February 16, 2025 Sermon
Sermon title: “Luke’s Version of the Beatitudes”
Scripture: Luke 6:17-26
(Other lectionary suggestions include Jeremiah 17:5-10, Psalm 1, and I Corinthians 15:12-20.)
Luke 6:17-26
Jesus Teaches and Heals
17He came 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. 18They had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases; and those who were troubled with unclean spirits were cured. 19And all in the crowd were trying to touch him, for power came out from him and healed all of them.
Blessings and Woes
20Then he looked up at his disciples and said: “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. 21“Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be filled. “Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh. 22“Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you on account of the Son of Man. 23Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, for surely your reward is great in heaven; for that is what their ancestors did to the prophets. 24“But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation. 25“Woe to you who are full now, for you will be hungry. “Woe to you who are laughing now, for you will mourn and weep. 26“Woe to you when all speak well of you, for that is what their ancestors did to the false prophets.
Most of us, when we hear the term the Beatitudes, think they are only in one place, Matthew 5. But Luke has a version of them, too, in the sixth chapter of Luke. To be honest, they really don’t differ much from what Matthew says. But I personally find it interesting that two Gospel writers have these sayings.
According to the Rev. Robert Allen in his commentary on this passage, “Jesus stands on ‘a level place’ (or ‘a plain’). Matthew sets a similar sermon on a mount to emphasize that Jesus received those teachings from God. The geographical setting has a different function in the Gospel of Luke. Some prophets use the word level that provides the background....for places of corpses, disgrace, idolatry, suffering, misery, hunger, annihilation, and mourning.” Allen then references Jeremiah, Daniel, Joel, Habakkuk, and Zechariah. Jesus is teaching about the kingdom of Heaven in the midst of a world that finds itself in such a level place.
Those prophets also pictured God as renewing the level places. “While standing in a broken level world Jesus teaches the ways of the present and coming renewal via the kingdom of God.”
“Whereas Matthew begins the sermon on the mount with nine beatitudes, Luke begins the sermon on the plain with four beatitudes and four woes.....To be blessed does not mean an absence of struggle. Indeed,...to be in the community moving towards the kingdom can invite hatred, exclusion, being reviled, and being defamed as others reject the kingdom of God and its witnesses. To be blessed is to live through such opposition aware that the struggle is temporary. and that ‘your reward will be great in Heaven’, that is, that God will gather the faithful into the kingdom.”
Although the Jesus we see in today’s passage “does not directly urge listeners to make a choice between the ways of blessing and woe, the fact of these two possibilities implies such a choice. Luke wants his listeners to choose the way of blessing.”
Do you think a double entendre could be involved here? The references to poverty, hunger, and weeping may refer to anybody in society. But maybe the author of Luke has some specific people in mind, such as the followers of Jesus. And what is the church if it doesn’t include the poor? Remember that the person who wrote Luke also wrote Acts, and in that book, we are told that the community shared all things in common.
The author of Luke is not against wealth per se. But he has a “pastoral concern” for those with wealth. He wants them “to avoid condemnation by repenting and joining the movement towards the kingdom, which means putting their material resources at the service of the community. Luke intends to shock persons with wealth into repentance and sharing their money and goods.”
Do you and I share our material things? If so, do we share enough? I can’t answer for you, and you can’t answer for me. But I believe we all need to be aware that as Disciples of Christ, we should always be taking our own inventory. Amen.
Pastor Skip
