Luke 6:20-31 February 13, 2022
I mean, he told stories and fables and parables.
He actually just had just a couple of actual
sermons like this one today.
But he really knew
how to draw people in with his words
He
must have had a good stage presence
to attract people to himself like he did.
I think from seeing Jesus depicted in movies,
many of us might think he had all his words
chosen, or written before hand by
a scriptwriter or a speechwriter.
Like
Laurence Oliver reciting a Shakespeare soliloquy.
“Blessed
are the poor. For theirs is the kingdom of God.”
Right? that’s what the movies make you think.
Like there was no spontaneity.
As if Jesus was more moved by hearing his own voice
and by his own dramatics more than anything else.
But
I like to think of this sermon of Jesus–
and all of Jesus stories and sermons - in a different way.
I like to think that Jesus spoke from his heart and emotions
I like to think that what he said
was changed by the people he was talking to.
My
hypothesis about this sermon - and it’s only mine.
Is that Jesus came there to say one thing
but he ended up saying what we heard today.
 |
| Jesus in a Crowd J. Kirk Richards |
Maybe he came there to give the
“Love your enemies” sermon that we’ll hear
next week, but he was moved to first, say what we hear today.
What
we hear today is called the Beatitudes
this whole section in Luke is called the “sermon on the
plain”
or “sermon on a level place”
In Matthew the same portion is called “the sermon on the
Mount”
In Matthew, Jesus is standing on a high place
and talking to the people below.
But here, Jesus is standing among all the people.
It
says that a huge crowd was gathered
around him
wanting Jesus to heal them and get rid of their bad spirits.
It says that Jesus healed all of them that were
gathered there that day
and that they could all feel the power coming out of him.
After
it was over, Jesus must have been exhausted,
his 12 new apostles must have been excited and a
little scared with their new role.
And the people there probably would have been poor,
and desperate and disheveled,
but more hopeful than they had been in a long time.
They all must have been looking at him with hopeful
expectation.
All
those eyes meeting his, Jesus knows they need to hear
something. Something that tells them that this was not just
a fluke, that the power that they’re feeling is not just
magic,
but it’s God’s power, it’s God’s Kingdom in their presence.
And they have not been abandoned.
He
would get to the “be kind to your enemies later”
But right now, he looks at that whole crowd
and his heart is
filled with God’s love for them and he says this instead:
Blessed
are you who are poor. For yours is the kingdom of God.
Blessed
are you who are hungry now, for you will be filled.
Blessed
are you who weep now, for you will laugh.
Blessed
are you when people hate you, and exclude you,
and
revile you. Blessed are you. You poor and hungry and hated.
Blessed
are you.
This would have been so the opposite
of what these poor, hungry, sad, hated, bedraggled
people would have heard at any time in their lives.
This is so the opposite of what any of those
Twelve apostles, the former fishermen
and tax collectors, just one step above
the poor and hungry, sad and hated
would have ever heard too.
But this is what Jesus knew to be true.
What was in Jesus heart.
What was in God’s heart.
And Jesus knew they all needed to
hear at that very moment.
The
desperate situation that
this crowd has found themselves in
has put them in a unique and vulnerable
situation of truly knowing their need of God.
And that has made them blessed.
The Kingdom of God belongs to those
who have nothing except God.
But
the next part is where
Luke’s sermon on the plain diverges from Matthew’s sermon
on the Mount and where it gets a little tough for the rest
of us.
The Woes.
Jesus
is also clear in Luke’s Gospel in a way
that he isn’t in Matthew’s and in a way that
the crowd may not have heard before.
That wealth and privilege and comfort are dangers
for those who are afflicted with them.
That they have the power to separate
us from God and from human community.
Good news for us is that these woes are not
Jesus condemning those in the crowd
who
are comfortable, satisfied, and
happy.
But what Jesus is doing, as usual, is
turning everyone’s
assumptions on their heads.
If everyone has believed that they knew
the heart of God because of where
they stand economically in this world
Jesus is saying, “think again”.
Jesus is comforting the afflicted and afflicting the
comfortable.
That term is familiar, right?
For those who were poor and hungry,
and assumed that that was certain evidence
that they were
hated and abandoned by God, the
lesson is easy,
Jesus just has to say,
“Contrary to popular belief, you are
blessed.
God loves you. Now come in for that
hug
God wants to give to you.”
But for those who were rich and self-satisfied
and who
assumed that their status
in the Kingdom
was sealed up as evidenced by their
success in life,
and they no longer needed to work on their
relationship
with God anymore, so they could just
skip all of that
because they obviously have it all
sealed up.
Well, that lesson was a little
tougher for Jesus.
He has to start with “Woe to you who are rich,
woe to you who are full, woe to you
who are laughing.”
Things might not be as tied up in a
bow as you
think it is right now. So don’t just move
on from
God and think you have better things to do with your time.
God wants your attention and your
heart too.
And, at a later time, when you’re not
so full of yourself,
God would love to give you that hug
too.”
This is Jesus seeing all parts of that
crowd he’s in and reaching out to
all parts of them with his words.
Jesus hope is that every part
of that crowd and every part
of this crowd and every
part of this world would
blessed by God’s love
Ours is the Kingdom of God.
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