17 And he came down with them and stood on a level place, with a great crowd of his disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea and Jerusalem and the seacoast of Tyre and Sidon, who came to hear him and to be healed of their diseases;
Jesus has just appointed his twelve apostles according to Luke’s more detail and chronologically oriented Gospel. He proceeds to give what scholars call the Sermon on the Plain, Luke’s rendition of the Sermon on the Mount. The lectionary skips a few verses to focus on the blessing’s and woe’s that Jesus teaches when coming down from the mountain. Catholic teaching is not strict on whether the Sermon on the Mount or the Sermon on the Plain are the same event or different teaching moments in Jesus’ ministry. I think it is most likely the same story told from a different perspective.
Jesus’ audience as illuminated by Luke is not just a Jewish audience as inferred by some according to Matthew’s Sermon on the Mount. Jesus has attracted crowds from Judea, Jerusalem and Tyre and Sidon, the two famous Phoenician cities and therefore Gentile. Luke’s specification of “level ground” implies flat ground that is not the normal ground, so Jesus is still technically on the mountain just a level part of it, a natural pulpit from which to teach those at the foot of the mountain. The whole position reflects Moses’ bring of the Law to the people from Mount Sinai.
Luke’s rendition of the Beatitudes is shorter than Matthew’s and there are a variety of explanations why. We know from ancient historical sources that Matthew wrote his Gospel from his own memory and a collection of sayings written down that recorded Jesus’ sayings. He would write the narrative as he remembered and when he could he would supplement speech from other parts of Jesus’ ministry for thematic purposes. If he had loose sayings that matched a moment, he would put them in there as the Spirit guided him to write it.
Luke however is writing as a historian, one of the highest calibre with a precise attention to detail. His account is most likely the most literal rendition of the event as he interviewed a variety of witnesses in order to write his Gospel. But this is all just my opinion on why they are different.
20 And he lifted up his eyes on his disciples, and said: “Blessed are you poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.
Jesus looks to his newly appointed apostles along with his other disciples and told them “Blessed are you poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.” The term “Blessed” is used repeatedly here so we’ll explain it once in this section. The Greek word is Marakios the connotation is favoured, in this context, favoured by God. The poor although in our initial reading will simply seem to be talking of those who are materially poor the ancient perspective implies both poor of material and Matthew’s rendition “poor in spirit”. Not a contradiction, the ancient terminology just meant both whereas now we see it as separate. This comes from the fact that those who were physically poor were considered cursed in someway, the physical aspects of their life was intimately determined by the spiritual. Someone who is poor physically is also poor in spirit.
Jesus corrects the interpretation or more likely, Jesus is saying how it will be from now on in the New Covenant. Those who are poor (in spirit as well) well inherit the Kingdom of God. They are not rejected by God, but their way of life can serve as a purpose to receive the Kingdom of God.
21 “Blessed are you that hunger now, for you shall be satisfied. “Blessed are you that weep now, for you shall laugh.
Those who suffer from hunger now in this world, will be satisfied, that is they will not hunger in the fullness of life in Heaven. Those who weep, that is sorrowful for the sin of the world, you will laugh and feel joy in Heaven.
22 “Blessed are you when men hate you, and when they exclude you and revile you, and cast out 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.
Those who are cast out as evil and excluded and hated because of their faith in Jesus, the Son of Man, will be favoured by God. These are all things that will occur in the future. Especially by the Jews, up until the formation of “Rabbincal Judaism” which is the foundation of Modern Judaism, Christianity or “the Way” or the “Nazarenes” were considered a sect of Yahwahism but they were cut off and Christians were considered heretics. Jesus is pointing out that this cutting off actually makes them favoured by God.
Gentiles will also persecute the Christians later as well, especially the Roman emperors who will enact horrific genocides of Christians up until its legalisation in the 4th century. All these horrors will in fact be a sign that they are blessed.
They should all be filled with joy even in these tribulations because their treasures are in heaven and that they should not be surprised by the tribulations either because, now Jesus lets you know who he is focusing on as the persecutors, their fathers also did the same to the Prophets. This means Jesus has the Jews in mind as the main persecutor of his followers which history attests to.
24 “But woe to you that are rich, for you have received your consolation.
25 “Woe to you that are full now, for you shall hunger. “Woe to you that laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep.
26 “Woe to you, when all men speak well of you, for so their fathers did to the false prophets.
Now Jesus declares the woes on the rich, the satisfied and those who are spoken well of in this world. It is not a definite damnation of these things but it is absolutely true that physical wealth and consolations make a person blind to the spiritual life. If you don’t have anything, its easier to turn to God but if you think your wealth, food and status grant you your contentment then you simply won’t turn to God.
Jesus highlights a historical truth of false prophets as well. Throughout the Old Testament their are false prophets who actually say “good things” to the Jewish leadership, they are praised by said leadership and elevated over true prophets whose true message was not accepted because it didn’t sound very positive. Being spoken of badly by the world is a good indicator that you not on side with it and we’re called to a much higher world than this one.
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