Today, I am reading and commenting on  Luke 6-7.

In today’s passage Luke recounts a sermon by Jesus which is very similar to the one recorded in  Matthew as the Sermon on the Mount.  Some people think see the differences between them as indicating contradictions between the Gospel of Luke and the Gospel of Matthew in a “Well, which way did Jesus say it? The way Luke recorded it or the way Matthew did?”  I see them as two different deliveries of the same basic sermon at different places and times, much like many public speakers deliver variations on the same speech to different audiences (I’ve done it myself).  I believe that Jesus delivered variations on this sermon multiple times throughout His three years of ministry.  In fact, I believe that this was probably the core of most of the sermons He preached.

Now, having said all of that, let’s get to what He actually said, as recorded by Luke.  Here the Beatitudes have a completely different slant.  Matthew recorded, “Blessed are the poor in spirit…”, Luke records, “Blessed are the poor…”  Matthew, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness…”, Luke, “Blessed are the hungry…”.  Luke adds a series of “Woes” after his list of Beatitudes.  They are the opposites of the blessings.  I think the one to which we need to pay the closest attention is the last one. “Woe to you when everyone speaks well of you, for that is how their ancestors treated the false prophets.”  That is a really tough one.  We all want people to speak well of us, but Jesus tells us that if everyone speaks well of us, we are probably guilty of misrepresenting God’s words when we speak.  From there I want to go into Luke’s account of what Jesus taught about the golden rule.  The context really makes it clear what Jesus meant when He told us to do unto others as we would have them do unto us.  Jesus says that right after telling us to love our enemies and to pray for those who mistreat us.  You can’t get any further from this world’s take on the Golden Rule, “Do unto others as they do unto you.”  No, Jesus tells us that it is even more important to do nice things to those who treat us badly.  All too many of us think that being a nice person means being nice to those who are nice to us, but it’s OK to be rude to those who are rude to us.  Well, Jesus tells us that if we want credit for being nice we need to be nice to those who are mean to us. 

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Luke 6-7.

In Luke’s account of Jesus’ primary teachings, which Matthew records in the Sermon on the Mount, He tells us that we are blessed when people hate us because of Him, when they exclude us and insult us, even go so far as to call us evil because we hold to His teachings.  In fact a little further into His sermon, Jesus tells us that we should do good for such people, pray for them, and bless them.  He tells us to be like our Heavenly Father, merciful to those who hate us just as He is merciful to us and to those who hate Him.  Let us do good to those who cannot, or will not, repay us (or who will repay us with evil), and God will repay us for what we have done.  Let us remember that we owe Him more than we can ever repay.  Which brings me to the story of the woman who anointed Jesus’ feet at the end of today’s passage.  We should all strive to have the enthusiasm to serve Jesus that she had.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Luke 6-7.

I was struggling with deciding what to write this morning because there are so many good teachings in today’s passage and I could not figure out how to bring them together into one theme.  However, as I read the passage again in my attempt to put my thoughts in some sort of order, as I was reading Luke’s account of John the Baptist’s disciples asking Jesus if He was the One I decided to focus on What Jesus said there.  Not the answer Jesus gave John’s disciples, but what He said after they left.  Jesus talked about how the “best people” rejected John the Baptist because he lead an ascetic lifestyle, because he neither drank wine nor feasted.  On the other hand, they also rejected Jesus because He drank and went to parties with people who were considered unsavory.  So, we have these contrasting styles regarding their ministry, yet Jesus and John the Baptist both recognized the other as doing God’s work.  Some of us will be called to serve God by living an austere lifestyle, calling others to set aside the pleasures of this world in order to serve God.  Others will be called to spend our time with sinners in their pursuits, showing them that God loves and cares about them.  And some will be called to a lifestyle somewhere in between.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Luke 6-7.

The way Luke presents the two stories about the Pharisees confronting Jesus over the Sabbath indicates that he wants us to see a common theme between them.  Both of these stories remind us that we should not allow a rigid adherence to rules, even otherwise good rules, prevent us from caring for ourselves or doing good.  We should take a day each week to relax and worship God, but there is nothing wrong with doing things on that day which bring us joy and there is never anything wrong with doing things which improve the lives of others.

I feel like I need to write about Jesus’ instructions that we love our enemies and the story about the woman who anointed His feet.  My thoughts about them are linked, but I am not sure I am going to be able to actually put that in writing.  When Simon the Pharisee thought that Jesus should not allow the woman to touch Him, Simon was doing exactly what Jesus meant when He told us not to judge others. I want you to consider Jesus’ response to Simon here.  He called him out for what he was thinking about the woman.  It appears to have worked, because how do we know what Simon was thinking?  Clearly we know because Simon became a Believer and told this story on himself.  Simon thought of this woman as the “other”, one of those whom he did not need to love because they had put themselves outside of the acceptable by their actions.  Let us not make the mistake Simon made.  Let us make sure that the “others” know that God loves them and that nothing they have done is so bad that God will not forgive them.  And let us not hold the sins which God forgives against them.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Luke 6-7

When I began reading today’s passage, I was feeling like it would be a passage I would have trouble commenting on.  Then I came to verse 6:27, “But to you who are willing to listen, I say, love your enemies! Do good to those who hate you.”   I think that we as Christians spend too little time talking about what this verse and those which follow mean about how we should live our lives.  It is in the context of the above statement that Luke records Jesus giving us the Golden Rule, “Do to others as you would like them to do to you.”  And it is worth noting that we cannot take Jesus’ statement of the Golden Rule as a transition into the next thing He talks about because a few verse later He repeats “Love your enemies.”  Right here Jesus spells out what it takes to truly be His follower.  I want to note that He talked about loving our enemies just a few verses after He said in 6:22-23, “What blessings await you when people hate you and exclude you and mock you and curse you as evil because you follow the Son of Man.  When that happens, be happy! Yes, leap for joy! ”  If we truly want to follow Christ, we need to do good things to and for those who abuse us.  And we need to expect that they will abuse us.  This passage is the basis for Chapter XII of “Les Miserables” by Victor Hugo.  While it is not quite true as the Bishop says that we can buy someone’s soul from evil by this sort of action, after all, Jesus has already purchased their soul with His death, we can perhaps show people that their souls have been purchased by such action.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Luke 6-7

Having previously caught flack from Pharisees over their rigorous interpretation of the Law regarding the Sabbath, Jesus took the initiative when He saw a man with a deformed hand in a synagogue on the Sabbath.  Instead of allowing them to set the terms of the discussion, He did so Himself.  The Law said, “Remember to observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. .. On that day no one in your household may do any work.”  The Pharisees focused on the second part which I quoted there.  Jesus moved the focus from that to the first part about keeping it holy.  He focused everyone’s attention on the fact that you do not keep the Sabbath holy by making those in need wait for another day before you help them.

Today’s passage also contains Luke’s account of the teachings which Matthew presents in the Sermon on the Mount.  I suspect that Jesus touched on these themes many times throughout His ministry.  In fact, these two slightly different accounts of these teachings may actually represent two different occasions (or perhaps more than two).  As a general rule, I prefer the more nuanced account given in Matthew.  However, I also find an appeal in the much more blunt way in which Luke relates the same teachings.  God blesses the poor and the hungry, while sorrow awaits the rich and prosperous.  Which puts a whole new light when Jesus says a few verses later that we should love our enemies and do good for those who hate us.  We need to think about what Jesus means when He says “give to anyone who asks” when we realize this follows Him telling us that the poor are blessed.  Of course, Jesus also tells us elsewhere to be as wise as serpents.