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Good to Know
Luke 6:12-49 describes what you might call the world’s first “Christian church service." Not only does Jesus officially authorize His first "apostles," but this passage is also one of only two places in the Bible (see Matthew 5-7) that give us Jesus' most important sermon—sometimes known as “The Sermon on the Mount” (sometimes also called the "Sermon on the Plain").
Why did Luke include this?
Jesus’ message was so provocative and countercultural that as Christianity spread throughout the Roman Empire, Luke’s audience began facing intense persecution. They were being ostracized, mocked, kicked out of synagogues and even killed. Can you imagine how tempting it would be to abandon or change Jesus’ original vision for His people because of that?
Luke was sure to include the origin story of the church in great detail because he wanted to make sure Theophilus and the rest of his readers remembered their roots. This passage was a reminder of exactly what kind of movement Jesus was starting, and to this very day, it powerfully reorients us to Jesus’ original vision for His gathered disciples.
The mountain (vs. 12) is probably referring to the same mountain mentioned in Matthew 5. You can visit the beautiful “Mount of Beatitudes” (locally known as Mount “Eremos”) to this very day.
“All night he continued in prayer to God” (vs. 12) – This is the only explicit mention anywhere of Jesus praying all night. Why did Luke mention this? To make sure his readers understood that Jesus saw what He was about to do as one of His most important undertakings.
“He chose from them twelve” (vs. 13) – This detail would have leaped off the page for Luke’s Jewish readers. They would have immediately understood that Jesus was rebooting the broken-down “Israel project.” His twelve apostles represented the twelve tribes of Israel, through whom God had long ago promised to unleash His blessing to all the peoples of the earth (Genesis 12:2-3).
“Whom he named apostles” (vs. 13) – The word apostle (the Greek word apostolos, which means “delegate” or “messenger”) refers to twelve ordinary men carefully selected from among the crowd of disciples (the Greek word mathetes, which means “apprentices” or “students”). These twelve men were the first people Jesus authorized to teach, heal and announce His coming Kingdom on His behalf.
“Simon…Judas Iscariot” (vs. 14-16) – These are not the guys you would expect Jesus, the team captain, to pick for His twelve-man squad. For one thing, most scholars believe that Matthew was another name for Levi, the tax collector. If that’s the case, it’s crazy that Jesus would have him working alongside “Simon the Zealot.” One of them was basically a puppet for the Roman occupiers, while the other was a Jewish nationalist fanatic bent on kicking Rome out!
“Tyre and Sidon” (vs. 17) – These were regions along the Mediterranean coast. Luke’s point was that people were coming from all over to hear Jesus and experience His healing power.
“Power came out from him” (vs. 19) – Luke wanted to make sure his readers understood that the power center of the Jesus movement wasn’t political—it was divine.
The sermon that Jesus preaches in Luke 6:20-49 is Luke’s version of Matthew’s “Sermon on the Mount” (Matthew 5-7). These two recorded sermons represent what you might call Jesus’ “stump speech.” They convey what you might have heard Jesus preaching not only on that fateful day on the Mount of Beatitudes, but also in many other places as He traveled around.
The first part of both Luke's and Matthew’s sermons is known as the “Beatitudes.” This name comes from the Latin Vulgate translation of the Bible, where the Greek word “makarios” is translated into Latin as “beati,” meaning “blessed” or “happy.” Matthew lists eight while Luke only lists four.
“Blessed…” (vs. 20-22) – The Greek word μακάριος (makarios) is often translated as “blessed” in our English Bibles. While this is a good translation, makarios is actually a tough word to translate because there’s no exact English equivalent. Though different Bibles render this word in different ways, it’s helpful to think of Jesus as saying, “Congratulations, you who are poor, hungry, sad and persecuted!” Think about how crazy that must have sounded! This captures just how provocative and surprising Jesus’ sermon was.
“Blessed are the poor/hungry/weeping/persecuted” (vs. 20-23) – This can be confusing, so first, what did Jesus NOT mean?
- He wasn’t describing four different kinds of people.
- He wasn't saying that you have to be poor, hungry, sad or persecuted to go to heaven.
- He wasn't saying that poverty, hunger, sadness and victimhood were ideal character traits for Christians.
So, what DID He mean?
Jesus was proclaiming that His Kingdom would culminate in a day of restoration and reckoning, so powerful it would turn the normal order of things on its head. His poor, hungry, sad and persecuted followers would finally experience God's vindication and comfort, while the arrogant and elite would see that their happiness was only temporary.
Following Him didn’t just mean hoping for a better life now (though that was sure to happen as people obeyed Him and served one another). It also meant that those who were miserable now could hold on to a future “day” (vs. 23) when all wrong things would be made right.
“Woe to you who are rich/full/laugh/respected” (vs. 24-26) – Interestingly, this section is not in Matthew’s Sermon on the Mount.
Just like the “blessed” statements, Jesus wasn’t referring to four different kinds of people. Instead, He was warning anyone who believed themselves to be “better” than Jesus’ followers because of their status and wealth.
Just as Jesus’ promise of a future day of restoration comforted the afflicted, His warning of a future day of reckoning was a shot across the bow for the proud and arrogant.
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