The Sermon on the Mount (Luke 6:20-49)

In all honesty, in addition to slacking off and not blogging, I've really been pondering this passage since my last post. "How can I write about the Sermon on the Mount in just one blog post?" I thought. This is stuff that you can think about for the rest of your life! Albeit, Luke's record of the Sermon is a shortened version compared to Matthew's.

The very 1st verse, Luke 6:20, tells us that this message is intended for His disciples: "And turning His gaze toward His disciples, He began to say.."
The blessings and woes in Luke 6:20-24 are in a parallel structure:
20b "Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.

21a "Blessed are you who hunger now, for you shall be satisfied.

21b Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh.

22"Blessed are you when men hate you, and ostracize you, and insult you, and scorn your name as evil, for the sake of the Son of Man. 23"Be glad in that day and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven. For in the same way their fathers used to treat the prophets.

24 "But woe to you who are rich, for you are receiving your comfort in full.

25a "Woe to you who are well-fed now, for you shall be hungry.

25b Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep.

26 "Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for their fathers used to treat the false prophets in the same way.

I won't get into the specifics of each verse, rather, let's look at the bigger picture. Jesus is talking to His disciples here and is drawing a dividing line between those who are true disciples and those who are not. He's saying that if we are His real disciples, as (He implies) the prophets were (6:23b), then we will be hated, ostracized, insulted and scorned for His sake. But we are to "be glad,"for the present persecutions do not compare to the future reward in heaven!

On the flip side, we should beware when all men speak well of us, for the false prophets were treated in the same way!

Jesus foreshadows how the population at large (men/all men) will persecute the true followers of Christ, but will laud the false prophets!

Jesus continues in 6:27 by saying, "But I say to you who hear..." and then teaches them true Christian behavior. Reading Luke 6:27-38 again and again, I'm struck by how utterly impossible it is for anyone to live perfectly this life that Jesus lays out. But is it really impossible? I don't think it is, but it IS impossible by our own strength. Think about it- how many Christians do you know who actually live this life that Jesus prescribes?

Jesus summarizes this Kingdom life in 6:35-

35"But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High; for He Himself is kind to ungrateful and evil men. 36Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful."

Note in the verse 35, "and you will be sons of the Most High." The word here is "and"- an equivalent statement. Not "then" - i.e. if you do all this, "then you will sons of the Most High." There is an incredible difference between "and" and "then." "AND"- If we're sons of God, then will do those things. "THEN"- If we do these things, then we will be Sons of God. "Then" is what turns it into a performance based cult = false prophets and teachers.

Also, in v35, Jesus calls us to be like God, for He Himself does the things He wants us to do. This reminds me of the O.T. law where it says again and again, "Be holy, for the Lord your God is Holy." In v36, Jesus additionally calls us to be merciful, just as the Father is merciful. (If you're a fan of the movie "Gladiator".... "Maximus the Merciful!")

Suddenly, in Luke 6:39-49, Jesus speaks to the disciples in parables. Some short commentary-
39And He also spoke a parable to them: "A blind man cannot guide a blind man, can he? Will they not both fall into a pit?

I wonder if Jesus here is warning the disciples against the teachings of the Pharisees. At the beginning of the chapter 6, it He clearly showed how utterly lacking the Pharisees were in their understanding of the Law, "Have you not even read...?" (6:3)

40"A pupil is not above his teacher; but everyone, after he has been fully trained, will be like his teacher.

Jesus is the teacher, not the Pharisees. Fully trained disciples will be like Jesus!

41"Why do you look at the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?

42"Or how can you say to your brother, 'Brother, let me take out the speck that is in your eye,' when you yourself do not see the log that is in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take out the speck that is in your brother's eye.

I believe Jesus again is warning against the Pharisees. It is as if He were saying, "How can you purport to be teaches of the Law when you yourself do not understand it and are not keeping the spirit of the Law?" This is a reminder to me as a teacher, that I need to really watch out for being a hypocrite.

43"For there is no good tree which produces bad fruit, nor, on the other hand, a bad tree which produces good fruit.

44"For each tree is known by its own fruit. For men do not gather figs from thorns, nor do they pick grapes from a briar bush.

45"The good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth what is good; and the evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth what is evil; for his mouth speaks from that which fills his heart."

If we took Luke 6:27-38 on it's own, it would seem that the Christian life is a real burden! "How impossible it is to live up to Jesus' standard?" Well, of course it is, for Jesus is the Holy God, so His standard is pure holiness. Yet, in 6:43-45, this Christian life is not to be a burden if we have the "good treasure" in our heart. We find out later that that good treasure is the Holy Spirit which Jesus sent to live in every Christian. The Holy Spirit brings forth what is good!!

And finally, Jesus' conclusion:
46"Why do you call Me, 'Lord, Lord,' and do not do what I say?

47"Everyone who comes to Me and hears My words and acts on them, I will show you whom he is like:

48he is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid a foundation on the rock; and when a flood occurred, the torrent burst against that house and could not shake it, because it had been well built.

49"But the one who has heard and has not acted accordingly, is like a man who built a house on the ground without any foundation; and the torrent burst against it and immediately it collapsed, and the ruin of that house was great."

Do not be so quick to assume that you are, or I am, the wise builder. Do we do what the Lord says? Or are we disobedient? Are we living life by the Spirit or a life of burden by our own effort? True discipleship is by the Spirit, in obedience to God; and that life may not be a comfortable life, but it will be a blessed one. The man that truly lived this out, other the Jesus, was the Apostle Paul. In all his suffering and trials, he rejoiced in his salvation! This is the Kingdom Life, this is life the way God meant it to be lived!!

Model Minister and Ministry (Luke 6:12-19)

Luke 6:12-19

After the two Sabbath confrontations w/ the Pharisees earlier in chapter 6, Jesus spent the entire night on a mountain in prayer to the Father before He chose the Twelve. The magnitude of Jesus next two acts - appointing of the twelve apostles and the Sermon on the Mount - is really underscored that He spent the entire night in prayer. I probably would have went to bed early so I'd be rested for the big day!

In 6:13 and 17, Jesus presumably had a fairly large following of disciples, but from the larger group, He chose the Twelve. And "whom He also names as apostles." In Greek, apostle means "one sent out." Mark 3:14 clearly gives the purpose for Jesus' selection of the Twelve: ... so that they would be with Him and that He could send them out to preach; this is consistent with Luke's account here.

Picture in your mind what is happening here: Jesus goes up to the mountain to pray. He called His disciples to Him and chose Twelve. Then He and the Twelve come down from the mountain. And "there was a large crowd of His disciples and a great throng of people from all Judea and Jerusalem and the coastal region of Tyre and Sidon." It is interesting to note the intimacy level of each group. From the most intimate to the least:

1. Jesus and the Father. (ratio of 1:1)
2. Jesus and the Twelve. (1:12)
3. Jesus and the large crowd of disciples. (1:Many)
4. Jesus and the throng of people. (1:Lots More)
   

A criticism I've heard of pastors is that sometimes people or groups of people feel neglected: "He's never called me on the phone or visited me at home." "He spends so much time with this group, but not with that group." Perhaps sometimes these criticism have some basis, and I'm not even going to argue from a practical standpoint if a pastor can give each of his congregants equal time and attention. But observing Jesus' example, He clearly spent more time with some disciples than with others. Even within the Twelve, we see that He spent more time w/ Peter, James and John (ratio of 1:3).

My desire is to follow Jesus' ministry model. As a disciple, I seek to spend time w/ my discipler and for him to send me out to teach. Likewise, as a discipler, I want to spend time with my disciples and send them out to teach. (Although, I may be discipled by someone and I may disciple some people, Jesus is the true discipler of us all.)

Nitpicking the Son of Man (Luke 6:1-11)

Luke 6:1-11

Luke 5 ends w/ the metaphor of the new/old wine and wineskins. Appropriately, this metaphor is demonstrated in real life at the beginning of Luke 6 where Jesus declares himself the Lord of the Sabbath.

I love the "feel" of Luke 6:1, "Now it happened that..."- so matter of fact... like, "It just so happened that..."

Well, it just so happened that Jesus and His disciples were passing through grain fields on the Sabbath and some of them were picking the heads of grain, rubbing them in their hands and eating them. Note how Luke phrases the action here. To make the sentence concise, I'd write that "some of them were picked heads of grain to eat." But Luke records it as three actions:

1. Picking the heads of grain.
2. Rubbing them in their hands.
3. Eating them.
   

Now the disciples have gone and done it- they've broken the Sabbath! The Pharisees have caught them with their hands in the cookie jar, or in this case, the grain fields. "Why do you do what is not lawful on the Sabbath?" some said (Luke 6:2).

Jesus' begins His response in a very peculiar way, "Have you not read..." The focus is put back on the Pharisees! In fact Jesus answers their question with a question in return! Essentially, Jesus is saying, "Do you not know if you are the teachers of the Law?"

The incident of David eating the consecrated bread, which only the priests were allowed to eat, was in fact a breaking of the Law (Leviticus 24). Yet the Pharisees would not speak against the great King David. (At the time of the incident, he was not yet officially king over Israel.) If it was OK for David and his men to break the law, then isn't it OK for Jesus and His disciples? His very next statement, "The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath." What does this mean?

In the parallel account in Mark 2:23-28, v27 gives us a hint. Jesus said, "The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath." In fact Jesus is indirectly testing the Pharisees most basic understanding of the Hebrew Scriptures. The Pharisees were completely caught up in what they thought could and could not be done on the Sabbath that they missed the whole point. In fact, they defined work so strictly, it was a burden to keep the Sabbath. In Mark 2:27, Jesus sheds the light on the Sabbath by going all the way back to Genesis 2! God didn't institute the Sabbath as an extra burden for man, but rather the Sabbath was created as a good thing for man. God, in His omnipotence, certainly did not need to rest, but the 1st Sabbath was an example for us. Certainly, Jesus, being God, and through whom all things were created (John 1), is greater than King David, and the one who instituted the Sabbath, would know it's original intent better than anyone else.

Now why does Jesus refer to Himself as "the Son of Man" in Luke 6:5? This title is a Messianic reference from Daniel 7:13-14. Hence the Messiah, God the Son Himself, the Lord of the Sabbath, defines what is the Sabbath.

Proceeding to Luke 6:6-11, the story picks up on another Sabbath. As was His custom, Jesus entered the synagogue to teach on the Sabbath. Yet again, the Pharisees were waiting for Him to slip up. Jesus commands a man with a withered to get up and come forward and then He poses a question to the Pharisees- "I ask you, is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the Sabbath, to save a life or to destroy it?" They didn't answer Him, but I don't think the question was meant to be rhetorical since He looked around at them (v10) presumably waiting for an answer. Is it not right to do good on any given day than to do harm, let alone on the Sabbath? Any child would easily answer it is better to do good on the Sabbath. But the teachers of the Law did not give any response!

Hearing no response, Jesus said to the man, "Stretch out your hand!" This is utterly hilarious- for the Pharisee are waiting for Jesus to break the Law again to find cause to accuse Him. Jesus could have healed the man's hand by touching it, or saying "Be healed," etc., yet all He did was ask the man to stretch out his hand. And it was healed! Now, if I were one of the disciples and knew what was going on, I probably would have been gnawing at my tongue to avoid busting out laughing in the middle of synagogue! As legalistic as the Pharisees were, they had nothing on Jesus. Technically, all He did was tell the man to stretch out his hand!

From this story, we see how Jesus declared that He was indeed the Messiah, not only in title (the Son of Man), but by demonstrating His deity as creator of the Sabbath, as author and preeminent authority of His Word, and as healer.

The application from all this is to learn from how the Pharisee completely missed the point of the Law and were so short-sighted that they did not recognize the Messiah when He was right in front of them. The Pharisees were the ones interpreting the Law, dictating what could and could not be done on the Sabbath. Now, the author of the Law, and the One who instituted the 1st Sabbath to be a blessing to man was here to set the record straight.

Today, I miss the mark on the Sabbath as the Pharisees did in their time. Our Sabbath is celebrated on Sundays and it is a good reminder that it is to be a day of rest as God originally intended it to be- a blessing for us rather than a burden. Truth be told, recently I've been so enmeshed in "ministry" on some Sundays that it had become a burden for me rather than a day of rest and of blessing. Pray that I would heed the instruction of the Son of Man, the Lord of the Sabbath.

Luke Chapter 6

Luke 6

Lord of the Sabbath

Vv1-10: Jesus is the Lord of the Sabbath – He
intentionally healed the the man with shriveled hand
to point out to them the true meaning of Sabbath and
to challenge them of their traditional beliefs (Which
is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to
save life or to destroy it?) I pray that my
traditional beliefs will be challenged with His
liberating new life that He has given me… a
Spirit-filled life!

V12: Before choosing the 12 apostles, Jesus spent
time in solitude and in prayer.

Vv20-49: Jesus' sermon on plain appears to parallel
Mathew's sermon on the Mount. Jesus was preaching a
message that is out of the world of His time - It is
the Kingdom message that emphasizes on the authentic
change of heart attitude. It addresses poverty both
physically and more importantly spiritually, the
hungry, the sorrowful , the outcast and rejected and
contrast that with the rich, the well-fed and "happy"
and satisfied people… He was painting a radically
different world - the heavenly kingdom – for the
people of His time. This kingdom is radically
different from ours as well!

The Kingdom Values vv27-36

Jesus uses many examples to further illustrates the
Kingdom mindset -
" If someone strikes you on one cheek, turn to him the
other also."
"If someone takes your cloak, do not stop him from
taking your tunic."
"If someone takes what belongs to you, do not demand
it back."
"Love your enemies and do good to them"
"Lend without expecting to get anything back"
"Kind to the ungrateful and wicked"

I believe these values were radical to the people of
the Jesus' time and they are totally radical to
today's values as well!!!!!!

At glance, as a Christian I don't even know if I can
practice all of them. It does not appear to be
earthly values at all. It is truly out of this
WORLD!! We are taught with some very different values
such as an eye for an eye, to know and demand my
rights, not to be taken advantage of of……I see that
Jesus is preaching about not only a change in heart
attitude, but truly a deep deep deep change or
overhaul of our heart, mind and soul. We can no
longer hold on to our worldly values but to slowly
over time rid of the old self and to embrace the new
kingdom values which admittedly not an easy thing on
earth but I believe that as Kingdom people, we need to
prepare ourselves diligently with all the Kingdom
values!

There are more Kingdom Values that I should practice
at all times:
Vv37-38
• Do not Judge
• Do not condemn
• Forgive
• Give

Vv39-42
Jesus reminded that that it is foolish and
hypocritical for us to criticize someone for a fault
while remaining blind to our considerable faults. I
need to always examine myself and not fall into the
trap of being hypocritical.

Vv43-45
V45 – for out of the overflow of his heart his mouth
speaks - may God help me to cultivate my heart. As
each tree is recognized by its own fruit - may the
things stored in my heart reflects Him and His
goodness.

V46- 49
May I be a wise builder, may I not only be a hearer of
God's words but also be diligent to put them into
practice. So that we the flood (bad times) comes, my
faith/house will not be shaken but it is well built as
I put them in practice daily!

Luke, Su

Luke Chapter 6

• Jesus’ response to the accusations of the Pharisees in Luke 6:1-10 gives rise to a couple of interesting considerations. It seems that there is value by looking at both what Jesus said as well as how He delivered his message in these verses.

WHAT (Jesus says)

In one context, it appears that there is something to be learned by understanding (or at least trying) what Jesus is saying through His response to the Pharisees in 6:1-10. Jesus’ message appeared to be a rebuke against the Pharisees for having an extremely narrow, legalistic, understanding of the Sabbath. More importantly, perhaps their flawed understanding of the Sabbath was indicative of the Pharisees’ flawed understanding of God, Himself, and what He desired of his believers.

It seemed that Jesus’ message to the Pharisees was that they were misguided in thinking that mere adherence to the law, done in isolation and without understanding, was pleasing to God.

In 6:9, Jesus presented the following question to the Pharisees, “’I ask you, is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the Sabbath, to save a life or to destroy it?’" Presumably, this was rhetorical and meant to illustrate the ignorance of the person that would choose to say that it was unlawful to do good or to save a life if such acts were to occur on the Sabbath.

Part of the flaw with such an absurd response is that at best such strict, legalistic adherence requires little if any thinking on the part of the believer. At worst, such a response would indicate that the believer does not truly understand God, and therefore may not understand what he really believes in.

• HOW (Jesus said it)

In another context, I found it useful to observe how Jesus responded. I thought it was interesting that Jesus chose to chastise the Pharisees by rhetorically asking, “’Have you not even read what David did…’”, thus highlighting the importance of not only reading the Bible, but also understanding it and applying its lessons in appropriate circumstances.

• Key Takeaways: At least one key point taken from the preceding analysis was that God neither designed nor intended for us to be one dimensional, robotic practitioners of faith. Instead, it seems we are supposed to think and appropriately apply God’s teaching as presented in the Bible.

• From 6:12-19, titled, "Choosing the Twelve", as mentioned previously, I wonder how Jesus chose his disciples, especially the Twelve.

• In reference to the night before Jesus was to choose his Twelve Disciples, 6:12 states, “It was at this time that He went off to the mountain to pray, and He spent the whole night in prayer to God.” By the way, I just noticed that v12 speaks to The Twelve Disciples. I wonder if the author had a sense of humor there.

In any case, this incident once again highlights the critical emphasis Jesus placed on prayer. Choosing his Twelve Disciples must surely have been one of the most important decisions Jesus made in his time on earth, and we see Him praying the entire night before making his choices.

• 6:20-26, titled, "The Beatitudes", brings up some interesting points. 6:20 states, “And turning His gaze toward His disciples, He began to say…”

What I find interesting is that it is clear that Jesus is speaking to a crowd of His disciples. Yet, in 6:24-26, Jesus begins to say to this very same crowd comprised entirely of disciples, “Woe to you…”

One question arises from trying to understand the meaning of “Woe to you…” It seems that this statement refers to the fact that some of His disciples will not receive salvation. While this issue appears to be clearly addressed in Matthew 24:42-51, titled, “Be Ready for His Coming”, it appears to be the first time this issue is addressed in Luke.

Then again, what are the theological boundaries of salvation? Are believers in Christ entitled and thereby assured of salvation or is salvation impacted by our actions here on earth?

• 6:46-49, titled, “Builders and Foundations” really resonates with me and most fully captures my sentiments at the current time. This analogy is quite clear so I will not attempt to explain it. Suffice it to say that at this point in my life, my foremost desire is to have a well built foundation in Christ.