Upside Down or Right-Side Up?
Preached by Benjamin Vrbicek
February 5, 2017
To appreciate the significance of Jesus’s words in this passage, consider this situation: What would happen if the first five years of a child’s life, when his father used the word “yes,” he gave it the meaning of “no,” and when the father said “no,” he gave it the meaning of “yes”?And then what if, at the age of five, this child was adopted by a new father and this new father switched it? “Yes” was now “yes”—as it should be—and “no” was now “no”?That would mess a child up, wouldn’t it? It would be destabilizing to have your core assumptions about reality upended. It would be destabilizing to have your world turned upside down.Yet, if yes became yes (as it should be) and no became no (as it should be), then perhaps we should not speak of a world being turned upside down, but right side up.In last week’s passage, we learned about how Jesus went up on a mountain, spent all night in prayer, and then selected his twelve closest followers. Now, in this week’s passage, he comes down the mountain to find a crowd of people that need him—and they know they need him. So he heals them.And then he begins to speak to his followers. What he says, must have shaken them to their core. His words were destabilizing. He was turning their world upside down . . . or maybe we should say, right-side up.
Scripture Reading
If you have a Bible, please follow along with me as I read Luke 6:17–26 (page 979).17 And he came down with them and stood on a level place, with a great crowd of his disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea and Jerusalem and the seacoast of Tyre and Sidon, 18 who came to hear him and to be healed of their diseases. And those who were troubled with unclean spirits were cured. 19 And all the crowd sought to touch him, for power came out from him and healed them all.20 And he lifted up his eyes on 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 shall be satisfied. “Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh. 22 “Blessed are you when people hate you and when they exclude you and revile you and spurn your name as evil, on account of the Son of Man! 23 Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven; for so their fathers 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 shall be hungry. “Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep. 26 “Woe to you, when all people speak well of you, for so their fathers did to the false prophets.
Introduction
For Christmas, a good friend gave our family the 2015 Disney movie Cinderella. Have you seen it? I hadn’t, but our family watched it the night we were given it, and it was wonderful.The movie has essentially the same plot as the animated version from 1950, only this time with actors, not animation, and also more content to the story. As you know—whether you’ve seen the movie or not—Cinderella’s stepmother and stepsisters treat her not as a daughter and a sister, but a slave. She lives in a dark, drafty attic with only mice for friends.In one scene, as the grand ball is drawing near, this exchange happens:
Cinderella: But. . . All the ladies in the land are invited. By order of the king.
Lady Tremaine: It is “the king” I’m thinking of. It would be an insult to the royal personage to take you to the palace dressed in these old rags.
Cinderella: Rags? This was my mother’s.
Lady Tremaine: Oh. . . Sorry to have to tell you, but you’re mother’s taste was questionable. This “thing” is so old-fashioned, it’s practically falling to pieces.1
She then begins to tear the dress. Cinderella’s father had married Lady Tremaine when she was in desperate need, but rather than living thankfully she becomes rotten and rude.There is something ugly—very ugly—about the abuse of power and the inordinate love of wealth and status. But these temptations are real. There is a great temptation to come into the kingdom of God for the right reasons (that is to come needy and broken and seeking to be healed by Jesus), but then to become disillusioned once inside the kingdom of God and grab for power and seek our happiness chiefly in this life. What we see in this sermon by Jesus, however, is that the way we enter the kingdom, is the way we are also to live inside the kingdom, his kingdom.To see this in the passage, I want to ask two questions: 1. How do we get into the Kingdom of God? and 2. How do we live within the Kingdom of God?
1. How do we get into the Kingdom of God?
Let’s start with this first question. This won’t be a long point, but let me read vv. 17–19 again to point out a few things.
17 And he came down with them and stood on a level place, with a great crowd of his disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea and Jerusalem and the seacoast of Tyre and Sidon, 18 who came to hear him and to be healed of their diseases. And those who were troubled with unclean spirits were cured. 19 And all the crowd sought to touch him, for power came out from him and healed them all.
Let’s say you go to a business luncheon and people introduce themselves. As people do so, if you hear “Mechanicsburg,” and “Carlisle,” and “Linglestown,” then you’d know they hadn’t traveled far. Everyone will be home or back to the office in thirty minutes or so. But what if instead, you heard “Columbus” and “Minneapolis” and “Nashville” and “Fresno”? Then what? You know something significant is happening; people traveled far.In Luke’s gospel, there have been several statements about the scope of Jesus’s popularity (4:14; 5:1, 15, 17, 29). Here we read another: “people from all Judea and Jerusalem and the seacoast of Tyre and Sidon” (v. 17). Jesus is in the region of Galilee, which is in northern Israel, and people have traveled from the south (Jerusalem), and from the far, far north (Tyre and Sidon), which likely indicated Gentiles had come too.Sometimes we speak of Jesus as remote and unlikely and unassuming and a carpenter and a rabbi and from a “backwater town.” In a sense, these are true. But Luke (and the other gospel writers) add details to show that Jesus was well known. Can you scroll through your social media feed and not see our President? Perhaps you could, but I doubt it. People are talking about him. Apparently, so it was with Jesus.And why are these people flocking to him? Did you see what it what it said? They were coming to be healed. They knew they were broken, knew they were oppressed, and believed that Jesus could save them.They were right. This is how you get into God’s kingdom. We are not saved because we are awesome, but because God loves sinners. Salvation begins when we embrace our identity as those who need forgiveness and healing and then find that forgiveness and healing in Jesus. This is what the crowds were doing.So, the first question was, “How do we get into the Kingdom of God?” Answer: humble faith in Jesus.
2. How do we live within the Kingdom of God?
Now, let’s go to the second question, which is, “How do we live within the Kingdom of God?” The first question was how do we get in, and this question is how do we live within. This is what vv. 20–26 are about. There are four statements of blessing and four corresponding woes.If you ever do any detailed study of these verses, you’ll notice that one of the main questions is figuring out how Luke’s account of this sermon by Jesus relates to Matthew’s account (Matthew 5–7). There are several similarities between the two, and there are several differences. To leave us time for Communion at the end of the service, I’m going to leave these considerations aside. It seems to me (and others), that if Jesus was a traveling, itinerate preacher who didn’t use notes but was often giving impromptu sermons, then there doesn’t have to be any contradiction. In different settings, it seems very likely that Jesus would tailor his core message to those who were before him.And who was before him? Answering who is before him is central to the argument that I’m going to make. I’m arguing that the way we get into the kingdom is also the way we continue to live once inside the kingdom. For this to be true, these verses about blessing and woes are not addressed primarily to outsiders but those who are already inside.Yet, is this was the passage indicates? Where to do I see that Jesus assumes his primary audience was already those who followed him faithfully?First, in v. 20 it says,
20 And he lifted up his eyes on his disciples, and said: “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.
Who is he looking at? “His disciples.” Perhaps this means the twelve disciples that he just named, but I doubt it. Jesus called those twelve more specifically “apostles” (v. 13).And who does the kingdom belong to? Jesus does not say, as he does in Matthew “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (5:3). No, Jesus does not say, “their” but “yours.” He’s making an assumption about this audience. They are poor, of course, but a particular type of poor. They are poor followers of Jesus, not merely generically poor. If you are merely poor, that doesn’t mean you get the kingdom. But if you are poor and you have been saved by Jesus, you are blessed; the kingdom of God is yours because you are subjects of the King regardless of your wealth or poverty.Where else do we learn about the audience? Look at v. 22–23.
22 “Blessed are you when people hate you and when they exclude you and revile you and spurn your name as evil, on account of the Son of Man! 23 Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven; for so their fathers did to the prophets.
Notice that phrase at the end: “for so their fathers did.” Jesus is drawing a distinction. There always was a faithful stream within Israel and an unfaithful stream. Jesus is speaking primarily to the faithful by mentioning “their fathers,” meaning the unfaithful stream within Israel. He’s talking to those who are inside.Finally, I think this is what the “woes” are about. Sure, Jesus is speaking directly to those who are outside the kingdom because surely the audience a was mixed bag. But when speaking primarily to those who already are his children, the “woes” are not so much condemnations to outsiders, but a reminder to his people that God is watching. Look at it like this: in these woes Jesus is preempting an objection and a concern among his followers. “What about them? We’re poor. We’re hungry. They break the commandments and get rich and have full stomachs. Jesus, do you see what they’re doing? You just going to let them get away with it—all rich and fat and high on the hog and abusing their power? Don’t you care about them?” This is like when my children point out the misdeeds of their siblings. I have to say as their Dad: “I know what they did, and I’m talking about you and how you live in my house. But by the way, since you asked, they will get theirs too.”So why does all this matter? Well, if Jesus is speaking to people who came into the kingdom of God by acknowledging their brokenness and coming to Jesus for healing, and if he is continuing to speak to them about what it’s like to live inside the kingdom (which I’m saying he’s doing), then something worth considering begins to emerge.If this is what Jesus is doing, Jesus must say these things because a temptation exists for Christians to come into the kingdom the right way, and then to live within the kingdom another way. There’s the temptation to come to a relationship with God by clinging to Jesus, and then, for one reason or another, to begin to believe that clinging to money and wealth and power and worldly acceptance are the things that will really make us happy in this life.You may be thinking, “Okay, so what’s the big deal. You talked at the start about our whole worlds being upended and that we are lied to about reality, but I don’t see it yet.”To close the sermon, let me give four applications to us that will make it more pointed, and perhaps unsettling. I’ve crafted each in the form of “not this, but that.” I think you’ll begin to see how challenging and radical Jesus is.
Not panicky fear, but persevering faith
Here’s the first. Jesus is saying that inside the kingdom, the followers of Jesus “do not have panicky fear, but persevering faith.” Panicky fear will make people do strange, even wrong, things. One of the panicky fears within American church right now is that we are losing power and influence. “Culture is in decline! Immorality abounds! The sins that were marginal 30 years ago are mainstream today!” so the cry goes. And there is truth in this.The temptation as culture becomes less Christian is that Christians will too become less Christian by grabbing for power and influence by any means necessary. It would seem to me that this is one reason (but not the only one) why certain political candidates are attractive. Certain candidates are believed to be the answer to the fear we have regarding our loss of power.And if when you hear this, you immediately begin to think, “I know what you’re driving at, and no, no, and no. You’re wrong. You’re not thinking about x, y, and z; and what about them over there.” If that’s the conversation in your heart, if the loudest voice in your heart right now is a justifying one, then Jesus is talking to you.This is a faith issue. What begins with faith, continues with faith. Growing in spiritual maturity is not about brute force obedience. Growing in spiritual maturity is about growing in faith. We become Christians by believing that Jesus will satisfy, and we hold to the kingdom ethics by persevering in this same faith. We don’t have to grab for power because we are subjects of the King of kings who will take care of his children and everyone else in his own time.
Not worldly acceptance, but biblical moorings
If those comments were addressed to one side of the aisle, let me walk across for a moment. There is a temptation the come to Jesus believing he can save and believing every word he spoke, and then drift from his words. There is a temptation to love the acceptance of the world and lose our anchor to the Bible. The second thing Jesus is saying to us is that “inside the kingdom the followers of Jesus do not seek worldly acceptance, but biblical moorings.”You see, as the broader culture continues to drift further and further away from the teachings of Jesus, there is the temptation to compromise the teachings of Jesus in order to be acceptable. For example, there was quite a bit of noise about Chip and Joanna Gains this fall. They host a reality TV show on HGTV called Fixer Upper where they remodel homes. I don’t know anything about their Christian faith, so I’m not going to lift them up as heroes or anything like that. But I will say the controversy about them had to do with the fact that they attended a church where the pastor held to traditional Christian beliefs. The controversy wasn’t even about what they believed (though people assumed it), but that the Gainses would dare go to a church that taught the Bible.Now, I have no idea about their church or pastor. Maybe the pastor is a jerk and maybe he doesn’t believe the Bible. I’m not going to tie myself to him or the church or Chip and Joanna. I’m simply making the point that the temptation to compromise is real because the persecution is real and increasing.The text says explicitly that they came to “hear” Jesus (v. 18), but then once we are hear him and are healed, we can be tempted to leave Jesus behind. Woe to you when all culture can applaud you (v. 26). But Jesus is speaking to his kids, “If you stay with me, great is your reward in heaven! Not small, but great. Leap for joy!”
Not glib indifference, but broken-hearted passion
Let’s cover to more. Jesus is also saying that inside the kingdom the “followers of Jesus do not have glib indifference, but broken-hearted passion.” I take this from vv. 21b and 25b which say,
Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh. . . Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep.
Jesus is critiquing those who just want to laugh and be entertained and eat and drink for tomorrow . . . well . . . let’s not think about tomorrow.Last week, I saw a short video on Facebook about this where a guy had taken pictures from people’s social media accounts and then placed those same pictures into a different context. The original pictures were of people taking selfies at a Holocaust memorial site overseas. And the man took those pictures of people doing yoga and juggling and posing goofily with their friends in front of the monument, and then the creator of the video photoshopped these people into horrific scenes from the actual Holocaust. I can’t recommend the video because there were language issues, but the point was a strong one.The kingdom of God will one day be fully realized, but until that day, the kingdom of God will always exist in the midst of a broken world. Christian, you came to Jesus needy and broken, and now once inside, you can’t spend your life indifferent to the misery of the world. You can’t laugh and play and turn a blind eye when the world is broken and hurting. Blessed are you if you mourn because you see the need and the poverty and the injustice and you weep about it. You feel a certain way. Inside the kingdom, real Christians have broken-hearted passion for the world that needs to know about Jesus.This is destabilizing, isn’t it? But remember, Jesus didn’t make the world upside down, but right-side up, and make yes yes.
Not dark despair, but happy hope
Let’s do the final statement. The final thing Jesus is saying is that “his kingdom is not one of dark despair, buy happy hope.”Throughout his sermon, Jesus is orienting us to a future hope. This is a mark of the true gospel over and against the false gospels, which major on hope for this life.Almost thirteen years ago, I was a counselor at a summer Christian sports camp. At the end of the training week for the counselors, we all went to a huge rally. The camp I was at was actually part of seven different camps and all of the staff from all the camps were there, perhaps a thousand or so young adults.I don’t remember who the speaker was, but I’ll never forget something he said. His message was on the future hope of a believer, how bright and blessed it is. During his message, he told us—in fact, somewhat awkwardly made us—turn to people sitting beside us to say something. I hate it when preachers do that sort of thing and won’t make you do it. But he made us say—to each side—this sentence: “I can see you in the future, and you look much better than you do right now.”In his message, he must have repeated that line twenty times. The future pastor in me that was so wise as a 22-year-old thought how stupid that part of his sermon was. But here today, I remember that I looked to my left as saw Aaron, who had blond hair and was taller than me and we said to each other, “I can see you in the future, and you look much better than you do right now.” I’ve not seen Aaron since that summer and doubt I ever will. But when I see him again, in the future kingdom, he’ll look much better.What Jesus is saying to these Christians, and to us, is that his kingdom is not about panicky fear, worldly acceptance, glib indifference, or dark despair.Rather, his kingdom is about a happy hope. If you are his, than right now you are blessed. The blessing begins now. This means, right now—in your hunger and with salt water down your cheeks and your shoulders heaving as you morn and as you struggle to pay bills and people exclude you on account of Christ—right now!—you are blessed. You will be blessed but also your blessing begins now. You have favor and love and hope and a future inheritance. Your situation, at least what you can see with your eyes, is not what you are. If you are a child of the King, your future inside the kingdom looks much better than it does right now.Jesus didn’t live with panicky fear or for worldly acceptance, or glib indifference or dark despair. Our king had persevering faith, biblical moorings, broken-hearted passion, and happy hope. And he came, he died, he rose, he ascended. And now he sits on the thrown of his kingdom, inviting you into it, and once inside, to blessed—now and forever.
1Cinderella (2015), http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1661199/quotes.
