09/23/2025 – Woe to you who are Rich!
Scripture: Luke 6: 24 “But woe to you who are rich, For you have received your consolation. 25 Woe to you who are full, For you shall hunger. Woe to you who laugh now, For you shall mourn and weep. 26 Woe to you when all men speak well of you, For so did their fathers to the false prophets.
Reflection: The world has established standards for a good life. We are tempted to make those standards our own. A good life, according to the world, is a life filled with fun and pleasure. It is a life where pleasure is maximized, and pain is minimized. It is a life filled with success and achievement, where we demonstrate that we are better than others- a life where we always win, we always get glory. But Christ came to show us and teach us that this kind of life is not a blessing, but a curse. He came to teach us what a good life truly is- it is a life that is lived not for our pleasure but to the glory of God! Where we seek His glory and not our own!
Those whose comfort and trust is in their material possessions, in their own abilities and “good works”, in their own religion, are under the curse of their sin! Christ pronounces an oracle of warning to them!
A life completely blessed is not having everything you want but always having to depend on God for everything. This is a condition that our Lord calls being poor in spirit. The Greek word “ptochos” describes utter destitution. We are truly blessed when we are spiritual beggars who constantly stretch out our hand and pray to God for salvation and provision, never trusting anyone else or anything else, much less ourselves.