Breaking Down Jesus’s Sermon on the Plain

The Sermon on the Plain (Luke 6:17–49)

J. R. R. Tolkien liked to create tales about locations he known as “perilous,” locations the place we come into contact with a sort of energy that, if rightly revered, leads us to sudden pleasure and, if taken too calmly, results in overwhelming distress. The “degree place” the place Jesus delivered his well-known Sermon on the Plain is such a spot. As Jesus says, “everybody when he’s absolutely skilled will probably be like his trainer” (Luke 6:40). If we’ll belief Jesus to reshape our hearts to replicate all that he’s and all that he gives, we’re on a path that results in excellent and everlasting happiness: “Blessed are you . . . .” If we select every other path, it can result in distress and break: “However woe to you . . . .”

One peril we encounter as we hear this sermon is the hazard of dismissing it as second finest. In any case, Matthew’s Sermon on the Mount is 3 times as lengthy and is extra broadly recognized. Particulars of the Gospel texts permit for 2 potentialities: Matthew and Luke could recount two distinct moments in Jesus’s instructing ministry, or they could give accounts of the identical occasion. Both means, a totally skilled disciple will give full consideration to all of Jesus’s instructing. After we hear the Sermon on the Plain by itself phrases, key themes for the coaching of our hearts emerge.

First, we discover that what occurs on this perilous place is greater than a sermon. Someplace close to Capernaum (Luke 7:1; Luke 5:17), Jesus had spent an evening praying within the hills surrounding the Sea of Galilee (Luke 6:12; Luke 5:1). As day broke, he known as a bunch of disciples and selected twelve of them as apostles. He then comes down to face on “a degree place” (Luke 6:17)—the element that offers rise to the title, Sermon on the Plain, referring both to flat floor on the foot of a steep hill or to a degree terrace on a hillside. Right here Jesus is joined by one other “nice crowd” of his disciples and by a “nice multitude” of others who’ve come to listen to him and to be healed. Whereas energy goes out of Jesus to heal many within the crowd, he lifts up his eyes “on his disciples” and begins to talk. What occurs on the Plain is subsequently an encounter with Jesus’s highly effective deeds, which might restore the physique, and his highly effective phrases, which reshape the center. Luke desires us to see Jesus as a Trainer who each says and does. A completely shaped disciple will subsequently by no means converse empty phrases. We is not going to solely name him “Lord” however will even put into follow every little thing Jesus says (Luke 6:46–47). Listening to is perilous, as a result of it confronts us with a alternative: are we drawn to Jesus’s energy, prepared to listen to what he says? Or will deeper dedication make us prepared to listen to and obey? Whether or not we’re among the many disciples to whom Jesus speaks most instantly or among the many crowds in whose “listening to” as he speaks (Luke 7:1), we should select.

Second, the setting of this sermon in Jesus’s unfolding ministry speaks to a different sort of peril: being skilled as disciples of Jesus will expose us to controversy, battle, and criticism. In Matthew, the Sermon on the Mount begins earlier than we learn of any opposition to Jesus’s public ministry. Against this, Luke lets us see that along with early successes, Jesus faces opposition, whether or not murderous rage (Luke 4:28–29), suspicion of blasphemy (Luke 5:21), objection to his affiliation with “tax collectors and sinners” (Luke 5:30), or criticism of his lax practices relating to fasting and sabbath relaxation ( Luke5:33; Luke 6:2). The Pharisees and scribes, in search of causes “to accuse him,” are “crammed with fury” once they discover one (Luke 6:7, 11). Towards this backdrop, the Sermon on the Plain points a problem. It warns us that being a spiritual one who is dedicated to understanding the Scriptures and severe about making use of them to life just isn’t sufficient. Many academics matching that description additionally reject Jesus. They’re blind guides (Luke 6:39). Solely Jesus’s method to understanding and making use of the Scriptures will result in pleasure ultimately. However with this problem comes a promise: Jesus gives grace to maintain us when following him is dear. If we’re hated now due to our dedication to him, we’re on the trail to a way forward for infinite pleasure (Luke 6:22–23). When floodwaters rise in opposition to us, he’s robust sufficient to maintain us protected (Luke 6:48). Being close to to Jesus is a dangerous place, multiplying each hardship and beauty.

Being close to to Jesus is a dangerous place, multiplying each hardship and beauty.

Lastly, as the 2 earlier themes have hinted, the Sermon on the Plain has a relentlessly Christological, or Jesus-centered, focus. Whereas this might be stated of all of Jesus’s instructing (in truth, of each a part of Scripture!), this sermon sharpens the main target in a really particular means. Verses 39–40 (whose close to equivalents in Matthew are discovered exterior the Sermon on the Mount) stress two information: negatively, a disciple can’t rise above the constraints of the trainer; positively, a totally shaped disciple will “be like his trainer.” We may take this to imply that Jesus is simply an awesome trainer and function mannequin. However neither Jesus nor Luke leaves us this selection. Luke invitations us to marvel on the distinctive authority of Jesus’s instructing (Luke 4:32, “his phrase possessed authority”). Because the miracle following the sermon reveals us, after we embrace this authority, we aren’t merely obeying instructions however placing religion within the Lord who speaks them (Luke 7:7-10). Jesus underscores the purpose as he opens the sermon. He speaks phrases of blessing and woe because the Son of Man, declaring who will and gained’t enter the dominion of God (Luke 6:20–26). Jesus goes on to reply the query raised by controversies with scribes and Pharisees: Whose method to Scripture is finest? “However I say to you . . . Love your enemies” (Luke 6:27) is Jesus’s means of claiming that his method to understanding God by means of the phrase is finest, for 2 causes. First, Jesus just isn’t solely a scholar of the phrase however its definitive interpreter (Luke 6:5, “Lord of the Sabbath”), its achievement (Luke 24:44, “every little thing written about me”), and even the supply of revelation (“I say”). Second, divine perfection lets Jesus lead us to locations no different trainer may safely go. He can name us to like our enemies as a result of his love is all the time excellent, because the cross will supremely present. He can inform us that the Father’s infinite mercy and beneficiant forgiveness set the usual for our lives as a result of he himself embodies these items (Luke 6:36-38). Jesus’s life reveals not a touch of hypocrisy (Luke 6:42) and it produces no dangerous fruit, as a result of the “treasure of his coronary heart” is totally good (Luke 6:43–45).

All of this magnifies a refined sign Luke sends as he introduces the Sermon on the Plain, utilizing an emphatic pronoun to emphasize the truth that it’s Jesus who speaks: “And he himself. . . started saying . . . ” (Luke 6:20). What’s most vital about this sermon just isn’t its content material, says Luke, however its preacher. That is what makes the “degree place” so perilous. How may we overestimate the enjoyment of trusting—or the distress of refusing—the One who gives to coach us within the methods of excellent religious integrity, divine mercy towards those that least deserve it, and eternal blessing for any who will obtain it as a present?

C. D. “Jimmy” Agan III is the creator of Luke: A 12-Week Research.

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