The gospel for this coming Sunday, the 6th Sunday, Year C is St. Luke’s “Sermon on the Plain.”

“Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude and insult you, and denounce your name as evil on account of the Son of Man. Rejoice and leap for joy on that day! Behold, your reward will be great in heaven…Woe to you when all speak well of you, for their ancestors treated the false prophets in this way.

The theme of the last blessing is clearly rejection “on account of the Son of Man” (v. 22); that is, rejection because of following Jesus, because of becoming a disciple. One cannot read this without thinking of Jesus’ own experience of rejection by the hometown folks at Nazareth that has set the tone for his ministry. The very ones who should have most readily accepted him, drove him away. For Luke, as well as for the other Gospel writers in different ways, following Jesus, following the path of discipleship, is costly and will often result in personal loss and suffering.

The gospel for this coming Sunday, the 6th Sunday, Year C is St. Luke’s “Sermon on the Plain.” Jesus uses this word in a totally different way. It is not the elite who are blessed. It is not the rich and powerful who are blessed. It is not the high and mighty who are blessed. It is not the people living in huge mansions or expensive penthouses who are blessed. Rather, Jesus pronounces God’s blessings on the lowly: the poor, the hungry, the crying, and the hated. Throughout the history of this word, it had always been the other people who were considered blessed: the rich, the filled up, the laughing. Jesus turns it all upside-down. The elite in God’s kingdom, the blessed ones in God’s kingdom, are those who are at the bottom of the heap of humanity.

But despite such opposition, disciples are blessed, since God promises to care for them. They belong to his kingdom and are under his rule. The poor here are like the Old Testament anawim, the pious poor. These beatitudes serve to comfort and reassure those who belong to God. They stand in a long line of the faithful, including the prophets of old. It is often the case that standing up for Jesus and the truth brings ostracism, but God has promised blessing to his children.

The gospel for this coming Sunday, the 6th Sunday, Year C is St. Luke’s “Sermon on the Plain.” We are familiar with the beatitudes: “Blessed are…” There is an evolution of the meanings of “blessed” (makarios). In ancient Greek times, makarios referred to the gods. The blessed ones were the gods. They had achieved a state of happiness and contentment in life that was beyond all cares, labors, and even death. The blessed ones were beings who lived way up there in some other world. To be blessed, you had to be a god. That word took on a second meaning. It referred to the “dead”. The blessed ones were humans, who, through death, had reached the other world of the gods. They were now beyond the cares of earthly life. To be blessed, you had to be dead. Finally, in Greek usage, the word came to refer to the elite, the upper crust of society, the wealthy people. It referred to people whose riches and power put them above the normal cares and worries of the lesser folk — the peons, who constantly struggle and worry and labor in life. To be blessed, you had to be very rich and powerful.

The gospel for this coming Sunday, the 6th Sunday, Year C is St. Luke’s “Sermon on the Plain.” Luke incorporates part of the same material that Matthew had included in the Sermon on the Mount (Matt 5–7). There is a rhythm like a call and response: a condition not of the kingdom followed by a promise that the Kingdom will heal the problem. All of it is cast in the repetition of blessings and woes.

And raising his eyes toward his disciples he said: “Blessed are you who are poor, for the kingdom of God is yours. Blessed are you who are now hungry, for you will be satisfied. Blessed are you who are now weeping, for you will laugh. Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude and insult you, and denounce your name as evil on account of the Son of Man. Rejoice and leap for joy on that day! Behold, your reward will be great in heaven. For their ancestors treated the prophets in the same way. But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation. But woe to you who are filled now, for you will be hungry. Woe to you who laugh now, for you will grieve and weep. Woe to you when all speak well of you, for their ancestors treated the false prophets in this way.

Jesus’ authority was not limited to his healing activity. He also taught with authority. Nothing indicates this more than the blessing and woe section of the Sermon on the Plain. It recalls the Old Testament prophets (remember that in the synagogue in Nazareth Jesus had taken on the mantle of the prophet Isaiah). Jesus proclaims the truth with promises of blessing and judgment. The four blessings are followed by four parallel woes. 

The gospel for this coming Sunday, the 6th Sunday, Year C is St. Luke’s “Sermon on the Plain.” In the 5^th Sunday readings (Lk 5:1-11) we had the account of the calling of the first apostles from their labors as fishermen: “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men.” (v.10). The remainder of Luke 5 then quickly recounts miracles that we see as Messianic signs (curing a leper, curing the man on the stretcher/forgiving sins, answering why Jesus ate with sinners), and then moves into Luke 6 where Luke narrates encounters with the Pharisees and scribes who question Jesus on the Mosaic Law. And then, Jesus “reconstitutes” a new Israel as he calls 12 apostles. 

The gospel for the 6th Sunday, Year C is St. Luke’s version of the Matthean “Sermon on the Mount”, referred to as the Sermon on the Plain. The Beatitudes, which begin each of the “Sermons”, have a tendency to lead readers/hearers of the text to assume that the sacred author has constructed a general ethical code which forms the core message. Craig Keener (A Commentary on the Gospel of Matthew, 160) notes that there are more than thirty-six discrete views about the sermon’s message. He summarizes 8 of them:

The gospel for this coming Sunday, the 6th Sunday, Year C is St. Luke’s version of the Matthean “Sermon on the Mount”, referred to as the Sermon on the Plain. Lest one presume that they are simply copies of one another, it should be noted that there are differences between the Sermons. They share significant overlap as both sermons convey Jesus’ teachings on the Kingdom of God and ethics. Yet, there are key differences. For example, in Matthew the Sermon on the Mount takes place “on the mountain”  (Matthew 5:1) while in Luke’s narrative the sermon is delivered “on a stretch of level ground” (which does not preclude that the level ground is in a mountainous region).