The Yin and Yang of Poverty, Hunger, and Weeping

Wednesday, February 1, 2023

When they came down from the mountain, the disciples stood with Jesus on a large, level area, surrounded by many of his followers and by the crowds. There were people from all over Judea and from Jerusalem and from as far north as the seacoasts of Tyre and Sidon.  They had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases; and those troubled by evil spirits were healed.  Everyone tried to touch him, because healing power went out from him, and he healed everyone.  Then Jesus turned to his disciples and said, “God blesses you who are poor, for the Kingdom of God is yours.  God blesses you who are hungry now, for you will be satisfied.  God blesses you who weep now, for in due time you will laugh.  What blessings await you when people hate you and exclude you and mock you and curse you as evil because you follow the Son of Man.  When that happens, be happy!  Yes, leap for joy!  For a great reward awaits you in heaven.  And remember, their ancestors treated the ancient prophets that same way.  

Luke 6:17-23

Jesus makes the not-so-subtle point that there is coming a time when the world will be stood on its ear.  The “yin and yang” concept of opposites understands anything that exists has a corresponding, but opposing counterpart.  Darkness is defined by the absence of light.  Hot and cold can never co-exist without being changed by the other.  In the heart and mind of God, poverty, hunger, and weeping are the temporary prelude to the eternal fruition of joy, satisfaction, and wholeness.

C.S. Lewis’ statement on this has always intrigued me:  “If we find ourselves with a desire that nothing in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that we were made for another world.”

Of course that other world concept refers to God’s Kingdom.  The world in which we now must live is fallen, corrupted by sin’s corrosive power.  For a believer, this world’s system, steeped in the deadly charisma of all manner of abomination (lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy, and pride[1]), has nothing to offer an eternal soul, except the fire that purges it.  That is the yin of our existence.  And we, poverty-stricken, weep over the emaciated disorder of life in this far country.  Hungering for righteousness we long for the yang of light, laughter, and, like Humpty Dumpty, being put back together again.  We long for the eternal place, not made with hands – a home that makes everything right.

Luke’s descriptive of Jesus’ answer to the cries of the people is four words of manna that promise what the soul craves:  …and he healed everyone.   

For You Today  

       ·       Been persecuted for the sake of Christ? 

       ·       Been humiliated for your faith? 

       ·       Been deprived of rights because you refused to compromise? 

Those are only the yin of this world’s momentary muscle-flexing; there is a yang, a Beulah Land, where God’s eternal joy is waiting for all who trust Him.  It’s the place where poverty, hunger, and weeping will find no place to rest.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!

Go to VIDEO (read by author)

There are about 2,000 devotional posts and 400 sermons in the Rocky Road Devotions library.  To dig deeper on today’s topic, explore some of these: 

A Life of Polar Opposites  and  Wisdom From Above 

This is an updated version of “So Much Anger” published on Rocky Road Devotions January 16, 2014

Images:  Title via Wikimedia.com   Images without citation are either personal property of the author, or in public domain.

Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©

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[1] The seven deadly sins