Luke 6 and the Values of the Kingdom

When Jesus speaks of the values of his new world in 6:20-26, we are, or should be, shocked at its directness and "countercultural" message. I reproduce his words again for your convenience here, and then I will illustrate two points: (1) Reversal of Expectations as Central for Jesus; and (2) The Life of Discipleship before the Expectations are Reversed. Here are Jesus' words (Lk. 6:20-26).

"Then he looked up at his disciples and said:
‘Blessed are you who are poor,
for yours is the kingdom of God.
21 ‘Blessed are you who are hungry now,
for you will be filled.
‘Blessed are you who weep now,
for you will laugh.
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. 23 Rejoice on that day and leap for joy, for surely your reward is great in heaven; for that is what their ancestors did to the prophets.
24 ‘But woe to you who are rich,
for you have received your consolation.
25 ‘Woe to you who are full now,
for you will be hungry.
‘Woe to you who are laughing now,
for you will mourn and weep.
26 ‘Woe to you when all speak well of you, for that is what their ancestors did to the false prophets."

I. Jesus' Values--Reversal of Expectations

The means by which Jesus is to bring release to captives (4:18) in Luke's Gospel is through reversing expectations or "turning the tables" in current social arrangements. To understand his words best we need to do two things: pair verses with each other (e.g, 20 goes with 24, 21 with 25, 22-23 with 26) to see the starkness of the contrast; and connect the themes of reversal here with other passages in Luke. Let's begin with the second task. Six other passages in Luke stress the "Gospel as reversal" theme. (1) Notice Mary's Magnificat (1:46-55). She foretells what her Son will do: "He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty" (1:52-53). It is almost as if this passage and Luke 6 are "singing antiphonally" to each other. (2) Then there is the story of the rich man who would builder larger barns for his crops (12:16-21). What is Jesus' message? "You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you" (12:20). And the application is: "So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich toward God" (12:21). (3) When you give a feast, according to Jesus, whom should you invite? Your drinking buddies? Those who want to watch the game with you? Those who can invite you back? No. "But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you" (14:13-14). (4) The clearest passage about reversal of fortunes is the parable of the rich man and Lazarus (16:19-31). Note that the reversal has nothing necessarily to do with the "morality" of the poor man over the rich man. There is almost a "you've received yours here"-tone to that passage. (5) The striking story of the Pharisee and tax collector in 18:9-14 stresses not so much the reversal of wealth expectations but the reversal of religious roles. The despised person goes down to his home "justified" (18:14); the Pharisee does not. (6) Finally, so as not to prolong this excessively, we have an illustration of the reversal of 5 (!) through the story of Zacchaeus in 19:1-10. Salvation comes to the house of the tax collector, which might have been unexpected, when he speaks of a fourfold restitution of anyone he has defrauded. My, even tough American antitrust and securities laws don't require a fourfold restitution.

With these passages as rich context for 6:20-26, we can understand the fervor and directness of Jesus' message. He takes out the "spiritual" emphasis of Matthew by saying "you poor" (v. 20) rather than "poor in Spirit" and by articulating woes rather than simply blessings. Jesus' words are relentlessly clear. His central purpose is to bring release to the captives, the elevation of the little people, the bringing in of the outcasts, and the replacement of the rich by these who have nothing. I really don't see how anyone could derive a Gospel of Wealth from reading Jesus in the Gospel of Luke. The most you could say is that the rich aren't condemned--if they give away half their possessions (19:8), but the general tenor of the passage is that the rich have their reward now. This puts new meaning on the concept of "cultivating big donors," doesn't it?

II. The Interim Reality--Rejection

It would be great for the little people and the disciples whom Jesus called if this reversal of expectations would just happen with the snap of fingers. The tables could be turned. Justice established. Presto. But this isn't the way life works. There is a long interim where the disciples, the hearers of Jesus' message, will experience the opposite. The reality is expressed in v. 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." Those rejected will share the goodly company of the Prophets (v. 23).

Let's look more specifically at the verbs in v. 22, for they describe the formidable immediate reality for the disciples. We look at the four verbs (hate, exclude, revile, defame) and they seem to be in no order at all, but in Luke's and the NT's view of the matter, the verbs intensify as they go along. "Hate," though appearing to be the strongest negative term, really is not. It appears throughout the Gospels, especially in Luke and John, but has no huge theological significance. The disciples are to "do good to those who hate you" and "bless those who curse you" (6:27-28). The word "exclude" has a twofold meaning in the NT. Its root meaning is to "separate," and one can either separate oneself from others (as when groups decide to go two different directions) or one can be "separated for the Gospel," which is how Paul describes himself in Rom. 1:1.

With the last two verbs, however, we get into some heavy going. The Greek verb translated "revile," is oneidizo, which is used in the context of crucifixion (Mt. 27:44) when the other thieves "revile" Jesus. In other words, "revile" opens up the theme of crucifixion, mocking, jesting, taunting and giving up one's life in a humiliating way. We do not know if the disciples "heard" this meaning in oneidizo; we do know that the alert reader ought to hear this deeper context. Finally, the verb translated "defame" is literally, in the Greek, "cast out your name as evil." But, of course, we don't speak that way in English, and so the translators "helped" us by using a word like "defame." But "defame" covers over the meaning, because ekballo (cast out) is a technical term among the Evangelists for Jesus' ministry of casting out demons. The meaning, then, is that people will not just "defame" the disciples, but they will cast them (us?) out with the kind of fervor and energy that Jesus cast out the demons.

Conclusion

You sure you want to be a disciple? We call it the Good News, in this case According to Luke, but these aren't easy words. It is almost as if they are preparing us for Lent, which will shortly begin, so that we truly can ask ourselves if we are ready for this kind of Gospel in the world we occupy. I hope that many of you, and maybe I, say "Yes."

2421