MATTHEW 5-7
LUKE 6:17-49
Jesus walked everywhere He went — from village to village, healing the sick, spending time with people, laughing, talking, eating, listening. He was equally at home with wealthy landowners, farmers, religious teachers, lawyers, tax collectors, prostitutes, widows, grandmothers and children. He dealt with them all the same.
This endeared Him to some and estranged Him from others.
Impossible to pin down or categorise, He moved easily among the people and had the same message for all of them: This is it! This is what you’ve been waiting for! The Kingdom is at last so close that you can reach out your hand and grab hold of it! And, oh, the people wanted to hear it, wanted to believe it! But they had no way of understanding what He meant, so He was constantly misunderstood.
Finally He decided to sit down and explain it all in as much detail as He could. So He went up on the side of a hill; He wanted everyone to be able to see and hear what he had to say. He needed some elevation because the crowds had grown so thick lately.
From His vantage point, perched on a hillside in rural Israel, Jesus surveyed the people. These are the faces He had in mind before the foundations of the world were in place, the people to whom He knew He would inevitably come, the people for whom He knew He would inevitably die. He saw crutches and pallets, hungry and well-fed, men and women, young and old, Jew and Gentile. They were staring up at Him with a look of hope, a desire to know (from someone who seemed to know things) that things were going to be okay. Life wouldn’t always be this uphill struggle with more questions than answers, more bills than money, more darkness than light.
He saw them all before He said a word.
Who knows whether what He said next took several hours or just 15 minutes? In one sense, it doesn’t matter, because what He said is still ringing in our ears. We are unable to rid ourselves of its awful and strangely inspirational message.
The Creator of the universe spoke definitively and confirmed our suspicions. Life is not as it should be, not as it was intended to be, not yet as it will be. But a time is coming — in fact, that time has already come to some pockets of this world — when the poor will have unimaginable wealth! The hungry will eat until they are stuffed! Those who are sad will break out into laughter and applause!
The grandest reversal of fortune ever is under way, and we are invited to participate in it. Life in God’s kingdom is available to everyone, regardless of social status. But beware: The rules are all different now. There’s a new operating system in place. Everything you thought you knew about life on earth is changing. Up is the new down. Rich is the new poor. Strong is the new weak.
By the time He was done, He had not only delivered the greatest sermon ever preached, He had changed the entire world forever.
Prayer
Lord Jesus, all the Scripture that was written prior to Your Incarnation pointed directly to You and anticipated Your Person and work. You are the perfect fulfilment of the Messianic prophecies that spoke of Your redeeming work as the Saviour of the world, and of the prophecies that remain to be fulfilled when You come to judge the world and rule in righteousness. May I be a herald of Your kingdom, in which You call us to enjoy the blessed release of submitting to Your lordship in this life. I want to be an agent of change in this world by obeying Your commands and walking in Your power. The values of Your kingdom invert those of the world—You teach that the last will be first, the humble will be exalted, the giver will receive, the poor in spirit will be rich, the downward way is the way up and the servant of all is the true leader.
In Jesus’s name, Amen
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