Luke 6:17-26
Luke’s Gospel stops the generally fast pace of Jesus’s story to hear Jesus give something like a full sermon. Normally we get short parables and quick, sharp teachings from Jesus, but here we get to really sit with what he believed. The sermon is also included, almost word for word, in Matthew’s Gospel, so this part is probably something written down much earlier that they both incorporated. (Yes, you can nerd out on this really hard if you want, but that’s not really what I’m up to here.) What is interestingly different between the two is how they start. In Matthew’s Gospel Jesus goes up on the Mountain to start talking, and in this passage Jesus goes up the mountain for a full night of prayer, then comes down to “a level place” to speak to the people. This entrance mirrors the reversal of fortune theme of Jesus’s sermon and Luke’s gospel.
“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.
“But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation.
Jesus comes down from being with God in prayer, and gets level with the people to talk to them. It even says that he looked up at the disciples when he began to teach. If a person was going to address a large group of people, you generally want to walk to some higher ground or hop up on your soapbox so everyone can see and hear you. Not so for Luke’s Jesus. This makes a statement to the reader that this message may have come from God, but it doesn’t come from some power on high like they would have expected an important message to be issued from. This message comes from God among them. A God that does not have much to say to the people on high, but has some good news for you here on the ground.
As Jesus comes down and approaches the people on their level something amazing happens before he even begins to speak. The author tells us that all the people come up to him and touch him, then all their ailments are cured. Now it might not seem like a big deal because Jesus heals quite a few people in the gospels, but this one is quite important because the author makes sure to say that he “healed all of them.” In other words every single person who was there to see Jesus had already felt a reversal of fortune before he even spoke. What was unwell in their bodies and their spirits was well now.
After Jesus heals them and delivers a reversal of fortune to their bodies in the moment, Jesus begins to talk of the reversal of fortune to come. Jesus is going to change the way they live. The poor people who were there to see him would have seen themselves at the bottom rung of their society, and Jesus promised them to turn their society upside down. The kingdom to come is for the people who are poor now, and the people who are full now will be hungry. In other words Jesus is saying, “I have healed your spirit, and now I will heal your lives.”
For a modern reader who has grown up in the church, you have probably heard a lot about Jesus healing the soul and healing the body, but this healing of hunger and poverty goes one in the same with those things in Luke’s gospel. In a modern capitalist country, the language we use for this sort of thing is redistribution of wealth. Taking from those who have, and giving to those who do not. That may seem incredibly radical when viewed through the lens of our capitalist system, but that is what Jesus is calling for here. As people who follow Jesus, we are called to work toward this end as well. Even the Pope is getting in on it! So, if this is something that seems impossible or even terrible, sit with this in prayer and open your mind to God’s call. Jesus came to heal our souls and heal our society. We have to help with both.
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See you next week.