The Word Made Fresh
1While Jesus was walking through grain fields on a Sabbath, his disciples pulled heads of grains from the stalks, rubbed the shucks off in their hands, and ate the grain. 2Some Pharisees accused them of breaking the Sabbath laws.
3Jesus said, “Haven’t you read the story about David when he and his men were hungry? 4He went into God’s house and took some of the Bread of the Presence which the law says only the priests can eat, and he gave some to his men as well.” 5Then he told them, “The Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath.”
6There was another Sabbath when he had gone into the synagogue and taught. A man was there whose right hand was useless. 7The scribes and Pharisees watched to see if he would cure the man on the Sabbath. They were looking for a reason to accuse him. 8Even though Jesus knew what they were thinking, he said to the man, “Come stand here,” and the man stood up. 9Jesus said, “Is it legal to do good on the Sabbath or to do harm; to save life or destroy life?” 10He looked around at all of them, then said to the man, “Hold out your hand.” The man did, and his hand was healed! 11But the scribes and Pharisees were furious, and began to discuss with each other what they might do to Jesus.
12During that time he went out to the mountainside and spent the night in prayer to God. 13When daylight came he called his disciples together and chose twelve of them and called them apostles: 14Simon, whom he nicknamed Peter; Simon’s brother Andrew; James; John; Philip; Bartholomew; 15Matthew; Thomas; James the son of Alphaeus; Simon the Zealot; 16Judas the son of James; and Judas Iscariot, who became his betrayer.
17He came down the mountain with them to a level place where a lot of his other disciples and a crowd of people had gathered from all over Judea and Jerusalem, and from the coasts of Tyre and Sidon. 18They had come to hear him and to be healed. Even those who suffered with unclean spirits were cured. 19Everybody in the crowd was trying to touch him because of the power that came from him. And Jesus healed all of them.
20Then he looked at his disciples and said:
“You who are poor are blessed,
because the kingdom of God is given to you.
21“You who are hungry are blessed,
because you will eat your fill.
“You who weep now are blessed,
Because you will rejoice.
22“When people hate you and turn their backs on you and insult you
and dismiss you because of the Son of Man, you are blessed.
23“When that happens, rejoice! Leap with joy! Your reward will be great in heaven because that’s how their ancestors treated the prophets.
24“But too bad for those of you who are rich; you have received all you’re going to get. 25Too bad for those of you who are full now; you will be hungry. Too bad for those of you who are laughing now; you will weep with grief. 26And too bad for you when everybody praises you because that’s how their ancestors treated the prophets.
27“But I’m telling you who are listening to love your enemies, and do good to those who hate you; 28and bless those who curse you, and pray for those who abuse you. 29If someone slaps your cheek, turn your other cheek to them. If someone takes your overcoat, give them your shirt, too. 30Give to every beggar you meet, and if someone takes something that belongs to you, don’t ask for them to return it. 31Do for others what you want them to do for you.
32“If you love only the people who love you, what good is that to you? Even sinners love the people who love them. 33If you only do good things for those who do good things for you, what good is that to you? Even sinners do that! 34If you lend only to those whom you expect will repay you, what good is that to you? Even sinners will lend to other sinners, expecting to regain as much. 35So, love your enemies! Do good to them and lend to others even if you expect nothing in return! If you do that, you will be greatly rewarded, and you will be the children of the Most High who is kind even to the ungrateful and the wicked. 36Be merciful because your father is merciful.
37“Don’t judge, and you won’t be judged. Don’t condemn, and you won’t be condemned. Forgive, and you’ll be forgiven. 38Give, and you will receive – good things, shaken and pressed together and running over will be put into your lap. Whatever you give will come back to you in full measure.”
39Then he told them this parable: “Can a blind man guide a blind man? Won’t they both fall into a pit? 40And a student is not above the teacher, but whoever learns from the teacher will become like the teacher. 41Why do you look at the spot in your brother’s eye but don’t notice the pole in your own eye? 42How can you say to him, ‘Let me take that spot from your eye,’ when you don’t notice the pole in your own eye? You’d be a hypocrite! Take the pole out your own eye first, and then you’ll be able to clearly see the spot in your brother’s eye.
43“Good trees don’t produce bad fruit, and bad trees don’t produce good fruit. 44And each tree is known for its own fruit – you don’t gather figs from a briar patch. You don’t pick grapes from a thorn bush. 45A good man out of the good treasure in his heart produces good, and a wicked man produces evil out of his wickedness, because one’s mouth speaks whatever is carried in the heart.
46“Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord!’ and then fail to do what I tell you? 47I can tell you what a man is like who comes to me and listens to what I have to say and then acts on it. 48He is like the man who built a house, digging a deep foundation that was laid on rock. When a flood came it pressed against that house, but couldn’t shake it because its foundation was secure. 49But the one who hears what I have to say and does not act accordingly is like the man who built a house on the sand, with no solid foundation. When the storm came and the water rushed against it, it collapsed, and the house was totally ruined.”
Commentary
1-5: The Pharisees object to the disciples plucking and shucking grain on the sabbath. It was alright to eat on the sabbath, of course, but the preparation of the food (shucking the grain) must be done the day before. Jesus replies with a story from 1 Samuel 21 that has David eating the Bread of the Presence from the shrine at Nob. The sabbath is not mentioned in that story, so Jesus has broadened the scope of their complaint and turned their question about a sabbath observance into a more far-reaching question about religious observances in general. The Law nowhere states that one may not shuck a few handfuls of grain on the sabbath; that was a Pharisaic interpretation of the Law about keeping the sabbath day holy. So, against their legalism Jesus is declaring himself to be an authority: “The Son of Man is lord of the sabbath.” We are left to wonder if by “son of man” he was referring exclusively to himself, or was he saying that each one of us is responsible for deciding how we will keep the sabbath?
6-11: Another sabbath confrontation: the Pharisees jam into the synagogue specifically to see if Jesus will heal a man on the sabbath, which makes me suspect that the afflicted man might have been “planted” by them in an effort to entrap him. Jesus is no fool, though, and sees through their plot. Instead of simply ignoring it he confronts them face to face. The issue, he says, is not what you do on the Sabbath but why you do it. Needless to say, the Pharisees just get madder.
12-16: Jesus calls twelve of his disciples to be apostles, to be sent out by him on a mission. The most important thing to remember about these verses is that Jesus spent all night in prayer before he chose them.
It is often imagined that Jesus was praying over whom to choose, and that the choice was so crucial it required an entire night in prayer. But perhaps there is a deeper lesson here. I can picture him motionless on the rocky crest of a lonely rise, watching the sunlight fade from the sky until nothing but the stars are there; listening to every sound of every creature of the night; studying the faint shadows of rocks in the moonlight; breathing the fresh cool air of the Galilean countryside; and sharing it all — every shadow, every star, every sound, every stirring of a breeze, every falling meteor that burned a fiery streak across the dark — with the One who had said to him, “You are my precious child; I am well pleased with you.”
I learned a great many things from my mother and father, things they did not teach me. I learned just by being with them. Mom never told me it was a good thing to memorize hymns, but I listened to her sing while she prepared supper over the old wood stove, or washed dishes in the kitchen sink, and I could tell whether she was sad or lonely or happy or trying to sort out some problem or mulling over some situation by the hymn she was singing, and somehow I knew that her hymns were her prayers. Dad never sat me down and told me how to be a good husband, but I was there the night he brought Mom flowers for no reason and I heard him call her “Beautiful” ten thousand times and I saw how gentle he always was with her and I could hear their muffled voices through the bedroom wall talking into the wee hours of the night and I knew they shared everything, and somehow I knew their conversations were prayers, too. So my own opinion is that Jesus spent the night in prayer not just to get advice or to get anything at all, but simply as an act of love, because my experience has been that it is love that makes us want to spend time with someone, and it is through love that we learn how to live.
17-19: These verses introduce the “Sermon on the Plain,” which roughly corresponds to the “Sermon on the Mount” in Matthew 5-7, although much shorter. So much is said of the twelve disciples that we tend to forget that Jesus had other followers. A huge crowd of them were awaiting his return from the night-long prayer vigil. In addition, there were a large number of others from Jerusalem and Judea, and even some from Tyre and Sidon.
20-26: As in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus begins with beatitudes, or blessings. But here there are only four, followed by four woes, or curses. In the Sermon on the Mount there were nine blessings and no curses. Luke’s pattern recalls the scene in which Joshua lined up the Israelites in the valley between Mt. Gerizim and Mt. Ebal and read to them the blessings and curses of the Law (Joshua 8:33-34). Here there are four blessings in verses 20-22, and four corresponding curses (that is, “blessed are you who are poor” is countered with “woe to you who are rich”) in verses 24-26, which means that verse 23 is in the middle, and in the middle of verse 23 is “your reward is great in heaven.”
27-36: John’s message to the crowds who came to be baptized (Luke 3:10-14) can be summarized by, “Don’t take advantage of those who are under your authority, and help those who are in need.” In this passage, Jesus’ advice at first seems similar, but then we see it goes much further. John’s advice had to do strictly with action, while Jesus’ has to do as much with attitude as with action as well. John’s advice was offered to the “haves,” while Jesus’ was offered to the “have nots” as well. John was telling those who have clothes to share with those who don’t, those who have food to share with those who don’t, tax collectors not to overtax, and soldiers not to use violence against the innocent. Jesus’ advice was given also to those who were being overtaxed and harassed and oppressed and excluded: endure, and repay unkindness with kindness.
The attitude which prefaces Jesus’ advice is love. The Greek word Luke chooses for the Aramaic which Jesus spoke is “agape” (pronounced ah-GAH-pay). Agape love has to do with the way you behave toward others regardless of how you might feel about them.
You will recognize verse 31 as “the Golden Rule.” It serves as both a summary of verses 27-30 and as an introduction to verses 31-35, which explain why we should live according to this rule: because it prevents us from behaving like godless people, and because it is the way God behaves toward us.
Verse 36,”So be merciful like your Father is merciful,” is both a summary of verses 31-35 and an introduction to what follows.
37-38: There are, of course, situations in which you have to judge others. You would not want to hire a babysitter who is a registered child sex offender, for example. But only God has the authority to condemn, and condemnation should be left up to God. Be forgiving and giving. God has provided all we need and more.
39-42: The blind can’t lead the blind. The student is not more knowledgeable than the teacher. Be sure you yourself understand before you attempt to correct anyone else. The “speck” and the “log” are not degrees of sin, but rather represent levels of ignorance, albeit an ignorance of spiritual things.
43-45: Most commentaries separate these verses from verses 39-42, but I believe that they are intended to be part of the same section. The bad and good fruit are to be understood as the kinds of knowledge one has to impart to others. Having established that, it is a small step to say that one’s intentions for good or for evil determines the quality of what is imparted.
46-49: Jesus ends the Sermon on the Plain in the same way he ended the Sermon on the Mount, with a challenge to his hearers to absorb and live by what he has taught them.
Takeaway
Chapter 6 is the centerpiece of Luke’s presentation of Jesus’ teachings. Live by the words offered here and you will have gone a long way into God’s desire for the way we should live our lives.