Having chosen his twelve apostles (forming the new Israel with a symbolic 12 tribes) out of his ‘crowd’ of disciples, Jesus is now surrounded also by a ‘great multitude’ from all the surrounding regions. Most of what Luke has shown us of Jesus’ ministry has been in synagogues and homes so far. This is the second time (see Ch. 5) we see him in that other famous setting for his teaching and works: a large outdoor place. This crowd looks probably larger and more diverse than in chapter five. And in chapter five we heard none of the actual teaching.
Jesus’ Words So Far
We’ve heard Jesus’ verbal combat with the devil; we’ve heard him quote and claim to fulfil a key passage of O.T. Scripture and his defense of his mission against the scepticism of his home town; we’ve heard him call disciples, comfort outcasts, debate religious leaders about healing and in discussion during table talk. Now at last we hear an ample selection of his memorable teaching on the way of discipleship, the Christian life, walking in the kingdom of God, what all the Old Testament instruction has been leading to.
Jesus, the Wisdom of God
I feel very excited about sitting at the feet of Jesus and learning from him in this consciously instructive passage. I’ve been reading Proverbs which urges you to get wisdom, instruction, insight, and understanding at any cost, because wisdom’s pleasures and rewards are better than anything else you could desire. The New Testament tells us that Jesus is Wisdom personified, walking among us, blessing us with these qualities of truth and righteousness. (See, for example, Luke 7:34-35, 11:31; Matthew 11:19, 12:42; 1 Corinthians 1:21-24, 30; Colossians 2:3; 2 Timothy 3:15; 1 John 5:20; Revelation 5:12.)
The Wisdom of God is about to speak to us about the way of life. Our ears should be tingling!
Luke’s Sermon on the Plane is Matthew’s Sermon on the Mount?
Is this ‘level place’ the same area as Matthew’s ‘mount’, which has very similar teaching, and Luke and Matthew have recorded different but complementary emphases in their versions? Or is this a different time and place, but similar teaching? (Apparently these are both historically valid options but there is no clinching argument for either one.)
Regardless, the two accounts definitely complement and round each other out. For example, we need to contemplate Jesus’ blessings on both the ‘poor in spirit’ (Matthew) as well as the actually, physically poor (Luke). The Holy Spirit obviously knew we needed to hear it and consider it both ways to live fully human in Christ.
Eavesdropping on Discipleship to Jesus
Jesus seems to have three main ways of teaching: one is publicly for all people, disciples or not. One is privately, only for disciples, out of sight of the general public. But here we see him giving instruction specifically for those who would be his disciples, but allowing the general public to ‘overhear’ this teaching. This is often what can happen in a church worship setting. The teaching is geared toward the family of God, to help them grow, but in such a way that those not yet committed who are visiting and ‘listening in’ can feel invited to join in Christ by faith.
Read 6:20-26
Blessings and Woes, Wisdom and Folly—Life or Death
Somewhat echoing the book of Deuteronomy again (as in the temptation), Jesus sets before his disciples blessings and curses. Yet again, we see the dichotomy of Luke 2:34-35, 3:17, and 5:31-32. (This too is like the book of Proverbs that counsels the ‘young man’ to take the path to Dame Wisdom rather than Lady Folly. This wisdom literature comparison comes out very strongly at the end of this section, Luke 6:46-49—cf. Matt. 7:24, 26.)
Once again Jesus’ authority and authenticity are apparent here. The sureness and boldness with which he confidently pronounces these blessings and woes is astounding! (Who does he think he is?)
Blessed
| Poor | ‘Yours is the kingdom of God’ |
| Hungry (now) | ‘You shall be satisfied’ |
| Weeping (now) | ‘You shall laugh’ |
| Hated, Excluded, Spurned, Reviled ‘on account of the Son of Man’ (like the prophets) | ‘leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven’ |
Woe
| Rich | ‘You have received your consolation’ |
| Full (now) | ‘You shall be hungry’ |
| Laughing (now) | ‘You shall mourn and weep’ |
| All people speak well of you (like the false prophets) | … |
Luke the Gospel writer delights to see things divinely turned topsy-turvy in terms of worldly status. Mary sang of it (1:52-53). Here we see Luke gets this delight from his Lord, Jesus.
Jesus Does Not Prop Up the Status Quo
Discipleship to Jesus begins with this inversion of worldly values and status. Jesus has not come to sanctify the status quo and the respectable, but to turn things on their heads.
Do we really believe this? Are we prepared to follow our Master in this? What does this mean for us? Frankly, when I envision myself wealthy, full, laughing, and all people speaking well of me – I like the thought! Sounds good! If I picture myself poor, hungry, weeping, hated and excluded because of my faith in Jesus – well, it doesn’t sound inviting. At all.
Living By Faith in the Great Reversal to Come – Not By the Sight Before Our Eyes
Jesus is asking us to imagine that the former attractive picture is actually one full of woe and doom and curse. For this person life has gotten as good as it will ever get for all eternity. Enjoy it while it lasts because it won’t. And it’s all you’ve got. You’re going to end up hungry and weeping. Your fullness and laughter are only temporary. Your good reputation is fleeting and fickle. You’ll end in shame.
On the other hand, Jesus is asking us to imagine that the latter uninviting picture is one of full of joy and blessing and happiness. Blessed = ‘one who is the object of grace and is happy because of it’ (Bock, 121). All that this person is going through is only temporary. It is not the last word. The everlasting, righteous, good, beautiful, and joyful kingdom of God is their possession, their inheritance. It belongs to them. Their poverty has an absolute end in the full and final and eternal arrival of that kingdom. Their hunger will be satisfied and their weeping will literally turn into joyous laughter. They can leap for joy even now because they’ll go from being spurned and reviled to being rewarded hugely forever.
Of course this latter vision sounds like a massive blessing of God’s grace to those who are already in this status and category. What, poor, hungry, sad, hated me? I’m joyously blessed by God and all my hopes will be fulfilled and my sufferings alleviated? What good news! How did this happen to me? My benefactor is so generous and kind! Praise him! I gladly give my whole life to him!
How Could this Be Realistic?
What would have to be true and real for this topsy-turvy picture to work and be realistic?
Jesus must be who the angels proclaimed him to be, who he claims to be as the Son of Man and Bridegroom and Lord, fulfilling the Scripture from Isaiah that he claims to fulfil as God’s Anointed Liberator.
God our Creator must actively be seeking us out as our compassionate Redeemer, powerfully on the move in the person of his Beloved Son, Jesus Christ (as he announced at the baptism).
The Holy Spirit must be blowing through Jesus into and through his people in the world, empowering and guiding and preserving and comforting.
God’s promises must have come true in the person and work of Jesus Christ, his death, resurrection, ascension, and reign at the Father’s right hand, pouring out the Holy Spirit, present with his people in the worldwide mission he sends them on; and God’s promises not yet fulfilled must come true in the end in the person and coming of the same Jesus Christ.
Only if this is the way things are can we live by Jesus topsy-turvy kingdom vision. That is the only way. If not, then ‘we are of all people most to be pitied’ (1 Cor. 15:19).
Believing in a World That Has Not Yet Arrived
There is nothing Jesus is calling us to do here. He is describing the way the world is. The only question for us is will we trust him? Will we accept his vision of the world as authoritative and true? Will we let his vision shape our lives?
This is living by faith, not by sight. It requires us to believe in a world that has not yet arrived in its fullness and finality, but is only known partially in foretastes and firstfruits as we await the full harvest. Indeed, Jesus is calling us to actually see any ignoring of his vision—valuing instead wealth and status and happiness now by this world’s standards—as completely and hopelessly unrealistic, naïve, sadly out of touch and deceived.
This takes imagination and hope and faith. It is a radical commitment. We will have to live as if it’s really true. I find this so challenging. This brings home the cost of discipleship.
The Foundation of Jesus’ Kingdom Ethics
Only by embracing Jesus’ value-reversal can we hope to embody and practice his ethic that he has shown us (including and loving the outcasts) and that he is going to go on in the next passage and instruct us in (loving enemies, not judging).
It is only to the degree that we hope in the future justice Jesus paints here that we will see real progress in justice even in our times and places. This is the ‘already-not yet’ nature of the kingdom of God. The future has broken into now in the community of the risen Christ. When we see these needy people (ourselves first of all!) as graciously blessed now in God’s kingdom because of their status in the future of God’s kingdom, then they are already elevated out of their outcast status at least among the church of Christ. They begin to taste God’s justice now as they hope for its fullness in the end.
This is the eschatological logic of God’s kingdom: we don’t see poverty and hunger and sorrow and hatred now and think ‘well, at least they’ll be happy in the end’. We see it now in the light of the end and are motivated to share in Christ’s blessings with them here and now to the degree we can. We just can’t wait for the end. It’s literally overflowing (backward!) into now! This is something I’m still trying to understand but I think this is roughly how it goes, biblically.
Jesus Does Not Prop Up the Status Quo
Discipleship to Jesus begins with this inversion of worldly values and status. Jesus has not come to sanctify the status quo and the respectable, but to turn things on their heads.
Do we really believe this? Are we prepared to follow our Master in this? What does this mean for us? Frankly, when I envision myself wealthy, full, laughing, and all people speaking well of me – I like the thought! Sounds good! If I picture myself poor, hungry, weeping, hated and excluded because of my faith in Jesus – well, it doesn’t sound inviting. At all.
Living By Faith in the Great Reversal to Come – Not By the Sight Before Our Eyes
Jesus is asking us to imagine that the former attractive picture is actually one full of woe and doom and curse. For this person life has gotten as good as it will ever get for all eternity. Enjoy it while it lasts because it won’t. And it’s all you’ve got. You’re going to end up hungry and weeping. Your fullness and laughter are only temporary. Your good reputation is fleeting and fickle. You’ll end in shame.
On the other hand, Jesus is asking us to imagine that the latter uninviting picture is one of full of joy and blessing and happiness. Blessed = ‘one who is the object of grace and is happy because of it’ (Bock, 121). All that this person is going through is only temporary. It is not the last word. The everlasting, righteous, good, beautiful, and joyful kingdom of God is their possession, their inheritance. It belongs to them. Their poverty has an absolute end in the full and final and eternal arrival of that kingdom. Their hunger will be satisfied and their weeping will literally turn into joyous laughter. They can leap for joy even now because they’ll go from being spurned and reviled to being rewarded hugely forever.
Of course this latter vision sounds like a massive blessing of God’s grace to those who are already in this status and category. What, poor, hungry, sad, hated me? I’m joyously blessed by God and all my hopes will be fulfilled and my sufferings alleviated? What good news! How did this happen to me? My benefactor is so generous and kind! Praise him! I gladly give my whole life to him!
How Could this Be Realistic?
What would have to be true and real for this topsy-turvy picture to work and be realistic?
Jesus must be who the angels proclaimed him to be, who he claims to be as the Son of Man and Bridegroom and Lord, fulfilling the Scripture from Isaiah that he claims to fulfil as God’s Anointed Liberator.
God our Creator must actively be seeking us out as our compassionate Redeemer, powerfully on the move in the person of his Beloved Son, Jesus Christ (as he announced at the baptism).
The Holy Spirit must be blowing through Jesus into and through his people in the world, empowering and guiding and preserving and comforting.
God’s promises must have come true in the person and work of Jesus Christ, his death, resurrection, ascension, and reign at the Father’s right hand, pouring out the Holy Spirit, present with his people in the worldwide mission he sends them on; and God’s promises not yet fulfilled must come true in the end in the person and coming of the same Jesus Christ.
Only if this is the way things are can we live by Jesus topsy-turvy kingdom vision. That is the only way. If not, then ‘we are of all people most to be pitied’ (1 Cor. 15:19).
Believing in a World That Has Not Yet Arrived
There is nothing Jesus is calling us to do here. He is describing the way the world is. The only question for us is will we trust him? Will we accept his vision of the world as authoritative and true? Will we let his vision shape our lives?
This is living by faith, not by sight. It requires us to believe in a world that has not yet arrived in its fullness and finality, but is only known partially in foretastes and firstfruits as we await the full harvest. Indeed, Jesus is calling us to actually see any ignoring of his vision—valuing instead wealth and status and happiness now by this world’s standards—as completely and hopelessly unrealistic, naïve, sadly out of touch and deceived.
This takes imagination and hope and faith. It is a radical commitment. We will have to live as if it’s really true. I find this so challenging. This brings home the cost of discipleship.
The Foundation of Jesus’ Kingdom Ethics
Only by embracing Jesus’ value-reversal can we hope to embody and practice his ethic that he has shown us (including and loving the outcasts) and that he is going to go on in the next passage and instruct us in (loving enemies, not judging).
It is only to the degree that we hope in the future justice Jesus paints here that we will see real progress in justice even in our times and places. This is the ‘already-not yet’ nature of the kingdom of God. The future has broken into now in the community of the risen Christ. When we see these needy people (ourselves first of all!) as graciously blessed now in God’s kingdom because of their status in the future of God’s kingdom, then they are already elevated out of their outcast status at least among the church of Christ. They begin to taste God’s justice now as they hope for its fullness in the end.
This is the eschatological logic of God’s kingdom: we don’t see poverty and hunger and sorrow and hatred now and think ‘well, at least they’ll be happy in the end’. We see it now in the light of the end and are motivated to share in Christ’s blessings with them here and now to the degree we can. We just can’t wait for the end. It’s literally overflowing (backward!) into now! This is something I’m still trying to understand but I think this is roughly how it goes, biblically.
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