The "Plain" Truth

Luke 6:20-36

The "Sermon on the Mount", found in Matthew 5-7, is given by Luke in part in Luke 6:20-49. We will take today and tomorrow to look at it. The first thing to notice is that 6:17 records that "Jesus cames down with them and stood on a level place, with a great crowd of his disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea, Jerusalem, and the coast of Tyre and Sidon." For this reason, some scholars call Luke's version "The Sermon on the Plain." It is not only briefer, it is a little more edgy and confrontive than Matthew's version.

Both Matthew and Luke record that this sermon was given to disciples and the onlooking crowd who are wanting miracles from Jesus. We have just had the listing of the disciples and then in verse 17, we are told about a crowd of disciples. Jesus had an inner circle and a larger outer circle of disciples. I think it was some of that outer circle that left Jesus when he became controversial. But notice the role of the disciples. Jesus is beginning a movement for the kingdom of God (that would become the Church), and he does that first of all by creating a leadership core. It seems that God is stirring that same kind of strategy in our day and time. A spiritually devoted, equipped for ministry core is being developed in churches of every size and denomination. God must be up to something big, and you are part of it.

There are only four of the eight "beatitudes" of Matthew included in Luke's version, and look what he does with them. They are not only blessings, but also have parallel woes. It's interesting to put them together

."Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God...but woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation" "Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be filled...but woe to you who are full now, for you will be hungry." "Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh...but woe to you who are laughing now, for you will mourn and weep." "Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you on account of the Son of Man...but woe to you when all speak well of you,for that is what your ancestors did with the false prophets."

This is the gospel's theology of reversal in which the first are last and the last first. To share the gospel with our generation means often turning the world's values on its head. The world and human nature tends to shun the poor, fill themselves with either too much food or junk food and allow the hungry to even get hungrier, isolate those in grief, and seek to be popular with as many people as possible. Should we call that set of values into question, we will become controversial. But before we share it, we need to ask how that gospel of reversal addresses us. How can we who are not poor, well-fed, not in sorrow, and well thought of be disciples of the kingdom? Luke is clear that we must be people who advocate and empower those who are the least and the lost, not as ones who are above them but as those who are among them.

Speaking of reversing our natural ways, Jesus then in verse 27 talks about loving enemies. The natural way is to do in your enemies before they do in you. If you are done wrong, then you retaliate with an escalating force. If someone takes something from you, you take even more away from them. Unfortunately, what results is an unending cycle of conflict and warfare. Even if we win, there is likely to be revenge by those who lost to us. Jesus calls for a revolutionary approach. Stop the retaliation and choose to act for the benefit of those you hate rather than their demise.

To be in ministry means setting the bar higher in relationships. We love those who do us wrong, because we have been loved by Christ even when we have done him wrong. We used to live at odds with the Lord and he has turned us into friends. That is the pattern for us in our relationships with other people. We forgive as we have been forgiven and we are merciful because we are receivers of mercy from Christ. Do we dare trade our "survival of the fittest" ways in for the "the thriving of the loving" ways? Indeed the bar is high, but it is the way out of our conflicted and war-torn situation. Do we really trust Christ enough to follow in this risky way? I need grace, how about you? Have a great day.