Luke's Beatitudes

​By Steve Houghton, Lay Preacher

Lord we pray that your scripture will burn in our  hearts and incite us through your Holy Spirit to  amend our lives to the teachings of Jesus. Amen. 

While studying today’s gospel it occurred to me that  there are really two themes to be absorbed here;  one on the location of the sermon and the healings  and the other on the “blessed” and the “woe” There  are some outstanding differences between Luke’ account that we heard this morning and Matthew’s  account. After doing research for this sermon I am  pretty sure I could offer a seminar on the different and interplays between the two but you will be happy to know that I am focusing only on Luke’s  version this morning. 

First, we need to consider the geography of the  place where this sermon is given. Luke’s version is  often referred to as the “sermon on the plain” and  so it is as we heard this morning that Jesus set  about teaching on a “level place”. This level place  was not just on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, it  was a plain on a rise above the shore. It was also  below some hills behind, much like we see in our  area. That is because the Sea of Galilee is actually  a broadening of the river Jordan and formed to  some degree like this area was formed by the  Connecticut River. The topography offered an are where it is easy for the human voice to be heard  over a fairly long distance. So we have a large level  area with a sort of bowl shape and with great acoustics. If you are old enough think Yazger’s farm  the site of Woodstock. 

The other thing we need to know is that Tyre and  Sidon had a good many gentiles living there. The  population that had access to the area was  moderately large and diverse. 

Jesus and a large number of his followers have just  been on retreat up in hills surrounding this spot and  Jesus has picked out the twelve followers that make  up the core of his teachers. As they all come down  from the hills they are met by a very large group of  people who want healing and are looking for a good  show. The level area offers a situation in whic everyone is on the level. No one is higher than their  neighbor. The area is large enough that those who  have been pushed to the margins, like lepers and  those possessed and are unclean due to all kinds of legalistic reasons, still can see and hear what is  going on. 

Now in this environment, what is the first thing tha Jesus sets out to do? Heal. The very first thin Jesus does is heal. Not just some but “he was  healing everyone.” Not only that but he was healing  both the one that he could touch and those who,  though they could not reach him, were healed by a  power that went out from him.  

When I was working for a living I had to study  explosions. In that pursuit I and my fellow  investigators would study ultra slow videos of  explosions and we could watch the pressure wave  as it moved out from the center of the explosion.  You might have seen this in some action movies or  documentaries about nuclear explosions in the  Bikini Islands. When I think of the power of healing that went out from Jesus that is the picture that  forms in my mind though not a wave of destruction  but a wave of healing. 
So now we have a very large gathering of people all  on a level field and all are now whole  There is n margin. There are no outcasts. I have a hard time  believing that Jesus didn’t understand and plan  what was happening. If the kingdom was going to  start it was going to start in just such a manner.  While Jesus had already done many miracles and  taught many ideas I think this was the start of God’s  kingdom. 

Having now worked his way to the bottom of the  bowl as he was healing the crowd, he lifts up his  eyes and begins to preach. It is dead quiet and you  can hear his voice no matter where you are  standing. He doesn’t need to shout but can talk smoothly and warmly. The great “blessed are” and  “woe to” are not spoken until all can hear. 

There are a lot of ways you can hear the beatitudes  both today and when they were spoken. As I was  growing up they became part of the check list for  the great retirement plan after death. That list was  very long but it was made pretty clear when this  reading of Luke was preached that these blessed  ways of being and especially the woes were on the  list St. Peter had in his hand at the golden gates. 

I recently came across a quote from Brian McLaren  in a Center for Action and Contemplation,  (December 29, 2024) meditation and while he  follows the pattern of Matthew’s beatitudes the  same can be said of Luke. He wrote; “I’ve come to  understand the Beatitudes as a way of saying  something very different. The Beatitudes say, We, this new movement, bless the very people who are  usually excluded. Jesus says, In this movement, we  bless the poor and the poor in spirit. We bless those  who mourn, we bless the meek or gentle, we bless  those who hunger and thirst for justice. We bless  the merciful and the pure in heart. We bless the  peacemakers and those who are persecuted for  standing up for justice. And then Jesus continues:  We see the world differently because we bles people who are usually forgotten, despised, or  excluded. That different way of seeing the worl leads to a different way of being in the world. Indeed it does. 

I think if we look at the woes through the same sort  of lens we see less a condemnation of people and  more a condemnation of selfish being  If your focus is on being comfortable then you have comfort in  your own little world instead of making your  community comfortable with you. That selfishnes is its own reward. And if you focus on your own  belly instead of the belly of your community, don’t  be surprised that when you have needs, your  community doesn’t come to your rescue. If you sit  back at home enjoying what you have while others  are anguishing over their troubles, don’t wonder  why no one comes to help you in a time of grief or  loss. And finally, if you are only looking for th adulation of those around you, abandoning the  possible perception that you are a do gooder,  forgetting what Jesus taught, then you will have let  your community down and perpetuated the discord  that exists in our society today.

Jesus says over and over again that the Kingdom is  here and our efforts should be here  In the Sermo on the Plain, Luke shows us what Jesus saw as  essential behavior to bring that Kingdom to life. He  does it in the healings and he does it in the  teachings.  

A short time back, I was talking to Larry who  distributes tents and blankets and things to folks  who are in need. We were talking about the greater  need to find a systemic solution for homelessnes and how our meager efforts were only puttin bandaids on very large problem. I told him that at  least we could put a bandaid on it and help for a  short while.  

I have thought about that a lot since we talked and I  have thought of the response we get from the  people we put bandaids on. I have come to realize that it is not the bandaid that is helping, it is the fact  that we are there to offer the bandaid  We car enough to be out there and having something to  offer  The size of our offerings matters but the f that someone cares, someone is willing to put  mistakes behind, someone is willing to offer a han and recognize the humanity in the suffering; that matters more.  
Do you hear what God is offering here  Does it rin true? Do you feel it in your heart? I believe God  made us for relationships. I believe Jesus taught us  about relationships; that the Kingdom will blossom  from relationships. Now, in this time and place, we  need to see the Son of Man in everyone we meet.  We need to stand on the level place and help Jesus  heal everyone. The world around us is trying to pull  us apart, to see everyone as other. If we can take the time and effort to practice hospitality we ca make a difference  We can mend the tears in ou relationships and change the feelings of ill ease that  confronts us too often these days. 

If more and more of us offer the bandaids that Go has asked us to offer then pretty soon we have  direction and then a movement and then maybe the  Kingdom. Who knows? What we do know are the  lessons that Jesus has offered us, on the plain, in Jerusalem, at the shore of Galilee, every place he  walked.  

How can we follow the teachings he spoke on the  plain today and this week?  Amen.