Day 83

Deuteronomy 2:1–3:29; Luke 6:12-38; Psalm 67:1-7; Proverbs 11:27

WE ENCOUNTERED JESUS’ Sermon on the Mount again in our reading from Luke today. As famous as this teaching is, we often miss its context and therefore how revolutionary it really was.

The Sermon on the Mount is essentially the core of Jesus’ teaching ministry, but it was not something He merely talked about —it was what He lived. And those who heard this message and believed it eventually called it “the Way.” Jesus essentially described a way of looking at the world that was disruptive, because the posture of heart required to live the message was almost backward to the accepted customs and social hierarchy of His day. And His message is equally disruptive in our modern world.

Imagine you’re walking through a park near your home when you come across a small crowd of people listening to a man talk. As you draw closer, you hear the words being spoken:

To you who are willing to listen, I say, love your enemies! Do good to those who hate you. Bless those who curse you. Pray for those who hurt you. If someone slaps you on one cheek, offer the other cheek also. If someone demands your coat, offer your shirt also. Give to anyone who asks; and when things are taken away from you, don’t try to get them back. Do to others as you would like them to do to you.

If you didn’t know this was a popular passage of Scripture, and you had never heard this kind of talk before, you would probably find this to be an intriguing and alternative way of looking at the world you live in —one very different from the way things are, for the most part. This is what Jesus’ message continues to communicate today —that there is a better way of looking at the world and living in it, and that there is a way things were created to be, to which we are invited. The Sermon on the Mount describes that way of being. It describes the Way.

Reread the Sermon on the Mount from our passage in Luke’s Gospel. And if you want to go deeper, read it again in Matthew 5–7. Understand that Jesus was describing the correct way to live as a human being in this world. In this light, His words are not simply goals we should set for ourselves —but rather, the way things ought to be.

PRAYER:

May God be merciful and bless us. May his face smile with favor on us. May your ways be known throughout the earth, your saving power among people everywhere.