Two Roads Diverged

Stand you are able. Let me turn it on. Please stand as you are able for the reading of the Gospel from Luke chapter 6 verses 17 through 26. Jesus came down from the mountain with them and stood on a large area of level ground. A great company of his disciples and a huge crowd of people from all around Judea and Jerusalem and the area around Tyre and Sidon joined him there. They came to hear him and to be healed from their diseases, and those bothered by unclean spirits were healed. The whole crowd wanted to touch him because power was going out from him and he was healing everyone. Jesus raised his eyes to his disciples and said: "Happy are you who are poor, because God's kingdom is yours. Happy are you who hunger now, because you will be satisfied. Happy are you who weep now, because you will laugh. Happy are you when people hate you, reject you, insult you, and condemn your name as evil because of the Human One. Rejoice when that happens! Leap for joy because you have a great reward in heaven. Their ancestors did the same things to the prophets. But how terrible for you who are rich, because you have already received your comfort. How terrible for you who have plenty now, because you will be hungry. How terrible for you who laugh now, because you will mourn and weep.

How terrible for you when all speak well of you. Their ancestors did the same things to the false prophets. This is the Word of God for the People of God.

So, before we talk about this passage, first I want to talk a little bit about the Gospel of Matthew. Because this, some of this may sound familiar because it's also recorded in the Gospel of Matthew, but Matthew's account is very different. For instance, Matthew has nine different beatitudes, blessings, and no woes, how terrible it will be for you.

But Matthew is also a much longer sermon. It's all the way from Matthew chapter 5 to chapter 7. The sermon in Luke is maybe 25% of what's recorded in Matthew.

Another difference is that, in Matthew, Jesus is preaching from the mount, and so we refer to it as The Sermon on the Mount. But this particular account that we have today, that we're reading, is from Luke and it's referred to as the sermon on the plain. Of course, my mom's response to that was, "Oh, I didn't know they had airplanes back then!"

Yeah, um...

There are some significant differences between the Gospels of Matthew and Luke and sometimes people will struggle with how to reconcile this. Did Jesus preach from the mount or from the plain? Ultimately, does it really matter? No. So, my suggestion to you is when you are reading Scripture, deal with the package that you have with you, in front of you, that you are looking at. Take it as it is presented. See what insights the Holy Spirit may lead you to. And remember to hold it loosely because even within Scripture the accounts can be different.

Because humans, we are as different as, I don't know, the stars in the sky.

We all have different values. We emphasize different things. We notice different things.

And I think that God works through that. And when we are able to actually sit down at the table with one another and share our different insights and to listen, more importantly, God can work in mighty ways.

And we can grow together in love.

Luke seems to be using the, the geography in his gospel kind of, kind of theologically, like he's making a point when he talks about where Jesus is.

In Luke, when Jesus goes up to the mountain, it is always associated with prayer. When Jesus takes the time to get away from the crowd, to pray to God. In fact, in Luke, Jesus selects his 12 apostles on the mountain. And then he comes back down from the mountain and he stands on the plain, on the level ground with the people. I think that's pretty significant. I think Luke is saying that...

We can and should seek time with God alone in prayer so that we can grow closer to the Divine, but when it comes time to minister to people, to show God's love, we should be standing on level ground.

We should be viewing others as equal. In fact, Jesus says to treat others as though they were more important than you are. Or maybe that was Paul. [whoops!] But Christ lives, the way Christ lives in his life, He sees in the crowd, in the people who are struggling, he sees those whom God most wants to pursue.

In Matthew, the Sermon on the Mount is the first recorded sermon, but in Luke it is the second. A few weeks ago, we talked about the first sermon, the first recorded sermon in Luke. In Luke chapter 4, when Jesus stands in the synagogue and reads from The Scroll of Isaiah. "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me to the poor." So on and so forth. And in this first recorded sermon, Luke is telling us the purpose of why Christ came. Jesus himself has said it, when he says, "I have not come to heal the healthy. It is the sick who need a doctor."

There is a lot that is contained within this passage. And I have like, what, like not even 5 minutes left. So I gotta prioritize.

It's interesting to me that Luke does add in woes and Matthew doesn't. What is Luke trying to accomplish here?

Luke is a master at being able to echo the Old Testament.

And so, in our passage in Jeremiah, we see this... Happy are those who trust in the Lord. Happy are those who are planted by streams of water, they will not fear the drought because they have roots.

The circumstances of life don't topple them over.

They can bear the difficult times and continue to bear fruit.

Throughout the prophets in the Old Testament, there are countless instances of woe passages, right? Woe to you, Jerusalem.

But when we read those passages we should remember that the very first time "woe" was used in Hebrew history, it was as a lament.

It was a cry of despair

when someone you love died.

It is what people would say at a funeral.

So even throughout this, this pronouncement of how terrible it will be for you, there is always that note of despair.

A reminder that this is not the life that God wants for you, for us. God does not want us to live apart from him.

God wants us to trust in him, to be connected to the true source of life. Not to depend on human strength.

Not to depend on material things

The rich young man came to Jesus and said that he has done all of these, these commandments, he has kept the whole law since he was a boy, and Jesus looks at him and says, "You lack one thing. Sell all that you have and give it to the poor." And Jesus knows even as he's staying this to him that the young man won't be able to do that.

See, this rich young man, he knows that he's missing something, he doesn't know what it is, but he knows that despite all that he has, there's still something not there.

And Jesus encourages him. "Let go of what you have and then you'll find life."

There's a verse that a lot of people quote as, "Money is the root of all evil." I'm hoping that most of you know what the verse actually says. "The love of money is the root of all evil." There's a quote from William James who talked about how the desire to gain wealth and the fear of losing that wealth is the greatest breeder of cowardice and corruption. When people are afraid of losing what they have, of losing their security blanket, so to speak,

they behave differently.

Some may behave in a corrupt way. Maybe they they put themselves ahead of others, they put their own interests ahead of the needs of others. Or maybe they just don't speak up when they see wrong being done.

I know how easy it is to stay quiet. I've talked about it before, I'm the kind of person, I don't like conflict. I kinda just like to be easygoing.

But in Christ we are shown that for God everyone is worthy of hearing the gospel. That there is no one who who we should dismiss. There is no one who, we should close the door and lock it.

God says, "Let all who would come, come."

So this morning in this sermon we see a contrast between two ways of life. One way that leads to life and one that leads to death.

And we see Jesus' heart and his desire for people to be able to live life as God would have us to live,

to know that we are not dependent upon material things or human strength. We are not dependent upon everything that we are able to do, but rather that everything that we have is a gift from God.

And this morning I want to tell you that the practice of tithing is not just so that we have a way to be able to finance our work in being able to bring about God's kingdom in the world. It is also a reminder to each of us that God is the Provider, and that we can sacrifice 10% of what we have as a way of declaring that we depend on God and not the money that we have.

It's a hard lesson to remember. And it is easy to rationalize that... "I'll give 10% when I'm making just a little bit more."

But Scripture says that he who is faithful with little is faithful with much. If we don't begin the practice of tithing even when we have little, it's that much harder to begin the practice when we have plenty.

I could go on, but I'm pretty sure everybody wants to get out and be able to go have brunch.

Spend some time in fellowship with each other. And we have communion this morning.

So, in the end, I just want to say...

choose life.

Choose to believe Jesus went when he says,

"Blessed are you who are poor

because you will be satisfied with the kingdom of God." Not because when we get to heaven now, then, finally, we will have all the material things we could ever have desired, we will have the mansion and the bricks and the streets of gold, right? No. We will be satisfied because by the time we get to heaven, we already know how to value things as God values. Amen?