources, it’s that they are vulnerable and helpless and they get it. They know that they’re not exactly sure where the next meal is coming from. They know that the bills are a little bit too much. They know that they are in trouble and that they can’t do it all on their own. They’re beggars.
But they are blessed, at least because yours is the kingdom of God. They’re blessed now. Their current status is blessed because of their coming inheritance, not just that they will be blessed when they get the kingdom of God.
Related, the hungry are the ones without food. Poor people don’t eat like rich people, not in this economy, and not in the first century either.
Matthew has “hunger and thirst for righteousness,” and Luke leaves that qualifier out, but Jesus is addressing the ones who know want. They are blessed, a current status, at least because you shall be satisfied. They are looking to the One outside of themselves who will give them food and provide for them at the right time.
Those who weep are grieving because of their lack. Jesus said when you’re fasting, not eating on purpose, you’re supposed to look happy. But most of the time they don’t make commercials for giving money to people who are homeless and need food who are already looking super joyful. When you are desperate, needing to beg just for basic needs, there is a heaviness, a burden, a grieving and weeping that comes along because of that lack.
They are blessed because they will have the last laugh. When you’re at a loss looking at the stack of bills on the kitchen table, or standing at the graveside of a lost loved one, if you’re not depending on yourself, you’re not forgotten. Those who are weeping now, they will laugh.
This fourth group is sort of the umbrella over all four; the poor, the hungry, and the sad are all related to this fourth category. The first three blesseds are all pretty short, but this one gets two whole verses. The ESV even has an exclamation point after verse 22.
This fourth blessed has four bad parts: 1) hated, 2) excluded, 3) reviled/insulted, and 4) slandered as evil. Whether they lost personal friends, business partnerships, or general reputation, it went from bad to worse on account of the Son of Man. And in that status, they are blessed.
Verse 23 has the first command, at least as Luke records it: Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy, for behold your reward is great in heaven; for so their fathers did to the prophets. Woohoo not boohoo. They are required to celebrate, to rejoice that they’ve got a bad reputation for Jesus’ sake.
The apostles had to clarify this, because there’s more than one way to get a bad reputation. One way is to earn it: to actually be a jerk, to be your own problem, to make wrong choices, to be unrighteous, to be a well-known public sinner. That kind of bad reputation, multiple times throughout the New Testament, we’re told is worthless and obviously wrong for a Christian. But as Christians we are told to expect that other people won’t like that we’re blessed, and then even rejoice that other people are mad about it.
This is used against Christians today, where we’re told if anybody has any kind of bad thought about us, we’re probably the ones doing it wrong. If it’s just fleshly obnoxiousness, that is not good. But if it is because we’ve got to do what we’ve got to do because of the name of the Son of Man, we don’t really care what you take away or what you say about us, because we’re going to trust Jesus to take care of our name and to give us the kingdom and to bless us in a more full sense when it’s time.
Jump for joy! When was the last time you did that? When you come home from the office where a coworker was slandering you because you were standing up for something that was right, maybe, Dad, you should take a little hop before you sit down, and then tell the story to your table in a way that is not martyr-y. Go ahead and celebrate it in Jesus’ name if it’s genuinely for the sake of the Son of Man. Jesus commands it.
The rejoicing is now, not later. Rejoicing now because of reward later, yes, but it’s not reward first and then rejoicing. Misthology (from the Greek word misthos = rewards). We believe that God exists and that He rewards those who seek Him, and He rewards those who stand up in the name of the Son of Man, no matter how much other people speak poorly about them.
This is like an umbrella that covers the group. The poor, the hungry, and the sad are the same persons. Verse 22 likely explains the first three: their loss is on account of the Son of Man. Even if we are not poor, hungry, and sad the same way, we can actually be slandered and scorned for the son of man the same way.
The blessed are not called prophets, but they are likened to prophets. The prophets of old, giving a true message, got treated by being reviled and hated and slandered against. Their blessed status is a prophetic witness against the ones who only have the world, only what is visible. There are blessings now with more to come.
The four woes correspond to the four blesseds. You could put them in pairs: the poor and the rich, the hungry and the satisfied, and so forth. Woe translates the Greek ouai, but is not as fun in Latin (vae). Woe-atitidues could be the contrast to beatitudes. They are woe-sayings, woe-oracles.
These are not woahs as in, hold up or that’s cool, but woes as in, watch out. You are in trouble. This is not good. It’s a funeral cry over people who are still alive.
The rich are the Haves, and the problem for the haves is that they have all that they’re going to get. So they have their consolation. It’s the same word for the consolation Simeon waited for (2:25), the consolation of Israel, and found in Jesus. The rich are not looking for anything else. They don’t need Him, they think they don’t need anything. They’ve “cashed in” (Garland), taken all the payment they’re going to get. This is it. Woe to them.
So they are full. They have all the money or all the resources they think they need. They don’t wonder where their next meal is coming from, they’re not concerned about depending on God, but on the way to being hungry as a judgment later. It’s like they’re animals being fattened for another end, the slaughter, but it sure does taste good now.
Those who have this kind of laugh are the “boastful, self-satisfied, condescending” (Bock). You see this kind of laughing in the Old Testament, especially from Israel’s enemies; think Lamentations 1, where the enemies of Israel are laughing at how ruined Jerusalem is. A time is coming when those who gloat will mourn and weep. They gloat in press conferences. They gloat on their social media channels. There will be a great reversal.
And all people speak well of these guys. They are the popular as opposed to the hated, the honored, the ones that get celebrated, the ones that have parties and awards given to them. And they are like false prophets.
They are “men of the world whose portion is in this life” (Psalm 17:14). This is it for them. If all you want is what you can get right here, then you can have it. And woe to those who have it who will not then seek the blessings that come from the Son of Man.
The difference is “on account of the Son of Man.” Are you hearing His teaching? Are you accepting Jesus’ categories about who are blessed and who are under woes? Are you hearing His teaching and willing to give your life in His name, no matter what the temporal cost? Are you willing to do His Word? Those who hear it and don’t do it are building their house on sand, and the floods and rains will come, and their house will be washed away. Those who hear and do are like those who have built their house on a foundation of rock.
Do you want Him and His blessings most? When God gives blessings, there are temporal ways to see that, but they are not limited to temporal ways, and they’re not limited just to this life either. Do you turn your lacking, not into complaining, but to prayerful longing for the reward that Jesus offers? Wanting God’s blessing is part of the blessing. If you do not want it, if you do not think you need it, you are in a bad spot.
Jesus Himself confronts the Laodiceans who did not realize that they were poor, blind, miserable, and naked (Revelation 3). And what is the presenting symptom of the church in Laodicea? They were lukewarm. They thought they had what they needed.
This is why it is harder for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God because he thinks he has everything already (Luke 18:24-25). It is a dangerous spot to be in, to feel like you have your consolation and your comfort in full right now. The context in which we hear Jesus’ sermon is different from the first century, and we are more concerned about daily latte than our daily bread. We are more concerned about having days’ worth of things stored up for us than about looking to Jesus for what we need today. We think we are pitiable if the Wi-Fi is slow. We can be full and not know we’re starving.
It is possible to have a ruining kind of consolation. The way to make sure that it doesn’t become a ruining consolation is to be thankful. Gratitude fixes a lot. But if you find that you have a bunch and what that is provoking is more a sense of entitlement, not a sense of looking to the Son of Man, then woe may actually be the better description than blessed.
Those who want God’s blessing are blessed and are not done being blessed. Stated another way, the blessed live in tension. This is the thing that our world, and in particular our Christian culture, does not like. We hate tension; we like one or the other, but not tension. And this is where we are called to be.
Hungering and thirsting means lack, and it is also a sign of life. Hunger and thirst just doesn’t feel good, and yet it is the place of blessedness, and it has the forward-looking nature to being satisfied. As soon as you are satisfied with the food on your table and the money in your bank account and the retirement setup, then you have gotten your consolation too narrowly. There is more to come. We love the blessings now, and there is a prophetic witness the blessed are giving to those who think that this is all they are going to get, but the blessed know that there is more blessing to come if they’re getting it from the Son of Man.
Why likened to prophets? Perhaps some for the sake of the apostles to whom Jesus gave a unique calling. The apostles were right there listening, and He was trying to give them not just an understanding for themselves, but a message that they could take to others. But it must be true for all disciples. Want to be like your teacher (Luke 6:40)? Then as you are trained you will have prophetic beatitudes.
The false prophets were satisfied with what they could get; they could fill their bellies, and that was good. So it’s not just a poor and rich division, it’s a division between faithful prophet or false prophet. Team Blessed vs Team Woe; Team Speak-the-truth vs Team Hate-the-truth-speakers. And the blessed are those who are not depending on themselves, but on the Son of Man.
Jeremiah puts the cursed and the blessed right next to each other. Whether or not Jesus had this connection in mind, it certainly helps explain what Jesus was getting at, the difference between the blessed and those who are under the woes.
Thus says the LORD:
“Cursed is the man who trusts in man
and makes flesh his strength,
whose heart turns away from the LORD.
He is like a shrub in the desert,
and shall not see any good come.
He shall dwell in the parched places of the wilderness,
in an uninhabited salt land.
“Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD,
whose trust is the LORD.
He is like a tree planted by water,
that sends out its roots by the stream,
and does not fear when heat comes,
for its leaves remain green,
and is not anxious in the year of drought,
for it does not cease to bear fruit.”
(Jeremiah 17:5–8 ESV)
Woe to those who trust in themselves. Blessed are those who trust in the Son of Man for their entire lives.
Where are you laughing now in a way that would be embarrassing at the judgment? Beloved, this is a great truth, an eternal truth: the blessed will have the last laugh, and the longest laugh. That blessing will never end. That blessedness, that fullness, that satisfaction in the Son of Man is promised to those who hear what He says and do it.
You may not be a prophet or a son of a prophet, but as a disciple of Jesus, your life is a prophetic witness in the world. Let your blessed identity SHINE. Let your want for more blessings from the Lord be FAITHFUL and SALTY. Live like you know that you will have the last laugh.
The LORD bless you and keep you;
the LORD make his face to shine upon you
and be gracious to you;
the LORD lift up his countenance upon you
and give you peace. (Numbers 6:24–26 ESV)