Luke 6:17-26

17 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. 18 They had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases; and those troubled by evil spirits were healed. 19 Everyone tried to touch him, because healing power went out from him, and he healed everyone.

20 Then Jesus fixed his gaze on his disciples and said, “God blesses you who are poor, for the Kingdom of God is yours.

21 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.

22 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. 

23 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.

24 What sorrow awaits you who are rich, for you have your only happiness now.

25 What sorrow awaits you who are fat and prosperous now, for a time of awful hunger awaits you. What sorrow awaits you who laugh now, for your laughing will turn to mourning and sorrow.

26 What sorrow awaits you who are praised by the crowds, for their ancestors also praised false prophets.

Comments

Luke prefaces the Sermon on the Plain telling us Jesus raised his eyes on his disciples. Fixed his gaze is another way to translate that. Jesus very emphatically looks at his disciples. Since Luke went around gathering eye witness testimony, it’s not hard to imagine that this detail stood out in someone’s mind even years later.

I mentioned Friday that Luke introduces the apostles and names them as such when does for a reason. Here is where we begin to see why. There are three groups of people listening to Jesus. The crowd – who are not his followers, the disciples – who are his followers, and a subset of the disciples, the apostles he just came down from the mountain with. Jesus directed his healing power at everyone (v.19), but Luke wants us to know that this teaching was directed specifically at his followers – all of them. The crowds are there but this is not for them. The apostles are there but this is not just for them. What follows in the Sermon on the Plain (6.20-49) is an extended teaching for all who would be Jesus’ followers, for all who accept being his disciple.

I have been sharing since we began Luke about how he used Mark and Matthew as sources, highlighting the alterations Luke made. The ones here are among the most significant. Here is a side by side comparison of the beginning of  Luke’s Sermon on the Plain and Matthew’s Sermon on the Mount:

Luke 6	Matthew 5
20. Blessed are you poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.	3. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
21. Blessed are you that hunger now, for you will be filled.	6. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied.
21. Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh.	4. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
22. Blessed are you when men hate you…	11. Blessed are you when men revile you…
n/a	5, 7, 8, 9, 10. Blessed are the meek, pure in heart, peacemakers, persecuted for righteousness sake
24-26. Woe to you who are rich, full, laugh, and spoken well of	n/a

As you can see, Luke does not spiritualize the poor. They aren’t poor in spirit. They are economically poor. They do not hunger for righteousness. They are hungry. For food. Jesus is looking his followers in the eyes and telling the poor ones one thing and the rich ones something else. Oh yes. The woes here are not for the crowd. They are for the disciples too. Which is significant for those of us who live far removed from poverty. Jesus has a lot more to say to us from this plain, but for today, reread the blessings and the woes. Jesus is looking at you. Jesus is talking to you.

New Living Translation (NLT) Holy Bible. New Living Translation copyright© 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale HousePublishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Luke 6:1-16

1 One Sabbath day as Jesus was walking through some grainfields, his disciples broke off heads of grain, rubbed off the husks in their hands, and ate the grain. 2 But some Pharisees said, “Why are you breaking the law by harvesting grain on the Sabbath?”

3 Jesus replied, “Haven’t you read in the Scriptures what David did when he and his companions were hungry? 4 He went into the house of God and broke the law by eating the sacred loaves of bread that only the priests can eat. He also gave some to his companions.” 5 And Jesus added,“The Son of Man is Lord, even over the Sabbath.”

6 On another Sabbath day, a man with a deformed right hand was in the synagogue while Jesus was teaching. 7 The teachers of religious law and the Pharisees watched Jesus closely. If he healed the man’s hand, they planned to accuse him of working on the Sabbath.

8 But Jesus knew their thoughts. He said to the man with the deformed hand, “Come and stand in front of everyone.” So the man came forward. 9 Then Jesus said to his critics, “I have a question for you. Does the law permit good deeds on the Sabbath, or is it a day for doing evil? Is this a day to save life or to destroy it?”

10 He looked around at them one by one and then said to the man, “Hold out your hand.” So the man held out his hand, and it was restored! 11 At this, the enemies of Jesus were wild with rage and began to discuss what to do with him.

12 One day soon afterward Jesus went up on a mountain to pray, and he prayed to God all night. 13 At daybreak he called together all of his disciples and chose twelve of them to be apostles. Here are their names:

14 Simon (whom he named Peter), Andrew (Peter’s brother), James, John, Philip, Bartholomew, 15 Matthew, Thomas, James (son of Alphaeus), Simon (who was called the zealot), 16 Judas (son of James), Judas Iscariot (who later betrayed him).

Comments

In the second Sabbath story here, Mark has Jesus ask the question in v. 9. Matthew changed things and had the religious leaders ask the question. Luke changes it back to a question from Jesus – is the the Sabbath for doing good or for doing evil? More generally, should we be about doing good or doing evil? You might be thinking that a middle option is needed for things that are neither good nor evil, but Scripture is consistent that there is no middle option. Everything we dood has a moral quality. Everything we do is either good or it is evil.

Also note what Luke does in v. 12: he calls the Twelve “apostles” – a subset of a larger group of “disciples” who follow Jesus and will look to the apostles for leadership in Acts. Luke has a very specific purpose in mentioning the group of disciples and setting the Twelve apart. This will become clear next week as we read the Sermon on the Plain.

New Living Translation (NLT) Holy Bible. New Living Translation copyright© 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale HousePublishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.