Luke 6:20

Luke 6:20, in plain English

Jesus looked right at His followers and said, 'Blessed are you who are poor — the kingdom of God is yours.' He was flipping the world's values upside down.

Why it's here

This is the beginning of Jesus' most famous teaching. He starts by blessing the people the world overlooks and dismisses.

Who's speaking

Jesus speaks directly to His disciples, pronouncing blessing on the poor.

Where it sits in the story

In a world that worships wealth, Jesus says the poor are blessed. Not because poverty is good, but because when you have nothing else to rely on, you're in the perfect position to receive everything God offers.

The scholarly reading

Luke's version of the Beatitudes uses second person (makarioi hoi ptōchoi — "blessed are you who are poor") rather than Matthew's third person, creating direct, confrontational address. Luke's ptōchoi likely refers to the materially poor, not just the 'poor in spirit.'

Language and setting

The Lukan Beatitudes are fewer (four blessings vs. Matthew's eight) but are paired with corresponding woes (vv. 24-26), creating a prophetic blessing-curse pattern echoing Deuteronomy 27-28.

Voice

Jesus looks up at His disciples and begins delivering the Beatitudes directly to them.

Significance

Jesus inaugurates a radical value reversal: the poor, not the wealthy, inherit God's kingdom. This first beatitude establishes the entire sermon's countercultural framework.

18They had come to hear Him and to be healed of their diseases, and those troubled by unclean spirits were healed.

19The entire crowd was trying to touch Him, because power was coming from Him and healing them all.

20Looking up at His disciples, Jesus said: “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.

21Blessed are you who hunger now, for you will be filled. Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh.

22Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you and insult you and reject your name as evil because of the Son of Man.

Read all of Luke 6 — Blessed are the poor; woe to the rich. Jesus delivers his version of the great sermon and demands a love so radical it includes your enemies.