Not many years ago at all, I taught a quarter on Luke. We only made it about halfway through, and I thought that was pretty slow. I’m now learning it wasn’t nearly slow enough! You see, the points I’m trying to get across this time weren’t a part of the outline.
I was blind to them, because I hadn’t yet learned to think of Jesus and the Gospels in these terms. I’d not spent any time in the Law or the Prophets. I’d not thought of Luke in political terms or in especially missional terms.
For purposes of the present series, we’ll have to continue skipping large portions of the book. (It just kills me to skip some of these passages). I just want to cover enough to show a different, better way to read it.
(Luk 4:42-1 ESV) 42 And when it was day, he departed and went into a desolate place. And the people sought him and came to him, and would have kept him from leaving them, 43 but he said to them, “I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns as well; for I was sent for this purpose.” 44 And he was preaching in the synagogues of Judea.
Amazingly, Luke at this point has not recorded any of Jesus’ preaching other than his quotation of Isaiah, and yet he is described as preaching “the good news of the kingdom of God.” Evidently, his sermons sounded a lot like Isaiah. Indeed, we read in the preceding verse —
(Luk 4:41 ESV) 41 And demons also came out of many, crying, “You are the Son of God!” But he rebuked them and would not allow them to speak, because they knew that he was the Christ.
The “good news” could be preached without even mentioning the fact that Jesus is the Son of God! Amazing, isn’t it, that most contemporary preachers would deny such a possibility and yet Luke would disagree. Luke plainly teaches that Jesus was preaching the gospel long before he revealed himself to be the Messiah.
Of course, the gospel in its fullness necessarily includes the fact that Jesus is the Messiah. But we take “Jesus is the Christ” as self-explanatory, as meaning something like “Jesus is part of the Godhead,” but “Messiah” has much more meaning than that. It includes that, but it also includes the fact that Jesus has been made Lord of the universe, ruler of the world, and lord of each of us — sitting on the throne of David, to redeem us from slavery, to relieve us from oppression, and to free us from captivity to the powers, rulers, and authorities so that we serve only One Master — a loving, gentle, humble master.
And so we come to the Sermon the Plain —
(Luk 6:20-23 ESV) 20 And he lifted up his eyes on 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 shall be satisfied.
“Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh.
22 “Blessed are you when people hate you and when they exclude you and revile you and spurn your name as evil, on account of the Son of Man!
23 Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven; for so their fathers did to the prophets.”
Now, no fair flipping back to Matthew to interpret Luke. Theophilus didn’t have a gold-leaved, thumb-tabbed, cross-referencing pocket New Testament to check, and so, to get this right, we must read as Theophilus would have read.
“Kingdom of God” is not merely salvation or the church. The Kingdom of God is the place where the Messiah rules and the will of God is done as in heaven. Plainly, you can be poor and be saved. Indeed, the poor are far more likely to have the heart to be saved, because the poor put less confidence in the things of this earth.
But it’s also true that the Kingdom was promised to be a place where the poor are blessed. It’s God’s design that the Kingdom should be a place where the poor are given a special concern.
The hungry are treated much the same as the poor.
(Isa 55:1-3 ESV) “Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. 2 Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food. 3 Incline your ear, and come to me; hear, that your soul may live; and I will make with you an everlasting covenant, my steadfast, sure love for David.
(Psa 107:2-6 ESV) 2 Let the redeemed of the LORD say so, whom he has redeemed from trouble 3 and gathered in from the lands, from the east and from the west, from the north and from the south. 4 Some wandered in desert wastes, finding no way to a city to dwell in; 5 hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted within them. 6 Then they cried to the LORD in their trouble, and he delivered them from their distress.
(Psa 107:33-37 ESV) 33 He turns rivers into a desert, springs of water into thirsty ground, 34 a fruitful land into a salty waste, because of the evil of its inhabitants. 35 He turns a desert into pools of water, a parched land into springs of water. 36 And there he lets the hungry dwell, and they establish a city to live in; 37 they sow fields and plant vineyards and get a fruitful yield.
Now, there’s no denying that the prophets and Jesus himself sometimes use terms such as “poor” and “hungry” as metaphors for spiritual poverty and spiritual hunger. I’d be remiss to ignore the spiritual implications of Jesus’ words.
But I’d be at least as remiss, if not more so, to interpret these words as purely spiritual and to thereby deny the physical promises of the Kingdom. You cannot read the Law and the Prophets and the preceding parts of Luke and conclude that Jesus only addresses spiritual needs and does nothing for the physical needs of the people.
In fact, the ministry of Jesus to this point plainly shows a concern for both. He heals and he preaches. His physical care for those he meets would be a lie if the Kingdom did not promise concern for the physical needs of God’s people.
We must not dichotomize the gospel. The gospel is about both because the Kingdom is about both because God cares about both because God is love. We modern Christians like to so spiritualize the gospel that preaching Jesus and getting people baptized becomes the sole purpose of the Kingdom — and yet here we are in chapter 6, and Jesus has said nothing about heaven, baptism, or faith in Jesus. He’d make a pretty lousy preacher, wouldn’t he? And yet Luke says he’s preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God.
Of course, in the Sermon on the Mount, recorded in Matthew, the Beatitudes are stated in more spiritual terms (“poor in spirit,” “hunger and thirst after righteousness”), but there’s no reason to make the topic either-or or to insist that the authors record the very same sermon. Jesus certainly preached many times, and may have emphasized different elements of the gospel depending on the needs of the audience.
If you doubt me, consider —
(Luk 6:24-26 ESV) 24 “But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation.
25 “Woe to you who are full now, for you shall be hungry.
“Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep.
26 “Woe to you, when all people speak well of you, for so their fathers did to the false prophets.”
If “hungry” in Luke means “hungers and thirsts after righteousness,” why condemn those who are full? Full of what? Righteousness? You see, Luke won’t let you overly spiritualize his text.
Now, we have to accept that Jesus does not condemn laughter, eating well, or even money. Jesus laughed and, at times, ate very well. But he skipped meals when Kingdom concerns so required.
Rather, Jesus condemns those those who find their consolation there. “Consolation” could be translated encouragement or comfort.
What Jesus does tell us is that the usual roads to happiness won’t take us to the Kingdom. It’s not about accumulating wealth, a good reputation, and having a good time. That’s the path the world follows and is not the path to the Kingdom.
Rather, the path to follow is imitation of God —
(Luk 6:27-36 ESV) 27 “But I say to you who hear, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, 28 bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. 29 To one who strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also, and from one who takes away your cloak do not withhold your tunic either. 30 Give to everyone who begs from you, and from one who takes away your goods do not demand them back. 31 And as you wish that others would do to you, do so to them.
32 “If you love those who love you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. 33 And if you do good to those who do good to you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. 34 And if you lend to those from whom you expect to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to get back the same amount. 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 is kind to the ungrateful and the evil. 36 Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful.”
Our behavior toward others does not depend on their behavior toward us. We choose to love, to be generous, and to be merciful because God loves, is generous to, and is merciful to us — not because other people are. Our relationship with God drives our behavior toward other people, and they cannot be mean enough to keep us from loving them.
The Kingdom is the place where people act like God, who makes it rain on the just and the unjust.
So I have to tell this story. While I was at Lipscomb many years ago, I was told by professor about a student who lived in the dorm I was in just a few years before. Some guys decided it would be fun to get into the hallway and throw Coke bottles at each other — kind of a Coke bottle dodge ball. And this was in the days when Coke bottles were thick, glass bottles.
Well, one of the bottles broke, a shard of glass flew out, and it cut one of the boys in a vein. He bled out and died.
After the funeral, the dead boy’s parents asked to meet with the boy who’d thrown the bottle. He was, of course, apprehensive. Surely they’d be angry. Maybe they’d sue. Maybe they’d prosecute! He’d been an idiot and killed their son.
But when they met with him, they explained how the death of their son had left a hole in their hearts. They asked if they could pay for the rest of his college and maybe spend some time with him.
They rained love on the unjust, and the hurt and pain and fear was overwhelmed with righteousness. And over time, they became very close. By the power of the love of Jesus, the sinner was freed to become a blessing.
And I have this other story.
A boy lost his father to a drunk driver while very young. As a result, the boy grew up without his dad, and he deeply resented the man who’d taken his life.
Many years later, the son became an adult and well established in the world, with a wife and child. And he received a call from a man who wanted to have lunch with him. You see, this man was in a 12-step program recovering from alcoholism, and part of the program was to apologize to the people he’d hurt. And he was the man who’d killed the young man’s father.
And so they met and had lunch. The young man tearfully accepted the man’s apology and slowly worked through his anger. They kept meeting and talking, as the young man tried to help the older man defeat his addiction to alcohol. And then a miracle happened.
The hole in his heart left behind by the death of his father began to be filled by the man he was counseling through his addiction. The older man became a mentor and father-figure to the son who’d lost his father. By the power of the love of Jesus, the sinner was freed to become a blessing. And both were healed.
(I love true stories.)
In Jesus, we are freed, but not the way people expect. It’s all upside down. And upside down is better.
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PS — The passage is more easily understood when you realize that the Law of Moses requires the Israelites to lend to the poor, even if the poor have no hope of paying the money back. Lending is therefore a way of speaking of charitable giving.
