February 13, 2022
Hope Lutheran Church
Rev. Mary Erickson
Luke 6:17-26
Not from the Lofty Mountain but from the Level Plain
Friends, may grace and peace be yours in abundance in the knowledge of God and Christ Jesus our Lord.
If you’re like me, you’ve been spending a lot of time watching the winter Olympics. Many of the sports involve hurtling down a mountainside as fast as you can. Skiers, bobsledders, lugers, they all start at the top of a mountain run and finish on the bottom in a remarkably brief time.
Watching the skiers, I’ve been amazed at some of the camera shots when they’re coming out of the starting gate. For a brief moment you can see the view from the top of the run. They’re at the top of the world! The sky, the distant mountain tops, the view is breathtaking.
The mountains are definitely beautiful. I love visiting them and hiking in them. But I can’t say that I’d want to live there.
Sorry, but I grew up on the western prairies. I prefer the wide open spaces. Mountains are nice, but for me, they hide the view! I love the big sky over my head. I love being able to see from horizon to horizon, the land stretching out far and wide in every direction. I’m a prairie girl and that’s where I feel at home.
The mountains or the plains? The gospel writers Matthew and Luke have a difference of opinion on these settings. Matthew places Jesus on the side of a mountain as he preaches his famous Sermon on the Mount.
In Matthew’s gospel, the people come to Jesus in this high, remote setting. It’s a little bit like the cartoons where the seeker climbs up a high mountain to seek guidance from a wise guru. The people come to Jesus on the mountainside. They come to hear his words of wisdom.
But in Luke, the setting is different. There is a mountain, but it’s in the verses just before our reading for today. Jesus had climbed up the mountain the previous night to pray. He prays throughout the night. He goes high to be with his heavenly God. His closest followers must have been with him, because in the morning, he chooses 12 of them to be his disciples.
And then Jesus comes down from the mountain. Our Lord from on high comes down. He comes down and he meets the people on the plain. They don’t come to him – he meets them where they are.
Both Matthew and Luke record Jesus’ Beatitudes. Jesus declares those who are blessed. But the messages in each gospel are as different as mountains are from prairies.
Matthew evokes high and lofty images. “Blessed are the poor in spirit; blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.”
But Luke’s beatitudes are much more down to earth and gritty. It’s not the poor in spirit who are blessed; it’s the poor. And it’s not those who hunger and thirst for righteousness who will be filled; it’s the hungry in body who will be filled.
The two gospels present very different models of blessedness. But it begs the question: Who got it right, Matthew or Luke? Which gospel writer more accurately captures the setting and the sentiment of Jesus’ famous sermon?
If we pursue that question, we’ll go down a rabbit hole. The two are just different, and that doesn’t make one more true than the other. But they are different, and in the end, we need to consider and reflect on both sermons.
Clarence Jordan was influential in the founding of Habitat for Humanity. He founded the Christian community Koinonia in Americus, Georgia and wrote a paraphrase of the New Testament entitled The Cotton Patch Gospels. He was both a farmer and a PhD in New Testament Greek.
Jordan was approached to weigh in on Matthew and Luke’s differing renditions of Jesus’ Beatitudes. Which is correct? He said, “If you have a lot of money, you’ll probably say spiritual poverty. If you have little or no money, you’ll probably say physical poverty. The rich will thank God for Matthew; the poor will thank God for Luke.”
Jordan continues, “Who’s right? Chances are, neither one. For it is exactly this attitude of self-praise and self-justification and self-satisfaction that robs men of a sense of great need for the kingdom and its blessings. When one says ‘I don’t need to be poor in things; I’m poor in spirit,’ and another says ‘I don’t need to be poor in spirit; I’m poor in things,’ both are justifying themselves as they are saying in unison, ‘I don’t need.’ With that cry on his lips, no man can repent.”
We need to listen to and consider both Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount and his Sermon on the Plain. But for right now, for today, we find ourselves within the year of Luke. And so we reflect on this message from the level plain. We consider the poor and the hungry and the despised. These are the ones Jesus will bless.
And moreover, in his sermon from the plain, Jesus includes a message of woe. This admonition is spoken to the very people the world would call blessed: the rich, the satisfied, the carefree, the highly regarded. We would aspire to be all of these things! But Jesus says “woe to you.” Woe, because these are not the be all and end all. All of these things are transitory at best and meaningless at worst. Jesus says woe because if we place our trust in and strive after these things, we will miss the mark of God’s kingdom.
Luke tells us Jesus came down from on high and stood on a level place. His message from the plain contains a leveling. The low are raised up while the lofty are brought low.
Jesus’ message is reminiscent of the great leveling spoken of by the prophet Isaiah:
"In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord,
Make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
Every valley shall be lifted up,
And every mountain and hill be made low;
The uneven ground shall become level,
And the rough places a plain."
Jesus calls his church to seek out the level places. And where there are none, we are called to create them. Jesus bids his church to the level place, the place where we don’t look down upon others, and neither do we need to look up in shame and deference. When we are haughty and self-sufficient, he calls us to humility and service. And where we see want and hunger, he calls us to uplift the lowly.
On this level place is where Christ has called his church. And on this level plain we’ll find the fertile soil where mercy and justice bear their abundant fruits in acts of humble service. May it be so among us.
