Luke 6:1-5
The Sabbath day was the seventh day of the week. It started on Friday at sunset till Saturday at sunset. This day was God's creation among the creation of the world.
Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.(Genesis 2:3)
In blessing the seventh day, He made it special. When God blessed it, He was putting His name on it, claiming it as His own. He gifted this to mankind. Baker Encyclopedia of the bible said this blessed day is a vehicle of his generous giving and expression of His warm concern." How do we get on the receiving end of that generous giving and warm concern? We use that day of rest to honor Him; to reflect on creation, on our God and how He's blessed us.
After blessing this day, God 'sanctified it'. That is He set it apart from all others. This almost sounds the same as blessing it. After all, once it was blessed by God, it was already set apart from the other days. This day was set aside for a purpose. Anyone that's ever worked 7 days a week for very long can attest to the need for rest. In my construction days, we knew when we worked our people on 7-day schedule, there was an obvious drop in productivity. In fact, after about 45 hours productivity dropped drastically, and it keeps dropping the more hours your work. It continues to drop when you have no regularly scheduled day off. Workers become dangerous and disengaged. It seems God knew what He was doing, we require time off. Not only time off, but we should use that time in thanksgiving for the week, the blessings it brought. We should acknowledge God's hand in that. Any effort to escape God's work week is not blessed and suffers from the loss of productivity.
These seven days became a week; every culture agrees. The week is God's signature on His creation. It's one of those things that are so evident, we no longer see it. There are other sevens that show up in God's creation that seem to be His fingerprints also. As there are seven notes in the musical scale, seven colors in the rainbow, seven seas, seven prismatic rays, leaves of plants governed by law of 7, etc. (not to mention 7 dwarfs, seven wonders of the world and on and on).
Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. 11 For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.
(Exodus 20:8-11)
The Hebrew behind 'keep it holy' in verse 8 and 'hallowed' in verse 11 are the same word as 'sanctified' in Genesis 2:3. This gift of rest was for all of mankind, not just for the Jews. God did not want the Jews to rest while the foreigners or slaves worked seven days a week. God cared for them also.
Observe the Sabbath day, to keep it holy, as the Lord your God commanded you. 13 Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 14 but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your ox, nor your donkey, nor any of your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates, that your male servant and your female servant may rest as well as you. 15 And remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out from there by a mighty hand and by an outstretched arm; therefore the Lord your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day
(Deuteronomy 5:12-15)
In his warning to Israel, Moses added the idea of being delivered from slavery in Egypt as a Sabbath Day remembrance. God's children coming out of Egypt's bondage weren't used to a rest day. This adds another element of thankfulness. It is the Lord's Sabbath, His day, we can't alter that. It's His gift to us, we give it back by acknowledging and remembering:
- Deliverance from bondage
- God as creator
- God's creation
- Physical & mental rest, provided by God
- The productivity and blessing of previous week was God's provision.
While we might have idle hands, we shouldn't have idle minds. We can see how this keeps our eyes on Him and our way, our productivity, our paycheck in perspective. We maintain a larger perspective, not a myopic view of life. We realize the rest we didn't know we needed as we enjoy family and engage them. Is this not abiding in Him? Does it not bring God joy when we do so?
As an example of how well man received this, in Exodus 16 God had provided manna for Israel. He taught them the Sabbath rest. They were to gather on the sixth day enough for two days. This is the only time they could gather extra. They were to prepare it ahead of time. Then on Sabbath, they would not gather food. This was God's rest from that.
27 Now it happened that some of the people went out on the seventh day to gather, but they found none. 28 And the Lord said to Moses, "How long do you refuse to keep My commandments and My laws? 29 See! For the Lord has given you the Sabbath; therefore He gives you on the sixth day bread for two days. Let every man remain in his place; let no man go out of his place on the seventh day." 30 So the people rested on the seventh day. (Exodus 16:27-30)
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The Sabbath instruction and commandment that came through Moses had been refined by man. They felt the need to define what 'work' was. They created a huge collection of do's and don't that become a burden themselves. When these men got done with it, the rest didn't look very restful. To keep Sabbath became an accomplishment that these men found righteousness in. They had completely lost God's purpose along the way.
The law did not specifically prohibit plucking some heads of grain to eat. The law simply said mand was not supposed to work on the Sabbath and to receive it as a day of rest. The Pharisees felt the need to form some specific guidelines about what is and isn't work. Harvesting, threshing, winnowing and preparing food were all considered work. The accusation is that picking a few heads of grain was harvest, rubbing their hands together was threshing and blowing the chaff away was winnowing. All this was preparing food, as they threw the grains in their mouth.
When Jesus responded to them, He is referring to 1 Samuel 21:1-6. This is a passage where David does what is not lawful. He ate the Bread of Presence from the temple. This bread was made fresh and placed in the Holy Place on the table on the Sabbath. It was there for a week and then ate by the priests. As David was on the run, the priest gave him the bread. Now this wasn't on the Sabbath, but it was unlawful. The questions is: are the pharisees ready to say David was wrong? Would they condemn David taking it? Or, would they see that human need became a greater law? That David, in that time of need, could set aside the law to meet that need. Jesus claims a similar authority. He has the right to determine matters of the law.
The Sabbath was not made to be a burden, it was made for rest. It wasn't made to have an accompanying set of rules to define your every step and action on that day. That isn't rest, that's work. The Sabbath was a gift from God, to cease work and enjoy the fruits of the labor of the previous six days. This is the heart of the Sabbath, not legalistic conformity.
Don Stewart (Calvary pastor) tells the story of going to Israel the first time. He got up in the morning, left his hotel room and went to take the elevator down to meet others for breakfast. As he approached the elevator, the door opened and he stepped in. It proceeded to stop on every floor, all the way down. He wondered what was wrong with the elevator. Then he realized he forgot something and entered the elevator to go back to his room. It again stopped on every floor, all the way and all the way down. He told the man a the front desk that their elevator must be broken. He was smiling, apparently having noticed what happened. He educated the new visitor that he was riding the Sabbath elevator. Pushing the button constituted work for a Jew, so the elevator stopped on every floor. The Gentile elevator had been around the corner.
David had the authority to act outside the law for the good of man. Jesus claimed a greater authority than David. In Matthew His words are recorded as:
Yet I say to you that in this place there is One greater than the temple. 7 But if you had known what this means, 'I desire mercy and not sacrifice,' you would not have condemned the guiltless. 8 For the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath." (Matthew 12:6-8)
Jesus quotes Hosea 6:6. The idea of loving God and loving our neighbor shows up as an undertone in so many places. The idea of mercy and love trumping the law is seen in several places. The law was the boundary lines within which normal life took place. God didn't want mindless legal obedience, He wanted children who obeyed their Father. What Father would punish a child for stepping out of obedience to love and show mercy to another child of God?
Luke 6:6-11
Luke gives us another instance of Jesus challenging the norm of the Sabbath. While teaching in the synagogue He encountered a man with a withered hand. Obviously, this was no accident he was there. The Pharisees may have set this up to see if He would heal on the Sabbath. What they did as a test and trap, God allowed for His glory and the specific blessing to this Man who would be a testimony to many others.
The word translated 'withered' is shrunken, deformed, dried up. The hand is not functional, which would be a severe handicap for him. The Pharisees show no compassion towards this man or any interest in his condition, they only use him for their agenda. Jesus knew their plot and knew what they were watching for. He gives it to them. We can imagine this man with this damaged hand standing before Jesus wondering what was about to happen. Jesus spoke to everyone else there, The Sabbath had become a batch of laws. It wasn't even considered a day to do good, doing good might violate the rules. Would they say you couldn't do good or evil? Would they say, no healing? Leave the sick be, don't tend to them. Leave wound untended until tomorrow. Don't cool the burn?
When that man saw his hand restored, he understood the Sabbath. He was unburdened. He was given a gift of life abundant. He was a new man. He must have been overwhelmed with joy, humility, emotion and thankfulness and a hundred other things. Yet, the Pharisees were not at all happy. They did not find any good in this. They were filled with rage; a total lack of reasoning, understanding or common sense. The hatefulness of these men begins to brew a plot; to arrest, to execute.
How filled with hate must a man be to be so enraged at a miracle that changed a man's life? We shouldn't think for a minute they would be okay with this healing any other day of the week. They likely set this all up to have an official charge to bring against Jesus. Why is this simple show of power and authority such a threat to these men? These men were idolaters. They had created a god in their own image and making. They used the temple and scriptures and law, but they did not know the real Yahweh. It never occurs to them that their rage and plotting breaks any of their laws.
8He has shown you, O man, what is good;
And what does the Lord require of you
But to do justly,
To love mercy,
And to walk humbly with your God? (Micah 6:8)
Luke 6:12-16
If we watch, we'll notice Jesus is shown praying before major events in His life. Choosing His disciples was to choose those who would take His message of good news to the world. Choosing 12 is not to be thought as replacing the 12 tribes of Israel. The 12 are a similarity for sure and they would be the ones to take this message to the world instead of the 12 tribes. In Revelation 4:4 John sees 24 elders at the throne.
Peter, Andrew, James and John are always first in the list of disciples and always in the same order. Judas, the son of James is called Thaddeus in Matthew and Mark. The name change is likely to avoid confusion with Judas Iscariot.
Luke 6:17-19
Luke may be recording a portion of what we know as the Sermon on the Mount. However, this may just be a different day, one of many, where Jesus taught. The settings are similar to accommodate a crowd. The message is similar because Jesus is presenting the kingdom of God and preparing hearts to enter the kingdom. As Jesus came down with his disciples, in the presence of a great multitude, it had to feel like a defining moment. This picture, their work, and the message is the enduring word of God. It speaks to our soul, our inner being. It makes its way past all our biases, through our sin, the burdens, worry and shame to touch the spirit created by God. It resonates in us as the creator instructs the created.
People came with all their needs, flocking to him for hope and healing for tomorrow. They received that hope. But the hope and healing they received for a time, were a means to point them to the eternal message that brought hope that would last for an eternity. This is a hope that overshadows all the grief, burden and shame of a sin-fallen world. This is the reason to follow Jesus. This is the new wine.
Luke 6:20
Jesus stood among a great multitude of people. They were diverse:
- Apostles – those following who have learned and still learn, who have been commissioned by Jesus and given authority to carry forth the message of the teacher. There were just the 12 among the crowd.
- Disciples – those following Jesus as students. A very small part.
- Pharisees & Scribes – Religious authority, opposing Christ. Likely taking note of others who followed Him. We don't know how many, they came from Judea, Samaria and Jerusalem.
- The multitude – This vast majority were there to hear and see for themselves. To receive healing. Most probably came for selfish reasons, but the Lord can work with that. They find themselves torn. The old way seems right, comfortable and keeps them out of trouble with religious authorities. But the new wine, is new and exciting. It touches something deep inside. It doesn't oppose the old ways, but completes them.
Where the old way was people going to synagogue or temple to hear from God's word, in this new work God came right down among the people, as one of them, identifying with them. He brought the word to the people and met them in their lives.
This sermon on the plain is slightly different from the sermon on the mount. Matthew sermon uses similar points but spiritualizes these points. While it seems Luke seems to be speaking to the people in their socioeconomic state, we should notice Jesus speaking to His disciples.
Jesus looked upon the multitude and spoke to his disciples. He was preparing to send them out among the multitude to witness to them, teach and minister to them. The great crowd may have come because they were poor, hungry, mourning or broken, lonely and reviled. They need the kingdom of God, but it looks beyond the physical needs. He came to them in their social setting and economic condition to present them the kingdom of God.
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Blessed are you poor,
For yours is the kingdom of God.
This blessedness is a great joy that we can have now, in this life and this world. Sometimes it feels as if someday we will receive this peace or joy and that our blessing is deferred to some future time. And there certainly is much of the Christian life that is 'not yet' but this teaching speaks of a surpassing joy that characterizes our life now.
The word 'are' is inserted and not in the original text. To say the same thing another way, we might say, "O the blessedness of" or "O, the joy of the Christian life". These poor will have a great joy. Who are the poor? It seems everyone thinks themselves poor, because we never believe we have enough. Is Jesus saying our lack of wealth brings the kingdom of God to us? No, you can't buy your way into the kingdom with your poverty any more than with money. The Lord wouldn't use a measure of something so worldly.
The word for poor here is one that means abject poverty. It is the picture of one who has nothing and can only beg. The poverty they are under isn't financial, it's spiritual. It's recognition that in our human condition we have no righteousness whatsoever. Our righteous account is one of abject poverty. It is recognition of this spiritual poverty that brings us to repentance.
God's work continues in our life through the sanctification process. Often our pride sneaks in and gets in the way. Remembering we are spiritually impoverished, but for the grace of God, keeps us humble as we work our salvation. This isn't self-pity of even beating our self up. It's not thinking less of our self but thinking of our self less. It's a realistic look at who and what we were without Christ and what we are now in Him, only by His grace. This is a source of joy, the great blessing of realizing once again our standing in Him and how it is undeserved.
Andrew Murray (South African writer, pastor, teacher) defined humility this way:
Humility is perfect quietness of heart. It is to expect nothing, to wonder at nothing that is done to me, to feel nothing done against me. It is to be at rest when nobody praises me, and when I am blamed or despised. It is to have a blessed home in the Lord, where I can go in and shut the door, and kneel to my Father in secret, and am at peace as in a deep sea of calmness, when all around and above is trouble.
The humble person is not one who thinks meanly of himself, he simply does not think of himself at all.
When we forget how poor we were, we're a little like the man James spoke of who, observed his natural face in a mirror; went away, and immediately forgot what kind of man he was (James 1:23-24). Remembering what kind of person we are keeps our pride at bay and cancels out any self-righteousness. In general, it appears, the Pharisees kept Sabbath, sacrificed, gave alms and prayed, but never knew their spiritual poverty or the joy the realization of it brought. Since we know all have sinned and fall short of God's glory, we can conclude we are all poor in the spirit whether we realize it or not. God can't fill us with this joy until we've emptied ourselves of our own self-sufficiency.
Most of us have prayed it often, 'Thy kingdom come, thy will be done.' John the Baptist called for repentance for the Kingdom of God was at hand. Being poor in the spirit ushered them into the kingdom a God. 'For yours is' expresses ownership or possession. The kingdom of God is also expressed as 'the kingdom of the Lord' or the 'kingdom of heaven'. This is to have access to the throne room of the king, into His presence. What an amazing thought!
O the joy in Christ we would possess if we realize our utter helplessness; and put our entire trust in Him. For this alone is the surrender to God that brings us to complete obedience and makes us joyous citizens of the kingdom of heaven!
Luke 6:21a
Blessed are you who hunger now,
For you shall be filled.
Have you ever known real hunger or real thirst? Probably not, at least not of the life-threatening variety. The hunger this verse portrays is not a dry mouth and growling tummy but a life-threatening hunger and thirst of a dry and parched body. We suffer from what author Robert Louis Stevenson called 'the malady of not wanting'. Because of that we also suffer from never understanding the relief that comes from being filled and rescued from real hunger and real thirst.
It is the world's darkness and oppression that cover us, it overwhelms us and makes us feel small and insignificant. Day in and day out, we grind through life and it leaves us dull, wearied and the fight goes out of us. We become spiritually malnourished. This is the 'want' of spiritual hunger. Our spiritual longing is like a stomach growling and gnawing. A man's appetite reveals his spiritual condition. We hunger and thirst for the things of God. We hunger and thirst for the time when we will be delivered from a world overwhelmed with sin. We long for a day when we will stand before Jesus and see Him face to face. Mankind has attempted to feed this hunger with many things. All of them disappoint.
The great blessing of the Christian life comes from recognizing this deep hunger and thirst for righteousness and holiness. It is then we will be filled. Daily we run to Jesus to drink and taste righteousness and are blessed. What we receive now, though, is but a taste of the filling we will experience soon.
- Do we hunger for spiritual things?
- Do we hunger for the time in prayer before the throne of grace?
- Do we hunger to gobble up more of God's word?
- Do we hunger to worship Him?
O Christian, when we know a thirst and a hunger for righteousness, we can then experience the joy and satisfaction of being filled with the Bread of Life and drinking of the Living water. (William Barclay)
Luke 6:21b
Blessed are you who weep now,
For you shall laugh.
Charles Spurgeon said, "I do not believe in that faith which has not a tear in its eye when it looks to Jesus. Dry-eyed faith seems to me to be bastard faith, not born of the Spirit of God."
The joy of knowing Christ is a great joy, but with it comes an understanding of a lost world and of our loved ones still attached to it. How can we laugh and have great joy over so much brokenness? How can we ignore the wickedness, sin, shame and sorrow? Times of weeping are appropriate at times.
For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, (2 Cor 7:10)
Sorrow focuses us like nothing else can. There are a couple different sources of sorrow to consider.
- There is personal sorrow from loss or grief. If we are in Christ, these are times when He minsters to us, as if He weeps with us. He provides encouragement, comfort care and provides His peace (shalom). It's these times I often picture His as the shepherd who lets us lie down in green pastures and leads us to the serene waters. He restores our soul. In times of sorrow, we grow and recognize what is important in life.
- A second type of sorrow is a more general weeping over sin and its affect on this world. Not a day goes by where we don't hear a heartbreaking story that brings us to tears. The news is full or horrible accounts of the effect of sin. Sin's devastation ranges from broken homes to murder; from kidnaping to trafficking; from molestation to abandonment. There's a constant flow through the news, each its own gut-wrenching story of real people suffering.
- The one we least like to talk about is the sin in our own life. These sins are specific and personal. The damage is right before us and can't be ignored – even though we try by using blame, self-justification, busyness, to name a few. Our sin frustrates and confuses us. No matter how hard we try, we mess up. Just when we think we are walking with God, we find our self full of self-righteousness or ungodly anger at our neighbor. It goes on an on, each time bringing us to humility and sorrow and the need for the forgiveness and grace Jesus provides.
We aren't to be people who walk around with a sour and broken countenance. For we have a great joy when we are in Him. Our hope is sure and secure. We have new life. It's happened, happening and yet to happen. We've received the good news, we are born again. Yet, we are still in this world and these sin-tainted bodies. He does an ongoing work of sanctification in us, growing us in righteousness and holiness. However, none of this compares to the kingdom to come when we are in His presence and free from these bodies.
Weeping may endure for a night,
But joy comes in the morning. (Psalm 30:5b)
How does this all fit together? If this blessing is a great joy, how is this possible in our weeping? The joy comes from having your heart aligned with God's heart; knowing that He also mourns over sin and its effects on the world. We recognize sin and see how it kills and steals and destroys lives. In contrast we see how the remedy so much sweeter. There is joy amidst our weeping through the overwhelming knowledge of fellowship and communion with Jesus.
Barclay rephrased this beatitude this way:
O the joy of the Christian life when we are comforted in the deepest, darkest sorrow imaginable. Our hope is restored in the face of brokenness and suffering! Our God is greater than any grief produced by sin!
Luke 6:22-23
There were many lies and slanders aimed at Christianity in those days. Rumors were spread that Christians were cannibals eating the body of Jesus and drinking his blood. Others spread rumors of Christians engaging in orgies when they came together. The world today has its own lies it speaks about Christians. Many are slandered because of the name they bear. It hasn't changed all that much in a few thousand years. When our faith in Christ is the first order of our life, we will look different, act different, sound different and all around stick out like a sore thumb in this fallen world. That will cause us to be marked. Some may not even really understand why they treat you different, there's just something about you they find annoying.
Tertullian told the story of a man who had come to him with about a problem he faced. This man was hired to build a temple to a false god. He didn't like doing it because he felt it dishonored Jesus and gave honor to the false god. Yet, he needed the job, he needed to eat. He ended by saying, "What can I do? I must live!" "Must you?" said Tertullian.
Given the choice between loyalty and living, the Christian would never hesitate in choosing loyalty. When we do so, we can rejoice. We can be exceedingly glad. There is a great reward for us in heaven. It is, in a sense, overcoming the world. It's working outside the value system of this world and dealing in the kingdom to come.
There are four types of persecution listed here:
- Hate.
- The word used for the hatred shown toward Christians is a word meaning intense dislike or aversion.
- Exlude.
- In Christ they would be excluded. This could be excluded from seats of power or excluded from family. John said they would be put out of the synagogue and there would come a time when Christians would be killed as a service to God (John 16:2)
- Revile.
- As disciples, they would suffer harsh criticism. Fault would be found in them and their actions.
- Cast your name as evil.
- Their reputation would be assaulted, associating their name with evil.
Disciples of Jesus would suffer all of these for the name of Jesus.
That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, (Phillippians 3:10)
To be persecuted by the enemies of our Lord is a mark of a servant of the Lord. This was to be a day to rejoice. They joined a great company of those who had been persecuted. Therefore, it was on this day, they would bank rewards in heaven.
Again, from William Barclay,
O Christian, what blessed joy we might have in our inheritance when our life is marked by persecution. What great joy when we are rewarded for faithfulness in the face of persecution for the sake of righteousness. Your, O Christian, is the Kingdom of heaven.
Luke 6:24-26
'Woe' is an exclamation of grief and horror. The rich man had received his consolation. He found contentment in the things of this life, trusting in his riches. He received the desires of his heart. He needed nothing.
The full had no need. Their bellies were full, life was good. This shows their short-sightedness. They've ignored the reality of judgment, of heaven and hell. If they enter eternity without Christ, they would suffer an eternal hunger that could never be filled.
Have you ever met anyone who made every topic and every person the butt of their joke? It's a frivolous 'life's a party' attitude. They see Christ and Christianity as a killjoy; a means of stealing their fun. However, the fun and games will end. They live their life never realizing they are but one heartbeat away from their last laugh. They will mourn and weep for an eternity.
How many thousands of Facebook friends does that man have? They spend their waking hours worrying about everyone liking them. They live to please men, to find favor with men. Somethings wrong when all the fallen world is in love with you. It reveals what you are in love with.
15 Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world. 17 And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever. (1 John 2:15-17)
To the disciples among the multitude, Jesus taught spiritual poverty, hunger for righteousness, weeping over sin and acceptance of suffering as normal. We are indeed a needy people. We can only be sustained in Him. It was a tradeoff, giving up some temporal happiness then for a time to come. In that day, they would live in the kingdom they had possessed all along. They would be filled with righteousness and laugh in the presence of the Lord for there would be no more sorrow. The great reward is Jesus, the previous life and its suffering so insignificant.
Those under woe had no need. They were sustained by the world. They would spend eternity crying out in need. They will have long forgotten the contentment they found in the world.
Luke 6:27-31
Jesus applied this passage to all within earshot. No one could say He was talking to someone else. He was talking to anyone listening as He spoke to disciples. The followers of Christ are called to Love.
Love (agapao) is to care for others in a social and moral sense. However, in the context of this verse, it isn't just to love others, but to love their enemies. This is the last thing many, if not all, of them wanted to hear. Most would have considered Rome their biggest enemy. There were likely a few who had been wronged by others on a personal level that had a different enemy in mind. Like us, loving that enemy, whether it was Rome or your brother in law who wronged you, isn't really high up on our list. They wanted a leader who would rise up and kick Rome out of their land. Most considered the Romans unlovable, but if you did love your enemy Rome, what would that look like? What would it look like if you began to love your enemy? Not sure how? Let's go on.
Jesus said, "Do good" to them. Our initial reaction might be, "Yea, but they hate me. Why would I do good?" The answer is, because you love them. It's to look out for their best interest, even when they hate you. That's backwards from our desire. Our desire is that our enemy gets justice instead of grace and we want to deliver the justice and the punishment. What is it about us that we enjoy when someone else suffers and we think, "good, they deserve it."
The disciples were also supposed to 'bless' the ones who curse them. The idea of cursing someone, in its purest form, was to invoke divine harm on them. Of course, the god they called on to bring a curse was often a demon. Today, for someone to curse you is to direct at you a tirade of foul language, hated and spite. To associate your name with wrongdoing. To defile your reputation and that of your family. To make others believe you have no morals, principles, integrity or trust. When this happened to the disciples, they were to do the complete opposite and ask for divine blessing. They were to build them up and extol their virtues to others.
When an enemy brings a false accusation, slandered them or falsely accused them, they were to pray for that person. They were to go to before the Father and speak their name and ask for divine favor on their behalf interceding for that one who slams you.
When an enemy gets physical and strikes you on the cheek, turn to offer the other. This is to offer yourself to another with no provision for your flesh. This sounds totally foreign to us. We are apt to hit them back before we even think about it. In the next example the enemy takes something personal and valuable. The response is equally difficult to us. Agape love looks to the one who took your cloak and offers the tunic to go with it. Agape love is when the need of an enemy trumps the life of a disciple.
Jesus instructed his disciples to be giving people to anyone asking. He then provided two examples of sacrificial love. To anyone asking, a disciple is to give and not expect anything in return. Agape love is unconditional.
As a summary of this agape love, Jesus gave them with what we know as the golden rule. Other versions of this existed in the culture of that time. Jesus took 'Don't do to others what you wouldn't want them to do to you' and made it a positive statement, 'What you want others to do for you, you do for them'. They were to do these, not just to neighbors or those they cared for but also for their enemy. It was an act of love to care equally for all people in spite of how they treat you. Each person is a created in the image of God. Not all act like it.
Luke 6:32-36
Even sinners love those who love them first. This is not agape. There is no sacrifice. Doing good to those who do good is nothing exceptional. It's like sending a Christmas card because someone just sent one to you first, now you feel compelled. Lending to people with the expectation of getting it back makes you more like a bank than like Jesus.
Disciples of Jesus are to:
- Do good
- Bless
- Pray
- Give
- Lend, expecting nothing back.
Discipleship is not characterized by what we don't do, but by what we do and how we do it. The love He calls us to is vulnerable, and subject to repeated abuse. And we are to make that available to all. The Lord promises your reward would be great. What is this reward? You will be recognized as 'sons of the Most High. Sons were entitled to privileges others were not afforded. The kindness of God goes out to the unthankful and evil, a group of which we were once part. Because our Father was merciful to us, we'll be that to Him.
I wonder if the crowd of disciples was beginning to thin out?
Luke 6:37-38
If John 3:16 is the most recognized and quoted verse in the bible, verse 37 has to be second. It also happens to be the most misunderstood and abused verse. A person who assumes the worse of others, assumes to understand their heart and believes they are always thinking the worse about them is applying a jaded and skewed judgment. That same person would scream foul when that standard of judgment was used on them. Our culture has adopted the saying, "don't judge me' as a pre-emptive statement or warning to others. It seems to come in advance of a person moving outside what they know to be the accepted, or normal, moral or ethical boundary.
We make thousands of judgments every day, if not hour. We are called to judge wisely and with righteousness. It's a call to treat people like 'God imagers' instead of using your own evaluation based on what they say, do or how they treat you. When we try to judge what's on the inside of a person, it is sin, and unrighteous. We being to infringe on God's business. How can we condemn anyone? What right do we have? We are not the judge to declare anyone guilty. There is no authority given to us by God to condemn our fellow man. We are called to forgive as God forgave us. Sin and forgiveness are where our experience lies; therefore, forgiveness should be very close to the surface of all we are, say and do.
If you were going to buy some grain in the marketplace at that time, you had to be careful. There were dishonest scales, men who worked hard to cheat others. You would seek out the one who treated you well, very much like how you treat your customers. If you asked for a measure of grain, you wanted someone who would give you a good and honest measure. That person would take the basket or bowl and scoop it full of grain. Then they pressed the grain into the bowl to make sure there were no voids. They'd fill it again, then give it a shake to let the grain settle in. Then the basket would be topped off again will it was running over. The word for 'bosom' was like a pocket formed with the folds of their garment to carry stuff in. With the grain overflowing it would be placed into this fold. You gladly paid the price because you know, without any doubt, you got your money's worth.
However, what if that person was the one you sold a different kind of grain to yesterday. What if you only scooped up the grain and quickly poured it into the 'bosom' pocket before he could see it wasn't quite full. How would you feel to get the same measure back that you gave to him? This is the point Jesus is making.
As disciples, we are those who have had a great measure of grace given to us. Ought we not offer a similar measure to others? This measure we use to others will be measured to us. We want to offer our measure of love without prejudice, with no judgment of evaluation, with no condemnation of unworthiness. To our list of fundamental characteristics of disciples, we can add 'forgiveness'.
Again, I wonder if a few more disciples wandered off. Some came to follow the teacher to get the things they desired. They desired a leader who would act as they thought. This love is hard.
Lately, our pandemic response brought a new phrase to our culture, "social distancing'. Some disciples have been doing that for some time, we just didn't know what to call it.
Luke 6:39-42
How can you speak of light when you stand in darkness? How could someone who's eyes were never opened speak of seeing? A blind man can lead others. A disciple who finds these characteristics of discipleship foreign unacceptable has no business leading others. A disciple, by definition, is one who follows to learn from the teacher. A disciple who follows but doesn't learn is a tag along! Teachers build followers that look like the teacher. Jesus offers two points from one hyperbolic analogy.
- How in the world could you imagine to see a spec in another's eye if you have a beam sticking out your own?
- And worse yet, imagine telling your brother to hold still and you'll remove that spec for him.
Your brother would say, "Excuse me, but please don't talk about the spec of my eye till you deal with the beam in yours." Imagine the shock, what beam is this brother speaking of. Jesus called him a hypocrite. He's a phony, pretending to be an expert at removing specs, when he clearly isn't. This is like a person pretending to be a disciple who isn't. It's common.
Recognizing the spec in your eye is humbling. "I didn't realize it was there." Some people live this way many years, playing the part, yet blind to the beam in their eye. Humility does its work in focusing your eye on you and spec in your brother isn't even visible.
Luke 6:43-45
We will be known by our fruit. The fruit of our life will flow from what's in our heart. Our beliefs and values form our thinking which form our action. Our heart, by nature, is dark and puts forth dark and foul and evil. The Lord gives his disciples a new heart. It's our job to allow the good treasure into our heart. He'll fill us up if we invite Him to. Our heart is revealed by the words of a mouth and the work of our hands.
Luke 6:46-49
The confession that Christ is Lord is nothing, if it is not accompanied by the doing the things He says. These actions authenticate the confession.
Jesus said it in Luke 5:23, "What's easier to say?"
- Your sins are forgiven
- Or, arise and walk?
Anyone could say sins are forgiven, this was easy, there was no way to prove it. So all would know He had power to forgive sins, Jesus told the paralytic to arise, take up his mat and go home. Doing the hard thing, offered authenticity to the other unseen work.
What's easier for you and I?
- Say you are a disciple saying, "Lord, Lord"
- Or, love your enemy, forgive, do good, give, bless, lend and pray for everyone, equally, even your enemy, because they were also created in God's image.
It's easy to say Lord, Lord. Anyone can do that. But to walk it out is not easy. Our walk must be purposeful, to do His will, to be like our teacher and Lord. Then, as we do the hard thing, it brings authenticity to the unseen work and the claim He is our Lord. Likewise, if the hard thing isn't done, some may wonder if that person wasn't a disciple at all.
Doing the things the Lord commanded is foundational in our life. It is like building on the rock. Years ago, we built a large structure. The first thing we did was to hire a 'deep foundation' contractor. These guys came in with a rig where they stand up 40' long, thick, heavy, steel beams, called pile. They hammer them in the ground until they stop. Sometimes you have to weld another 40' foot on and keep repeating that. You hammer until it won't go any further. Its then you know its sunk into the bedrock. Some of these went into the ground several hundred feet, others only 50 or so. When we were done, there were a hundred of these pile sunk into the bedrock. It was then, we were ready to build our building.
That building will stand for many lifetimes because it is built on a strong foundation. It will be shaken and tested over the years, but it is founded on the rock. This is what Jesus says our life is like when we build by His specifications. He said this to those who hear (27), which is everyone. He started this sermon with a great many disciples around Him. I imagine some wandered away as the way of Jesus didn't meet their expectations. They heard with their ears and their head, but it never got to the heart where it moved them. Those who hear and allow the message into their heart will be moved to act on it, to be obedient. This will be a strong foundation, a foundation of love that becomes very real in our life by:
- Doing good to the hater
- Blessing, the one who offers a curse
- Praying, for the spiteful user
- Giving to any request, sacrificially
- Lending, expecting nothing back.
- Forgiving all, because you've been forgiven all
A deep foundation can't be seen. It's all below the surface. Anyone can claim to have one. However, when the storms come, it becomes very obvious.
©2020 Doug Ford
[1] Tan, P. L. (1996). Encyclopedia of 7700 Illustrations: Signs of the Times (p. 726). Garland, TX: Bible Communications, Inc.
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