Hey Jesus, thanks for the sunshine, but what about sunburn? (Luke 6:20–26)
Jesus has answers: We want sun but no Sunburn
We all want to live in a world where it is all positive and we don’t want to deal with negative consequences. We want sun but no sunburn, we want to buy whatever we want now and not have to worry about credit card debt, we want to eat and drink anything we feel like but have no health effects.
Look how Jesus put it:
"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 men 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 fathers treated the prophets.”
(Luke 6:20–23)
Although it’s counter cultural, Jesus is saying that it’s better to be dissatisfied because those who are dissatisfied know that there is more to life than this life — there’s a better life ahead. In the Kingdom of God (heaven) there will be no more sunburn, hunger, thirst, poverty, sadness or hatred.
Jesus promises to give those dissatisfied, sunburnt people satisfaction, laughter, joy and ultimately a reward in his Kingdom.
In contrast, Jesus also has something to say to those who are satisfied now and who think that this life is all there is.
But woe to you who are rich, for you have already received your comfort.
Woe to you who are well fed now, for you will go hungry.
Woe to you who laugh now, for you will mourn and weep.
Woe to you when everyone speaks well of you, for that is how their ancestors treated the false prophets. (Luke 6:24–25)
In Australia, where many of us have what we need, are well-fed and full of laughter, it’s easy to think that this good life is all there is.
It would be tempting for me to say Jesus has come to make us rich, comfortable, well-fed and full of laughter now. But according to Jesus that would make me a false prophet. Jesus says woe to those people, for their future is hunger, mourning and weeping.
Sunburn wakes us up in order that we can start to recognise that there are problems in this world and problems within ourselves. It causes us to look to Jesus — who’s all about life — as an answer to these problems.
How do you react to this message? Jesus’ answer is for us to accept his take on things — recognising that the world as well as you and I have a problem. But in order to accept Jesus’ answer, we first have to recognise that we need God and that we have not made it on our own.
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