Luke 6:17-26

Transcript

00:00:00:18 – 00:00:24:03
Clint Loveall
As we make our way through the Gospel of Luke. I think in the interesting section today, Michael, we get into chapter six. We start with verse 16. This is a this is going to sound familiar, but not exactly familiar. And it’s and we’ll talk about why that is in a minute. But let me read some of this and then we’ll go from there.

00:00:24:43 – 00:00:49:21
Clint Loveall
He came down with them and he 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 Tire inside. And they had come to hear him and be healed of their diseases. And those who were troubled with unclean spirits were cured, and all in the crowd were trying to touch him for power, came out from him and healed all of them.

00:00:50:33 – 00:01:14:34
Clint Loveall
Then he looked up at the disciples and said, 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 when they exclude you, revile you and defame you on the account of the son of man.

00:01:14:36 – 00:01:41:02
Clint Loveall
Rejoice in that day and leave for joy for surely your reward is great in the heavens, for that is what their ancestors did to the prophets. So we’ll stop with this part. You’re probably most familiar. I think most people are familiar with some of these words, but most likely from Matthew’s version of them, which we call the Sermon on the Mount.

00:01:41:27 – 00:02:08:40
Clint Loveall
And there are some key differences. Luke says that Jesus is on a plane. It’s sometimes in Luke. It’s called the sermon on the Plane. They both happen early in Jesus ministry. They clearly cover the same subject matter. It is the same basic content. But Luke does some things that I think are interesting. He starts with blessings. The word beatitude in Matthew covers this section.

00:02:09:07 – 00:02:41:31
Clint Loveall
But in Matthew, where we get a very spiritual version of these know, Matthew says, Blessed are the poor in spirit. Blessed. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. And Luke tends to make that more earthy and he simplifies. Blessed are you who are poor. Blessed are you who are hungry now, and more scholars think that that reflects what we’ve talked about in Luke.

00:02:41:31 – 00:03:12:27
Clint Loveall
The idea that Luke has a heart for people who are hurting, people who are literally hungry, people who are poor. Luke Luke has a sort of worldly sensitivity to the needs of people. And whereas Matthew presents the Sermon on the Mount, or at least the Beatitudes as kind of spiritual teaching, Luke is a little bit more inclined to present them as direct words of encouragement to those who are in difficult situations.

00:03:12:43 – 00:03:32:54
Clint Loveall
I don’t know, Michael, that it that we’d say it significantly changes the content, but I do think it’s a good example of how Luke uses Jesus words to, to convey something that is important to him in the overall scope of his own gospel.

00:03:33:09 – 00:03:57:19
Michael Gewecke
Yeah, I think that it may be difficult for some of us to think about it in those terms, to think about how one gospel writer writes one thing with an emphasis and how another writes it with another emphasis. And that may be a reflection of some of our own beliefs about what history is. We like to think of the Bible as an account of Jesus’s life, and certainly there is interest in showing us who Jesus was and what he taught.

00:03:57:19 – 00:04:18:34
Michael Gewecke
But that’s not the entire scope of what the original church considered the Gospels to be. They consider that to be a reflection of who Jesus is and what that means to be a follower of Jesus. And as Luke tells the story, we of course, know that He’s researched it, He’s given it great thought. He’s given it great attention in the presentation.

00:04:18:52 – 00:04:47:38
Michael Gewecke
And in doing so, here we find these words. We see that it’s the poor themselves, not just the spiritually poor, but the actual poor. Those who are hungry, not not just hungry for the coming of God’s kingdom, but who are actually physically hungry. Those who are actually weeping. These are the ones who will find reconciliation and laughter. And I think that there is a kind of, you use the word simplicity, I believe.

00:04:47:38 – 00:05:11:12
Michael Gewecke
And I think that that’s exactly the right word. But here Luke is not trying to teach a high, lofty, spiritual lesson. He’s trying to show how Jesus literally cared for the outcast, literally cared for the sick, literally cared for the least, and that is that’s also a thing, I think, if we’re honest, that that is hard for us to believe.

00:05:11:13 – 00:05:43:53
Michael Gewecke
I think we’re so accustomed to leaders and those with authority lording that over other people. It is difficult for us to take at face value that Jesus, who was the son of God, cared about the lost and the least and the reviled and the hated and the different. These are the people that Jesus came to be with, and Luke makes it abundantly clear, despite I think, our difficulty in believing it, that this is exactly who Jesus is and this is exactly what he said he was about.

00:05:44:13 – 00:05:48:00
Michael Gewecke
And Clint, I think that is it’s revolutionary in some ways.

00:05:48:09 – 00:06:20:15
Clint Loveall
Yeah. And if this is a troubling idea that there are essentially identical sections of scripture that are not identical, I think maybe I would suggest thinking of it in this way. Matthew and Luke hear Jesus say the same things, but because of their purpose, because of their intention, they hear different things in them. Matthew hears the Sermon on the Mount as a spiritual teaching.

00:06:20:33 – 00:06:59:43
Clint Loveall
Luke is drawn to the words themselves of poor and hungry. I don’t want to. I don’t want you to hear us saying that Luke has somehow change what Jesus said. I think he simply, from his own perspective, hears in what Jesus said this this specific part of that message. In other words, there is all of this in that, and Luke focuses on this particular part of it and, you know, I suppose there are some I suppose there are some frameworks in which that’s a difficult thing.

00:07:00:23 – 00:07:29:20
Clint Loveall
There are people who argue that Jesus gave two versions of the sermon and Luke had access to one and Jesus had or Matthew had access to the other, and Jesus said different versions both times. And that’s, you know, if that helps you. But I think ultimately the point is that in those two versions, we have both. We have a message to those who are poor in spirit, and we have a message to those who are poor.

00:07:29:40 – 00:07:55:42
Clint Loveall
We have a message, a word from Christ for those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. And we have a word from Christ, from those who are hungry for those who are hungry and thirsty in this moment. And a word to the church to be equally concerned on both sides of the fence, on both sides of the equation. And I don’t find that troubling.

00:07:56:18 – 00:08:22:57
Clint Loveall
Michael And nor do you. I know that I, I find that I find it helpful. I find it encouraging, I find wisdom in it, and I find beauty in it. And yes, the words don’t line up exactly. But I think because they don’t, we actually get a more full picture of everything that Christ meant to say and meant for us to hear, than if we simply had the same words repeated in a different book.

00:08:23:36 – 00:08:54:11
Michael Gewecke
Some of the gospel writers task is interpretation of what Jesus was saying and doing, and Luke is going out of his way to make it clear to us that the spiritual realities that Matthew Records are physical realities as well. You see these same kinds of tensions actually all throughout the New Testament, where someone like Peter or I’m sorry, Paul and James have very interesting connections in their conversations about faith and works.

00:08:54:28 – 00:09:23:11
Michael Gewecke
Both of them are talking about the reality of the Christian life, and both of them see emphasized that are necessary to keep the Christian life full. And I think when we see Jesus and these words that we have in Luke, we are told that those who find themselves in this life pushed down, excluded, revile these strong words. When this happens on the account of the son of man, there will be rejoicing, leaping for joy.

00:09:23:11 – 00:09:54:55
Michael Gewecke
The reward will be great in heaven. This is good news. This is an encapsulation of the gospel that your present experience isn’t determinative of the forever, that your present reality, which Jesus affirms the poor or the hungry. Not you feel hungry, you are hungry. The people who are experiencing this today, they can rest fully in the hope and promise that there is more and that that more is summed up in Jesus as he’s using this language.

00:09:54:56 – 00:10:15:00
Michael Gewecke
Solomon We’ve talked about this a little bit in a previous study. You know, in some ways it’s an elusive phrase because it wasn’t incredibly common in the time that Jesus was living. So it it’s an amazing sort of moment where Jesus is naming himself and calling himself as the one who will be the fulfillment of all those experiencing these difficult things.

00:10:15:00 – 00:10:36:12
Michael Gewecke
And I know, Clint, that those who join us for these studies, we’ve all in our own ways had those experiences in our own life. And that’s the point. Connecting to our previous point here today, the Gospel was written with the awareness that you would have something to say to us, not not specifically us, but to the Christians who would come later.

00:10:36:28 – 00:10:58:21
Michael Gewecke
These words from Jesus remind us that in the midst of our own difficulties in life, which by the way, Luke is making clear, is a part of life, that in the midst of those moments, the darkest moments, there is still hope. And yet this turn that comes in the middle of the text I also think is interesting because it begins with these blessings.

00:10:58:37 – 00:11:04:04
Michael Gewecke
But Jesus is also clear about the term, about the woes that come later.

00:11:04:12 – 00:11:26:13
Clint Loveall
And this may be one of the reasons that we tend to like Matthew’s version better. It, Matthew, does not include these things in the same place. Luke, having just giving blessings now gives woes. In other words, having given encouragement, he now gives warnings. And so let me read those for you quickly. Woe to you who are rich. You’ve received your consolation.

00:11:26:47 – 00:11:55:53
Clint Loveall
Woe to you who are now full for you will be hungry. Woe to you who are laughing now for you will mourn and weep. Woe to you when all speak well of you. For that is what the ancestors, That’s what their ancestors did to the false prophets. So very interesting in the Gospel of Luke, Jesus tempers this this rich language of blessing with some troubling language.

00:11:56:36 – 00:12:22:06
Clint Loveall
If you’re rich, if you’re full, if life is easy and good. Woe to you in the future. If life is hard, blessings to you in the future. But there is this then and now. And Jesus turns it on its head, its head and makes it upside down as a warning to say, If you think this first part is just blessed, are the poor old good, they’re going to be happy later.

00:12:22:06 – 00:12:57:00
Clint Loveall
We don’t have to care about them all the hungry. Yeah, they’ll get Jesus said they’ll be filled later. We don’t. We’re not worried about them. Jesus will take care of them. Luke is making sure we eat with very clear language. Understand that there is a responsibility. There is a give and take. There is a a calling on both sides of the fence, a word of encouragement for those who are struggling, but for those who are comfortable, for those who don’t engage the suffering of others.

00:12:57:18 – 00:13:24:05
Clint Loveall
A word of warning that their days will change, that they will one day have these good things taken from them and they will be without and to be sensitive and conscious now, which, you know, has Luke isn’t fleshed all that out. But it’s very interesting, Michael, that he adds these harsh words. And I think partly what that does is it makes it impossible for us to get through it.

00:13:24:23 – 00:13:44:58
Clint Loveall
We don’t simply get to read these and think, Oh, they don’t apply to me if we just read the blessings right and then moved on with the rest, these really stop us in our track and make us ask some hard questions. And I think that’s one of the the real I think that’s one of the real perks of the way that Luke has put this together.

00:13:45:16 – 00:14:21:59
Michael Gewecke
I think it’s striking. It’s important that we look and we see in these shows that when we put all of our emphasis and work and self-identity and effort into achieving the things of culture and securing our way in life, this language of rich, those who have acquired those of you who are for those of you who have come to a place in life where you don’t need any more, where you have acquired and acquired, and those of you who are in in an experience of of laughing, that that’s a difficult way to phrase.

00:14:21:59 – 00:14:57:37
Michael Gewecke
But if we if we seek after in our daily lives over and over and over again the things that will make us money and the experiences that will bring us joy and we never allow ourselves to give ourselves to others, to be truly with those having different experiences. I think there is there is deep wisdom to be earned in the valley of the woe and so much of our lives, if we’re going to be honest, are spent trying to hedge against these things, trying to avoid them, trying to acquire things that might save us from them.

00:14:57:37 – 00:15:27:22
Michael Gewecke
And Clint, I can’t help but think that there’s deep wisdom in aligning ourself with Jesus, who aligns himself with those who struggle. And this may sound, you know, even theoretical in some ways, but I want to just make very practical. That’s what we’re doing in worship when we pray the prayers of the people. That’s what we do when we go to Bible studies and we share the things that we’re struggling with in our life.

00:15:27:23 – 00:15:53:29
Michael Gewecke
The reason we do that isn’t so that we pass news around. The reason we do that is so that we can be mindful of those who are going through life’s valleys and that we can be with them, that we can support them, that we can love them. This is the core of what it means to follow in the way of Jesus that when you are in that moment of joy and laughter and and your needs are met, that’s an opportunity for you to align yourself with those who aren’t.

00:15:53:29 – 00:15:59:15
Michael Gewecke
And that is a task of great spiritual discipline and one that we’re called to do.

00:15:59:58 – 00:16:27:28
Clint Loveall
But I don’t I want to be careful here not to let us off the hook, because I do think this is intended to make us somewhat uncomfortable. But I also want to put it in conversation with the rest of the Gospel of Luke that we haven’t gotten to yet. And I think if you do that, what you learn are these words rich and full and laughing and well-spoken.

00:16:28:03 – 00:17:04:13
Clint Loveall
These aren’t necessarily literal in the sense that it means everyone in those categories, Luke, will go on to use these words to sort of paint a picture of someone who’s disconnected to the needs of the world, the unconcerned rich, the uncaring joy that there’s a sense in which, yes, Luke has hard things to say to people with wealth, but essentially it’s not the wealth in and of itself that he has in mind.

00:17:04:13 – 00:17:30:09
Clint Loveall
It’s the way that those people use wealth to protect and insulate themselves from those who aren’t wealthy, from those who are suffering and struggling. So I want to be careful because it’s part of it is letting ourselves off easily if we don’t take these words literally. But when Luke uses them, I do think he has a particular person in mind.

00:17:30:25 – 00:17:42:27
Clint Loveall
And that is not just a person with money, it’s a person with money who doesn’t care about others because they have money. And I do think that matters, and I think that’s borne out in the rest of the gospel.

00:17:42:34 – 00:18:08:42
Michael Gewecke
And the great temptation for all time. I think that Jesus, as Luke shows him over and over again, is a person who is single mindedly focused on the people in front of him and seeks to do away with the things that dehumanize, that constrain and restrict them. The things that take away are creatures ability to be the image of God bearer that God intended them to be.

00:18:08:42 – 00:18:31:30
Michael Gewecke
This is the thing that Jesus comes to liberate us from. And I think that Luke makes that case clearly in Jesus’s teaching and chiefly in Jesus’s action. And so we do have in Luke these sections of teaching like this, but I think we need to interpret sections of this along with those sections where Jesus is healing and casting out demons.

00:18:31:39 – 00:18:50:15
Michael Gewecke
These are physical ways that Jesus is demonstrating the value that he’s teaching us here, and we may have some challenges to get over to hear it, but if we’re humble enough and courageous enough to do that, I think there is a lot in this that is actually inspiring and not just challenging.

00:18:50:15 – 00:19:10:35
Clint Loveall
Yeah, And the good news, bad news is that Luke’s going to give us dozens and dozens of opportunities to be challenged in that area. This is an important theme to Luke. And we I promise you, we’ve not seen the last of it, But the final word I would offer, Michael, is this is sort of inherent in all the gospels.

00:19:10:35 – 00:19:33:46
Clint Loveall
But I think it’s interesting in the way Luke does it. The assumption here and Luke doesn’t break down what that means, but blessed are you when people hate you, exclude you, defame you on account of the son of man. There is the assumption in all the gospels that to be faithful means to some extent to be at odds with the world.

00:19:33:46 – 00:19:59:15
Clint Loveall
So when Luke says, Woe to you, when all speak well of you, he assumes that that means if you play the games of the world and don’t follow the faith so that people will praise you, then woe to you because you’ve missed it. And it isn’t. I think it’s an interesting assumption that each of the Gospels make, and I think it’s an important one for us to understand.

00:19:59:47 – 00:20:23:58
Clint Loveall
The Bible fully expects that following Jesus will put us at odds with some of the practices of the people and the culture around us. Whatever people they are, whatever culture it is, there is something about following Christ that creates tension in the context of the rest of our life. And I think we see an instance of that here at Friends.

00:20:23:58 – 00:20:39:45
Michael Gewecke
We’re glad that you would spend time with us here today. I hope that there’s been something you missed that encourages you in your own faith. Definitely give this video a light that helps other people find it and join us in the future as they’re studying this text themself. But that said, as we continue the study tomorrow, I hope you will join us then.

00:20:39:45 – 00:20:41:24
Michael Gewecke
So until then, be blessed.

00:20:41:36 – 00:20:42:16
Clint Loveall
Thanks, everybody.