The Woes

The Woes

“But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation.”[1]

The “Woes” are the last four of the eight Blessings and Woes found in the sixth chapter of Luke. They differ in focus from the four Blessings and Woes that precede them, as well as from the nine Beatitudes found in the fifth chapter of Matthew. The other passages all begin with hopeful language: Blessed are… In contrast, the Woes seemingly begin with a warning: Woe to you who… The conditions identified in the Woes include being rich, being full, laughing, and having others speak well of you. It is somewhat puzzling that these are all qualities most of us strive to attain in our earthly lives.

Grief or distress are common associations with woe. It denotes unpleasantness and discomfort, especially when contrasted with blessedness. I think we typically read the Woes assuming Jesus is warning of some sort of divine retribution for attaining material goods, being sated, happy, and earning the respect of others. But I don’t think Jesus was condemning anyone with these traits. Rather, when he says, “Woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation” he points out that we should not feel cheated when another obtains a house or car as nice or nicer than ours – we have already been blessed with the same thing so we have our consolation already. We do not need more of what we already have. The woe or the warning is directed at our own selfish feelings of sadness from not getting more of something we already possess. As such, the unpleasantness is self-inflicted. It is not a sign that God loves us less but that others are being blessed in the same way we have already been blessed. It is a statement of social justice more than of selective deprivation.

The woes remind me of Jesus’ parable of the workers in the vineyard.[2] In this story, Jesus tells of a landowner seeking workers for his field and offering to pay them the regular daily wage. Some workers started early in the morning, others around mid-day, and still others near the end of the day, and all received the same wage regardless of how much of the day each worked. We read this today and want to report the landowner to any number of worker’s rights organizations for unfair labor practices. But the point of the parable is not the relative hourly wage each worker received, but the reward for their work, which was the same because there was only one reward to be given. In the traditional Christian belief of being rewarded with eternity in heaven for being saved, it doesn’t matter whether one is “saved” at birth or on their death-bed, the reward is the same because there is only one reward to be given.[3]

So, when Jesus says those who are rich have already received their consolation, it seems to me he is saying something similar to the point he made about the workers in the field. Why should the workers who started early in the day complain when they received the reward they agreed to when they started their work? When we complain because others receive what we already possess we simply bring woe upon ourselves. Comparing our lives and fates with others is always a woeful idea because there is no way for us to know the totality of another’s experience in the same way we know the totality of our own experience. We can, however, know the reward.

Of course, if we are rich in material goods, are we really rich? Our earthly possessions inevitably pass from us sooner or later. They never belong to us – they belong to the earth. While they may ease certain aspects of life on earth, they do not make us rich. Jesus warned, “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal; but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven…For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”[4]

We cannot understand this saying of Jesus without first understanding the true nature of being rich, which has nothing to do with money or material possessions. True riches are found in the love of others, in a worthwhile purpose for our lives, and in the working toward justice and mercy for the oppressed and marginalized. Those sorts of riches lead to a reward like what Jesus illustrated in the parable of the vineyard. And that reward is the same for everyone, and it is the only reward that matters. Without those types of riches, we are poor indeed and constantly seeking a reward we will never attain.

This is the 22^nd in a series titled Blessedness and Woe.Life Notes are my explorations into mysteries that interest me. They are invitations for readers to explore more deeply into life’s mysteries. Engage with me or explore contemplative spiritual direction at ghildenbrand@outlook.com.

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[1] Luke 6:24

[2] Matthew 20:1-16

[3] Please do not read this as an endorsement of this sort of church-based theology. The issues of salvation and eternal life require a deeper consideration than what I have space for here.

[4] Matthew 6:19-21