Candidates For God's Kingdom

As we work our way through Luke’s Gospel, we have looked at a string of stories that explain why it was that such a good guy as Jesus had enemies. He hung around with disreputable people. The Pharisees developed a long list of rules for what you can do and can’t do on the Sabbath. But Jesus went with the general principles of what the Old Testament itself says and ignored the rest of their rules. He claimed incredible authority, to forgive sins. And he backed it all up by healing the sick as he did it.

And as the religious establishment started to get organized to do him in, he started to make a special investment in just 12 men, 12 very ordinary men, his disciples. They could extend his work in 12 different directions while he could only be in one place at a time. They could continue the work after he was gone. He needed to multiply the ministry.

And shortly after he made his choice of his 12 disciples, a huge crowd gathered. Some of them had traveled quite a distance. And I can imagine them wondering if this message that Jesus was teaching was going to work for them. And so Jesus told them who is most likely to benefit, who it is that are candidates for the kingdom of God.

Our scripture text is Luke 6:17-26. I encourage you to open your pew Bible to page 64 in the New Testament section so you can see it for yourself. And then please stand for the reading of God’s word.

17 He 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. 18 They had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases; and those who were troubled with unclean spirits were cured. 19 And all in the crowd were trying to touch him, for power came out from him and healed all of them.

20 Then 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. 23 Rejoice 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."

What Sylvia just read for us is often called the beatitudes. But we are more familiar with the way that Matthew’s gospel wrote them down. Matthew gives us 9 ‘blesseds.’ Luke gives us only four. And Luke also gives us four ‘woes,’ or we might call them ‘watch outs!’

Matthew keeps it spiritual, talking about heart attitudes. “Blessed are the poor in spirit.” The focus there is on what’s inside you. Luke is very concrete. “Blessed are the poor.” The focus is on what is happening on your outside. Matthew gives us ‘blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.” Luke just gives us “Blessed are you who are hungry now.”

And which one is ‘right? Is it Matthew or Luke? My guess is that they both give us faithful summaries of what Jesus said that day, but he said much more than we have recorded. And probably for each point that Jesus made he came at it from several different angles, both inside and outside. Matthew faithfully gives us some of those angles and Luke faithfully gives us some others. And we have important things to learn from both. And what can we learn?

Both gospel writers tell us that Jesus started out announcing blessings. God wants good stuff for his kids. He made an incredibly rich and beautiful world for us. He really wants to bless us. He is here right now to help us build lives that are just plain good. God wants good stuff for his kids.

The first blessing is that Jesus tells us that there is a special blessing for those who are poor. And those who are more familiar with Matthew’s gospel might spiritualize that and say, ‘but he really means the ‘poor in spirit.’’ But in Luke he says, just ‘the poor.’ It’s the word for people who don’t have any money. The first blessing is for the poor and it matches the first woe, woe to the rich. They go together, two sides of the same coin. Blessed are the poor. Woe to the rich.