Luke 6:25 25Woe to you who are full now, for you will be hungry.
One of the blessings God gives us is the wonderful feeling of satisfaction after a nice meal. One of the great meals of the year is Thanksgiving when family and friends join together for a great feast. In the first century, such meals were shared for the average person on rare occasions such as a wedding feast when many of a village or community were invited. Other times, people barely had enough food for each day and often when hungry. Harvest time was a great celebration because there would be plenty of food. But, like in many societies, the wealthy had enough food to eat. Obesity, the disease of the wealthy, was rare. To be fat required eating extra food, and few people had that luxury. Jesus’ pronouncement of woe in this verse assumes those who are full are wealthy enough to buy the food they want. The words of Mary in 1:53 prepared the readers for this verse.
The hunger Jesus predicts can be interpreted two ways. The obvious and surface interpretation is of physical hunger, that at some point, those who have food now may go hungry as conditions worsen for them in the future. Wealth and food are not always guaranteed in a person’s life. Some of those who are homeless and hungry once had good jobs and all the food they wanted. Something happened that caused them to lose all their security. The other way to read this verse is to see the hunger as metaphorical, representing the eternal outcome when God judges how people lived. Those who are wealthy enough to eat all they want now may not be guaranteed a place at the wedding feast of the Lamb. Their physical fullness now does not indicate their spiritual satisfaction or security. Food is important for survival and is a great blessing to be enjoyed, with many flavors and textures. But there is a more important food for the soul that will bring eternal satisfaction. This food is found in Jesus, the Bread of Life (John 6:35).
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