Luke 6:20-31 is part of the Sermon on the plain that extends to verse 49.
Luke 6:20-26 present the beatitudes. Luke has stressed that the people came to hear (verse 17). Now he shows Jesus' response and his giving a challenge to them. Although surrounded by a crowd, 20 Then Jesus looked up at his disciples. He addressed the sermon to his disciples. By using his eyes to hold his disciples' attention, he lets his closest companions know that these words are of particular importance for them. Before Luke begins the recitation of blessings and woes, he masterfully intertwines this public discourse with a private lesson specifically for Jesus' chosen disciples.
In Luke, the beatitudes and maledictions both speak of material conditions in this life to be reversed in the next. Jesus wants his followers to cultivate a new way of making sense of the world. Jesus addresses the audience directly in form with the second person and giving detailed grounds for blessedness in the final beatitude.[1] They become prophetic sayings. The prophecy of future salvation in the beatitudes refers to the present, for the longed-for age is breaking in now, the immediacy of the eschatological consciousness being something new that distinguishes Jesus from his contemporaries. Blessed are the saints who long for this age.[2]
20b“Blessed are you who are poor (πτωχοί), for yours is the kingdom of God.[3] The followers of Jesus experience the outward oppression of those who suffer poverty. They are oppressed and cannot defend themselves; they are desperate and hopeless.[4] Jesus pronounces a beatitude promised to God's poor, oppressed people, with the need for them to show love and mercy. Those blessed are those who outwardly whom we should pity. The Lord hears the oppressed and needy (Ps 69:32-33). God’s future action will meet their present need. Jesus' blessings are a proclamation of the way the world is in the reign of God. Note that there are no imperatives here, no exhortations to do better. The poor refers to those who are "so poor as to have to be," that is, those who are completely destitute. Jesus does not find any blessing in being poor; he does find that God's promise makes the poor blessed.
Such a paradoxical formulation of those who belong to the rule of God represents the central theme of the proclamation of Jesus. The poor are near to God because the eschatological reversal of fortunes is beginning to be realized. [5] As Jesus speaks, the future rule of God comes. Clearly, the rule of God manifests itself differently than the rule of Rome. The sovereignty and authority of God is behind what Jesus says. The humble receive the promise of the kingdom. In doing so, the salvation that Jesus mediates consists of fellowship with God and the related life, which also embraces a renewal of fellowship with others. To have part in the rule of God is of the very essence of salvation.[6]
21 “Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be filled (Matt 5:6). The second beatitude has an intimate relation to the first. For where there is poverty there is surely hunger. The followers of Jesus are hungry. The hungry are people who both outwardly and inwardly are painfully deficient in the things essential to life as God meant it to be, and who, since they cannot help themselves, turn to what God has promised. They are believers who seek help from Gpd because of their own helplessness.[7] Again, Luke's text emphasizes a bodily condition, not a spiritual malaise. The particle "nun" (now) focuses this beatitude because while hunger did not describe a social status like poverty, for many, hunger was a constant in their lives. Jesus' blessing promises that this unwanted companion God will banish and instead God will at last fill the hungry. Their hunger is for "now," but God will give complete and unwavering satisfaction. True spirituality, then, focuses our attention upon “now” rather than escaping our “now” for another world.[8]
In pronouncing this blessing, Jesus demonstrates two aspects of his messianic authority. He reveals that the rule of God is near. He proclaims his authority to declare this rule of God as the special possession of the poor. Upon those who have nothing in this world, Jesus bestows the whole of the coming rule of God. A life without political power or material prosperity was neither inevitably defeated nor depressed, but instead somehow blessed. The Cynic epistle, in a similar vein, says: "Practice needing little, for this is nearest to God, while the opposite is farthest away." The rule of God is this ability, this wisdom, to incorporate adversity into the enjoyment of contentment.
“Blessed are you who weep (κλαίοντες, mourn) now, for you will laugh (γελάσετε). The third beatitude Jesus proclaims upon those who "weep now" (again the "nun" particle focuses the time and place). The Lucan term for weeping expresses general sorrow, not some specialized mourning over the ways of the world. This weeping accompanies everyday life and its losses. Luke contrasts this weeping with ordinary laughter in his elevated declaration that those with tears will laugh. The prophetic promise is the year of the favor of the Lord will bring comfort those who mourn and gladness instead of mourning (Isaiah 61:2-3). Thus, where Jesus speaks of the transfigured world, he speaks in the images of symbolic language, in this case, the laughter of the time of salvation rings out.[9]
In verses 22-23 (Mat 5:11-12), 22 “Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you on account of the Son of Man (τοῦ υἱοῦ τοῦ ἀνθρώπου, which is secondary[10] given Matt 5:11, “on my account”). The reference to the Son of Man here may not be “authentic,” but the general New Testament reference to Jesus as the Son has its basis in the way Jesus referred to God as his Father.[11] 23 Rejoice in that day (eschatologically meant[12]) and leap for joy, for surely your reward is great in heaven, speaking of empowerment to participate in the kingdom for the sake of something bigger than personal satisfaction; for that is what their ancestors did to the prophets,disciples becoming the successors of the prophets. The followers of Jesus suffer persecution. What kind of reception can Jesus' followers expect? What would happen if the answer were to have others hate, exclude, revile, and attack you? Being "defamed" ("casting out your name as evil") refers to an official excommunication from the synagogue ‑‑ an attack leveled by one's entire community. Jesus' surprising revelation to his disciples is that this experience of rejection is in fact a sign of blessing. The certainty of salvation and the security it provides gives followers of Jesus courage to submit to the uncertainties of life, especially related to seeing suffering in a new light as a child of God, here becoming an occasion of joy that receives recompense from God.[13] Jesus would refer to those welcoming prophets in the name of a prophet receiving the reward a prophet (Matt 10:41a), that many prophets longed to see what this generation sees and hear what this generation hears (Matt 13:17), and that he sends prophets whom the Pharisees will flog (Matt 23:34). Jesus claimed prophetic authority that he then shared with his disciples, claiming for himself the promise of the Spirit (Isa 61:1).[14]The beatitude points us in the direction of the love of enemies. Here is precisely where the task of standing with and for the kingdom comes into play most fully, particularly whenever we confront the sad news of the world with the good news of heaven, no matter what the personal cost. One receives blessing from God especially when the world offers rejection. Such blessed boldness connects us to the same heavenly power that sustains Jesus and the prophets before him.
In Luke 6:24-26 are prophetic sayings on woes to the rich.
The context is that of blessing in the beatitudes upon some and woe upon others. In Sukka 56b: “And due to Miriam’s father and mother, do we penalize an entire watch? Abaye said: Woe unto the wicked, woe unto his neighbor. To conclude the tractate on a positive note, the Gemara says: Good for the righteous, good for his neighbor, as it is stated: “Say you of the righteous that it shall be good for him, for they shall eat the fruit of their doings” (Isaiah 3:10); the neighbors of a righteous man who witness and acknowledge the good that befalls him will benefit from their proximity to him.” In Yoma 87b is a similar combination of blessing and woe: “Fortunate are the righteous because not only do they accumulate merit for themselves, but they accumulate merit for their children and their children’s children until the end of all generations … Woe to the wicked, as not only do they render themselves liable, but they also render their children and children’s children liable until the end of all generations.”
Further, the “woe” is common in prophetic literature. Woe to those who join house to house, who add field to field, … Woe to those who rise early in the morning, that they may run after strong drink … Woe to those who draw iniquity with cords of falsehood … Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, … Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes … Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes” (Isa 5:8, 11, 18, 20, 21, 22). Woe to those who decree iniquitous decrees (Isa 10:1). Woe to him who heaps up what is not his own … Woe to him who gets evil gain for his house … Woe to him who builds a town with blood … Woe to him who makes his neighbors drink … Woe to him who says to a wooden thing, Awake (Hab 2:6, 9, 12, 15, 19).
The woe upon contemporaries suggests God is giving one final respite before the final catastrophe.[15] The prophecy of future judgment refers to the present, for the new age is breaking in now, the immediacy of the eschatological consciousness being something new that distinguishes Jesus from his contemporaries.[16] The pointedness of the "woes" in Luke's beatitudes section indicates that many of these listeners may have been actively hostile toward Jesus and his message.
In Luke 6: 24-25 is ancient tradition, since there is no reference to the person of Jesus. We find an element of compensation for the suffering and deficiencies of the present world, which is part of the eschatological transformation that will take place. Those compensated now and find satisfaction in what they receive now, and therefore no longer yearn for the coming salvation of God, will be those whom God shuts out of the participation in salvation.[17] Jesus is reminding us of the challenge in leading a human life. Out of its challenges can come a new person with renewed vision and purpose.
24 “But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation. The "woe" declared upon those who are rich in this world stipulates that these rich ones have nothing to look forward to at all. Having "received their consolation," that is, they have all their receipts, they have no future claims whatsoever.
25aWoe to you that are full now, for you shall hunger.
25bWoe to you that laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep
26 “Woe to you when all speak well of you, for that is what their ancestors did to the false prophets. Jesus directs the linked declarations in verses 22 and 26 to those who have at least established themselves in some sort of relationship with Jesus. The "woe" that Jesus warns the disciples to stay away from is the experience of acceptance, the disaster of having "all speak well of you." Jesus contrasts the historic treatment of genuine and false prophets to demonstrate his disciples' own acceptance or rejection by their communities. Thus, Jesus cannot spare his messengers hardship. He does help them understand why they suffer. Suffering is part of the service of a messenger. True prophets suffer, and the disciples are in that line.[18] The false prophets, those crowd‑pleasers who used smooth words to hide evil intentions, stand as a warning to all who may be tempted to accommodate the gospel message to make it more acceptable to everyone. Followers of Jesus need to reconcile themselves to adversity. In fact, we need to consider that when the culture or the tribe to which we belong smiles upon us, we need to have some caution.[19]
Thus far, the message of Jesus is promise and peril. The promise of God’s blessing upon the needy at the end of the age is beginning to be fulfilled in Jesus’ ministry, and that very approach of the end holds out peril to those who would seek to arrogate those blessings only to themselves. Judgment is as sure as blessing.
Luke 6:27-38 (Year C Epiphany 7, verses 27-31 Year C All Saints’ Day) undergirds and develops the perspective sketched in verses 20-26 by outlining the new commitments and behaviors that flow from this fresh way of understanding how the world works by focusing upon God as the merciful Father, whose own practices are not stingy or calculated, but lavish and full of grace. This portion of the message represents a concern for ethics. Ethics directs attention at the resolution of concrete problems or specific cases as well as the further specification of an established or developing way of life. What is the concrete situation in life that must be imagined for the ethical instruction given here, if taken at face value, not to register in practice merely an open invitation to repeated abuse by others and self-destruction? What is the logic of this speech? How do its various parts fit together? Why "love your enemies"? The problem dealt with here is the experience of hostile opposition: the various predicaments provoked and suffered by the early Jewish-Christians because of their decided social marginality. The result is a skillfully argued piece of early Christian ethics, helping further to articulate in both word and deed as a moral posture the underlying ethos of the Christians of this period, most of whom lived around Galilee. Clearly, this life was on increasingly under fire. They assume that people want to be like God. They also assume that God will reward the faithful.
Scholars call these parenetical hortatory sayings, aphorisms, and parody. They are a form of discourse that exaggerates certain traits for comic effect. Such sayings have the design of producing insight, prompting the listener or reader to react differently to acts of aggression. The supreme art of the world government by God is to cause good to come from evil, and in this way to overcome evil with good, as Jesus commanded his disciples to do.[20] That may well be the intent. Yet, at the least, the demands of Jesus do not consider their consequences, which might be very ambivalent: it also could happen that the one who strikes winds up for another hit, that the poor person without a cloak must freeze and that one strengthens the hostile occupation power! There is a piece of conscious provocation in these sayings. It is a matter of alienation, of shocking, a symbolic protest of the regular rule of force. They are the expression of a protest of any kind of spiraling of force which dehumanizes the human being and of hope for a different behavior of the person from that which is the everyday experience. In these sayings, we might find a gentle protest and an element of provocative contrast to the force that rules the world. These commands intend to find obedient persons to obey them. One understands provocative renunciation of force as an expression of love. In the circumstances of the first centuries of Christianity, the church applied these sayings literally. Christians could not be part of the armed forces of the Roman Empire. The reason is obvious. The Empire could call upon you to arrest and kill Christians. As Christianity no longer experienced persecution, the application of the rule changed. Once Christianity had some responsibility for the culture, the application of the rule changed. The point is that a provocative use of this saying intends that nonviolence lead to the possibility of change in the aggressor. However, we also have experience of people for whom such nonviolence is a sign of weakness that invites more violence. The point is that an absolute application of this rule without regard to context is hardly the intent of Jesus.
In 6:27-35, Luke provides a unitary theme around the love of the neighbor.[21]
27 But I say to you that listen, Love your enemies (Matt 5:44), placed first in the list of ethical concerns for rhetorical effect. Such love at the heart of the life of discipleship is boundless, extending beyond those of like mind to the enemy.[22] The saying has become one of the most central commands of Christian texts. Quoted often in early Christian teaching, they consider it a Christian distinction and innovation. The opinion of the church fathers that Jesus' commandment to love one's enemies is something new is only conditionally correct. In Greek philosophy, particularly in the Platonic and Stoic tradition, there are basic statements like those of Jesus. Diogenes, a Greek Cynic philosopher, gave similar advice: "When asked by someone how to repulse an enemy, he replied, 'You be kind and good to him."' In contrast with this, it is striking that Jesus speaks explicitly of the love of enemies. Nelson Mandela took this approach in South Africa when he said, "If you want to make peace with your enemy, you have to work with your enemy. Then he becomes your partner." It creates the condition of the possibility that now permits the reader to imagine the heretofore inconceivable notion of overcoming evil with good, to use Paul's terms, or the defeat of enmity through different means than those of hatred and retaliation. The saying is memorable because it cuts against the social grain and constitutes a paradox. Enemies are not those we love; those we love are not usually our enemies. Those who love their enemies have no enemies. The secret hope is that such love could turn an enemy into a friend. The phrase "love your enemies," would lose its rhetorical force, if the activity of love in the imagined confrontation were somehow to eliminate or ignore the hostile character of the stated enemy. It is a strategy for handling unfriendly opposition. Love your enemies becomes a way to take care of the jerks. It rejects the potential violence inherent in hate of the enemy. Abiding hostility provides the context for the injunction. This counsel to love your enemies has the purpose of forming a certain social character. One of the morally salient features of the teachings of Jesus was precisely this ability to handle hostility with notable restraint and calculated inversion.
Further, on a practical level, one wonders if it asks too much of a disciple. Paul is not squeamish about writing of his enemies. II Peter 3:12-22 has a separate way of handling enemies in calling enemies irrational animals, and so on. Not only that, if one reads Matthew 23 from the perspective of a scribe or Pharisee, one might not feel the love. One could even wonder if the ethical teaching of Jesus is so high that it fails to produce solid and practical results in the followers of Jesus. Some people would say it violates the basic biological, anthropological, and psychological dimension of the human being. Church history, with its crusades, wars between Protestant and Catholic, forced missionary endeavors, and anti-Judaism in Christian Europe, all suggest as much.
Jesus of Nazareth lived among enemies. The follower of Jesus has a vocation in which he or she will need to have the courage to live among enemies Christianly. The rule of God is amid its enemies. If we only want to be among friends and among those whom we think of as devout, then we are avoiding the suffering that is part of our vocation.[23]
In verses 27b-29, Jesus continues that disciples are to pray for those who persecute them, so that they may be children of their heavenly Father. However, we need to meditate upon these sayings and think of ways in our setting that we can practice an unusual object of love. His advice may feel impractical and idealistic. Yet, it may be the most practical and realistic thing Christians could practice. Such love is provocative and may bring a change in the enemy, but such love can liberate us from the bondage of hate. Martin Luther King Jr. once said, “I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear.”[24]
You love your enemies by 1) 27bdo good to those who hate you, 2) 28 bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you, which presupposes you have forgiven them.[25] In verses 29-30 is a demand for non-violence and rejection of rebellion.[26] 3) 29 If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also (Matt 5:39),[27] instead of giving in to the natural inclination of striking back. One is humiliated, but offering the other cheek is the embodiment of refraining from self-assertion.[28] In that culture, a slap in the face was an expression of hate and insult. It was a sign of challenge in which the aggressor was ready for a real fight. In this verse, a certain proactive strategy of passive resistance is apparent. Not always successful, the same behavior may nonetheless frequently produce a holding pattern, delayed attack, bewilderment, and retreat, if not defeat on the part of the predator. The Stoic philosopher Epictetus said, in a similar vein: "Does anything seem strange to him? Does he not expect worse and harsher treatment from the wicked than befalls him? Does he not count it as gain whenever they fail to go to the limit? 'So-and-so reviled you.' I am obliged to him for not striking me. 'But he also struck you.' I am obliged to him for not wounding me. 'But he also wounded you.' I am greatly obliged to him for not killing me." He also said, "Now the Cynic must have such patient endurance that most people will think that he is insensate and a stone. Nobody reviles him; nobody beats him; nobody insults him. But his body he himself has given for anyone who wants to use it as they see fit." And 4) from anyone who takes away your coat do not withhold even your shirt (Matt 5:40). This notion is a case parody, with an extremely narrow focus that has broad application. In this case, it points to a situation that rarely occurs. One could not take such a saying literally without comic effect. When taken literally, it can produce insight, prompting the listener to react differently to acts of aggression. In fact, the proposed response reverses the natural human inclination: when struck, we tend to strike back. The demand level on the follower of Jesus through such a saying is high. The use of the singular “you” makes this very personal: you offer the other cheek; you give up your coat and cloak. In Semitic culture, striking someone was a form of insult among Jews and Romans. It was a sign of challenge in which the aggressor was ready for a real fight. In this verse, a certain proactive strategy of passive resistance is apparent. Not always successful, the same behavior may nonetheless frequently produce a holding pattern, delayed attack, bewilderment, and retreat, if not defeat on the part of the predator. The Stoic philosopher Epictetus said, in a similar vein: "Does anything seem strange to him? Does he not expect worse and harsher treatment from the wicked than actually befalls him? Does he not count it as gain whenever they fail to go to the limit? 'So-and-so reviled you.' I am greatly obliged to him for not striking me. 'But he also struck you.' I am greatly obliged to him for not wounding me. 'But he also wounded you.' I am greatly obliged to him for not killing me." He also said, "Now the Cynic must have such patient endurance that most people will think that he is insensate and a stone. Nobody reviles him; nobody beats him; nobody insults him. But his body he himself has given for anyone who wants to use it as they see fit." By not feeling the need to protect what they had, every material means of manipulating and imposing oneself on Jesus and his followers in Galilee had been taken out of their enemies' hands. Under the circumstances, such injunctions were smart moves. We cannot meaningfully understand such statements as the demand for an extraordinary exercise of moral virtue, but only as the marching order never to allow the rejection and opposition that they encounter to divert them from their accepted role as witnesses of the reign of God in which they must love, do good, and bless. They cannot be witnesses of the rule of God in any other way. They must witness in this way, even though they meet with enmity, hatred, cursing, and affliction.[29] The text offers one more way to love your enemies. 5) 30 Give to everyone who begs from you, and if anyone takes away your goods, do not ask for them again (Matt 5:42). Obeying Jesus here could leave one naked. Such an action would move against the natural inclination of suing in return. The point of the saying is that one should not involve oneself in such lawsuits at all. Here is another case parody. If taken literally, it is ridiculous; the person would soon be destitute. It cuts against the social grain.
Jesus opens an indirect opposition to the OT law of pledging. To the poor man, who must give his cloak as a pledge, one must return this cloak every evening so that he can sleep in it.
Exodus 22:26-27
26 If you take your neighbor's cloak in pawn, you shall restore it before the sun goes down; 27 for it may be your neighbor's only clothing to use as cover; in what else shall that person sleep? And if your neighbor cries out to me, I will listen, for I am compassionate.
Deuteronomy 24:12-13
12 If the person is poor, you shall not sleep in the garment given you as the pledge. 13 You shall give the pledge back by sunset, so that your neighbor may sleep in the cloak and bless you; and it will be to your credit before the LORD your God.
One could not take such a saying literally without comic effect. When taken literally, it can produce insight, prompting the listener to react differently to acts of aggression. By not feeling the need to protect what they had, Jesus took every material means of manipulating and imposing oneself on Jesus and his followers in Galilee out of the hands of the enemy. Under the circumstances, such injunctions were smart moves. We cannot meaningfully understand such statements as the demand for an extraordinary exercise of moral virtue, but only as the marching order never to allow the rejection and opposition that they encounter to divert them from their accepted role as witnesses of the reign of God in which they must love, do good, and bless. They cannot be witnesses of the rule of God in any other way. They must witness in this way, even though they meet with enmity, hatred, cursing, and affliction.[30]
The philosopher Crates once said: "You will be able to open your purse easily and to give away freely what you draw out with your hand: not as you do now, calculating, hesitant, trembling, as those with shaky hands. But you will regard a purse that is full as full and after you see that it is empty, you will not complain." Note the casual approach to cash and collateral. This is subversive wisdom of the Cynic regarding money and its proper management. Significant deviation from the usual habits for handling such an issue belongs to the teaching of Jesus and his effort to upset the social order or disorder created by these patterns of both thought and action. One should see everything in these verses as part of the regular daily grind of a subjugated people's struggle to survive. Personal violence and theft are as normal a part of everyday existence as the more peaceable exchange of goods and services. It provides yet another example of how one should express the love of the enemy. The use of the singular “you” makes the difficult response direct and personal: “You give go beggars.”
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[7] Goppelt, TDNT, VI, 17-8.
[8] Rob Bell, Velvet Elvis, inspired this thought.
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[19] John Wesley.
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[23] Inspired by —Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together (Harper Collins, 1954), 17-18.
[24] King, Martin Luther Jr. “Loving your enemies” (a sermon preached at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, Montgomery, Alabama, on November 17, 1957). The Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute at Stanford University website, kinginstitute.stanford.edu. Retrieved August 1, 2021.
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[28] Stahlin, TDNT, VIII, 263.
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[32] For some, the flaw in the saying is whether there is a calculating egoism. Does it suggest that one should not go beyond self-interest? Some would say that the saying makes oneself the standard for how we treat others. Such questions raise the possibility to propose at least a relativizing of this saying, and they may even evaluate the saying in a negative way. In other words, Christian ethics must go beyond the mere consideration of what we would like others to do to us.
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