11.2.25 Luke 6:20–23
All Saints Day
Looking at his disciples, he said:
Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.
Blessed are you who hunger now, for you will be satisfied.
Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh.
Blessed are you when people hate you, when they exclude you and insult you
and reject your name as evil, because of the Son of Man.
Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, because great is your reward in heaven. For that is how their ancestors treated the prophets.”
With the Many Blessings of Being a Saint, You Will Laugh
When it comes to politics, there is a great amount of anger and even hatred over popular political figures on both sides. Wear a MAGA hat, and see what happens. Put on an “AOC for President” shirt, and see what kind of looks you get. We would call them polarizing figures in our society. When Charlie Kirk was assassinated, you would think that the temperature might ratchet down a little, but if anything it might be getting worse.
Jesus said that something similar happens to those who have a different hat on, a different bumper sticker, named “Son of Man.” He said people would hate you, insult you, and reject your name as evil, because of the Son of Man. It’s part of the privilege of being called a “saint,” a believer in Jesus. Jesus called it a blessing.
Jesus often referred to Himself as the “Son of Man” because it WASN’T as politically charged of a term as “Messiah” was. When anyone heard that title, they associated the Messiah with political upheaval and rebellion, the rise of the Jewish nation. And that’s not what the Messiah was really supposed to do, but Jesus couldn’t change the fact that it was misunderstood. So He used this lesser known term from Ezekiel to refer to Himself. But even the Son of Man would bring hatred to those who followed Him.
Why would that happen for the disciples? Back in His day, He called out the hypocrisy of the religious leaders of His day. Jesus made fun of their man made rules and openly broke them in front of them. There was one time that he healed a man on the Sabbath. The Pharisees were angry at Him for “working” on the Sabbath. But then Jesus completely embarrassed them. He basically said to them, “You’ll rescue a donkey from a ditch on a Sabbath, but if your fellow Jew has been suffering from a lifelong ailment, you don’t want me to heal him?” They knew that Jesus was getting the people to question their authority, and as time progressed He would have people refer to Him as the Messiah and openly hail Him as King. They hated every inch of His being, along with anyone associated with Him. None of the disciples would be safe. All of them ended up being martyred except for Judas and John. Jesus knew what was going to happen, and He let them know.
Is it still true today? Well, yes, of course. It has recently been reported that in 2025 there has been an average of 32 Christians being killed per day throughout the world specifically for their faith, especially by Muslims in Nigeria. It’s not just in Nigeria. There is a vitriol towards Christianity in the West as well, and there has been for years. I mentioned George Carlin the other week, here’s another thing he had to say in a rejection of Christianity. “I’ve begun worshipping the sun for a number of reasons. It brings me heat, light, food, and a lovely day. . . . And the best thing about the sun, it never tells me I’m unworthy. Doesn’t tell me I’m a bad person who needs to be saved. Hasn’t said an unkind word. Treats me fine. So, I worship the sun.” Yes, that’s it. He nails it in his own comedic way. He didn’t want to be judged.
What really angers our society against Christianity is when we judge things to be sinful, which God’s Word clearly defines as sinful. Homosexuality is a big one. Transgenderism is another. Abortion. It happens within the church as well. There are children who stop talking to their parents because their parents keep talking to them about coming back to worship. Or maybe they have a drinking problem. Maybe they start living together with someone outside of marriage. So when their parents or their pastor calls, they just stop answering the phone. They stop coming to worship. When you try to reach out, you get nothing but a short answer in anger. “What do you want?!?” It hurts. Most of us don’t want conflict and don’t like conflict. We try to avoid it at all costs. But this happens more often than any of us would wish for.
Jesus said, “Blessed are you when people hate you, when they exclude you and insult you and reject your name as evil, because of the Son of Man.” Why are you blessed when this happens? We don’t feel blessed. We feel cursed. But I can see three reasons from this text why Jesus says that we are blessed in these circumstances.
First of all, when you are at odds with the world, being called evil and being excluded, it makes you feel very worthless in some ways. You see your own sins. You are well aware of them, and those who hate you are quick to point out your hypocrisies. “Who are YOU to tell me that I’m sinning? You’re just a bunch of hypocrites!” And you know you’re a sinner too. You know it well. But you’ve repented, and you still want them to repent. So it makes you sad over lost relationships, over children and grandchildren and friends that write you off because of your stance on God’s Word. It also makes you hunger for someone to love you and care for you, to forgive you, to recognize you and acknowledge you.
That can be a blessing, because it produces all of the things that Jesus says are blessings, being poor, hungry, and and weeping. Why are these blessings? Because if we can’t find our riches in the world, if we have find ourselves hungry for approval, and have a desire to laugh, and we CAN’T find it in THIS world, then we have to find it in another world, from another person, who is NOT of this world, and yet came into this world. Yes, we find it only in Jesus. When we see Jesus dying for the truth, and dying for us, we find our friend in Him. We find our righteousness in Him. Our hunger for forgiveness and grace and acceptance is found in Him. Our acceptance comes from Him. That’s a blessing.
Second of all, it’s a sign of faithfulness. Rejoice in that day . . . that is how their ancestors treated the prophets.” In our lesson from the Hebrews of this morning we heard how bold and heroic the heroes of faith were, and what they went through. One of the greatest examples of faithfulness is Jeremiah. In his very call, God told him that the people were only going to harden their hearts against what he had to say. He was called to tell them to repent, because the Babylonians were coming. The false prophets contradicted him and said the Babylonians would never attack. Finally, it got to the point where the Babylonians were at the gates of Jerusalem. The die hard defenders of Israel had holed themselves inside, and they were dead set against ever giving up. Anyone who cried defeat was denounced as a traitor. Even the king was afraid of these people. Well, God told Jeremiah to speak up anyway, and tell the people and the king to give up and live. That was the only way to live. But as a consequence of what he had to say, the leaders absolutely hated Jeremiah. They arrested him, locked him up in a dungeon and ended up throwing him into a muddy pit to die. He had the most miserable calling you could imagine, but he still did what he was called to do. He faithfully proclaimed the Word of God, even though he was hated and ended up dying for it.
You could see the disdain they had for the prophets in the way they even talked about them. The king of Judah asked if there were any prophets that could tell them what to do. In 1 Kings 22:8 The king of Israel answered Jehoshaphat, “There is still one prophet through whom we can inquire of the Lord, but I hate him because he never prophesies anything good about me.” In another instance in 2 Kings 9, Elisha was referred to as a “madman.”
Jesus said it was a BLESSING to be associated with the prophets and regarded in the same way. Why? Because they were telling the TRUTH. It’s kind of like trying to rescue a lion from a mud pit. He might try to bite and attack you, not realizing that you’re only trying to save him. The prophets were trying to SAVE these people from being judged and damned by God in their unbelief, but the people only tried to fight them throughout. History would prove the prophets to be RIGHT. The Israelites went into slavery. The Scriptures recognized people like Jeremiah as the faithful one. Even if the prophets were put to death, they died trying to save people. It’s an honor to be associated with such faithful people.
The third reason to rejoice in our sorrows is this. Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, because great is your reward in heaven. God recognizes the sacrifices you make here on earth. He sees the way you are treated when you stand up for the truth. He rewards you for being faithful. Don’t forget that. We are saved by grace, through faith in Christ. As baptized believers, God regards us as completely holy through the righteousness of Christ. But that doesn’t mean that all of our works and faithfulness in this life mean nothing at all in God’s eyes. He still offers even more rewards of grace in heaven for those who had to stand up against the great evils of their time.
We’ve been pampered in many ways here in America for the past 70 years, but things are beginning to change. Our society is turning against us. We can either curl up in a corner and whine about our society, being afraid of all the changes. Or we can stand up and speak against it. We can keep calling people to repentance, like God calls all of us to do. We either try to keep our heads low or stick our necks out. Not that we have to be jerks about it or say purposely provocative things, but nonetheless we can still speak the truth in love. God sees the risks you make, the relationships you lose, and He promises to reward your faithfulness in heaven. We are talking eternal rewards from temporary risks. You are a saint. Be proud of who you are, of who God made you to be in Christ.
There’s a neat little Psalm that talks about people opposing God. It says, “The kings of the earth rise up and the rulers band together against the Lord and against his anointed, saying, “Let us break their chains and throw off their shackles.” And how does God respond? “The One enthroned in heaven laughs.” Yes, we face the same kind of opposition as God’s saints. But what does Jesus say? "Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh." That laughter, my friends, is not just a promise for some distant, vague future. It is the joyous, unending echo of the Triumphant Church. On this All Saints Day, we remember the prophets like Jeremiah, who stood alone in the mud pit. We remember the disciples, martyred on foreign soil. We remember the thousands of believers in Nigeria and across the globe who, even in this year, shed their blood because they refused to reject the name of the Son of Man. They were hated. They were excluded. They were rejected as evil. But they were blessed.
And today, for every relationship you lose, for every unkind word you hear, for every time your convictions cost you peace in this world—Jesus tells you, 'Rejoice and leap for joy!' You are not cursed; you are crowned! You are not alone; you are standing in a long line of faithful saints.
Now, lift your eyes. Don't look at the anger of the world. Look to the Christ who won you peace. Look to the reward He has prepared. And as we continue to speak the truth in love, let us do so with the confidence of people who know that even if we weep now, our laughter, in the glorious company of all the saints, is guaranteed. Amen.
