Friday, September 30, 2016

Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for so did their fathers to the false prophets


 Now it came to pass in those days that He went out to the mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God.  And when it was day, He called His disciples to Himself; and from them He chose twelve whom he also named apostles:  Simon, whom He also named Peter, and Andrew his brother; James and John; Philip and Bartholomew; Matthew and Thomas; James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon called the Zealot; Judas the son of James, and Judas Iscariot who also became a traitor.

And He came down with them and stood on a level place with a crowd of His disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea and Jerusalem, and from the seacoast of Tyre and Sidon, who came to hear Him and be healed of their diseases, as well as those who were tormented with unclean spirits.  And they were healed.  And the whole multitude sought to touch Him, for power went out from Him and healed them all.

Then He lifted up His eyes toward His disciples, and said:
"Blessed are you poor,
For yours is the kingdom of God.
Blessed are you who hunger now,
For you shall be filled.
Blessed are you who weep now,
For you shall laugh.
Blessed are you when men hate you,
And when they exclude you,
And revile you, and cast out your name as evil,
For the Son of Man's sake.
Rejoice in that day and leap for joy!
For indeed your reward is great in heaven,
For in like manner their fathers did to the prophets.

"But woe to you who are rich,
For you have received your consolation.
Woe to you who are full,
For you shall hunger.
Woe to you who laugh now,
For you shall mourn and weep.
Woe to you when all men speak well of you,
For so did their fathers to the false prophets."

- Luke 6:12-26

In yesterday's reading, we read that it happened on the second Sabbath after the first (that is, a feast day after the Sabbath) that He went through the grainfields.  And His disciples plucked the heads of grain and ate them, rubbing them in their hands.  And some of the Pharisees said to them, "Why are you doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath?"  But Jesus answering them said, "Have you not even read this, what David did when he was hungry, he and those who were with him:  how he went into the house of God, took and ate the showbread, and also gave some to those with him, which is not lawful for any but the priests to eat?"  And He said to them, "The Son of Man is also Lord of the Sabbath."  Now it happened on another Sabbath, also, that He entered the synagogue and taught.  And a man was there whose right hand was withered.  So the scribes and Pharisees watched Him closely, whether He would heal on the Sabbath, that they might find an accusation against Him.  But He knew their thoughts, and said to the man who had the withered hand, "Arise and stand here."  And he arose and stood.  Then Jesus said to them, "I will ask you one thing:  Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do evil, to save life or to destroy?"  And when He had looked around at them all, He said to the man, "Stretch out your hand."  And he did so, and his hand was restored as whole as the other.  But they were filled with rage, and discussed with one another what they might do to Jesus.

 Now it came to pass in those days that He went out to the mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God.  And when it was day, He called His disciples to Himself; and from them He chose twelve whom he also named apostles:  Simon, whom He also named Peter, and Andrew his brother; James and John; Philip and Bartholomew; Matthew and Thomas; James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon called the Zealot; Judas the son of James, and Judas Iscariot who also became a traitor.  My study bible says that Jesus, being the Son of God, does not pray as if to obtain grace or revelation from the Father.  As the Son of Man, writes Ambrose of Milan, He prays as the Advocate for Humanity (see 1 John 2:1).  He spent all night in prayer before choosing the twelve apostles.  Every significant step forward in His ministry is notably preceded by prayer.  St. Theophan comments on this particular passage that it teaches us that before choosing a candidate for any spiritual ministry, we should pray that God will reveal to us the one suited for the task.  In all the listings of the apostles, Judas Iscariot is noted as the one who betrayed Christ, or became a traitor.  As in Matthew's Gospel, these names are given in pairs, while Mark reports they would be sent out two by two (Mark 6:7).  The names are not all the same in each account, as many people had more than one name.

And He came down with them and stood on a level place with a crowd of His disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea and Jerusalem, and from the seacoast of Tyre and Sidon, who came to hear Him and be healed of their diseases, as well as those who were tormented with unclean spirits.  And they were healed.  And the whole multitude sought to touch Him, for power went out from Him and healed them all.  We note that Jesus is standing on a level place.  What follows is known as the Sermon on the Plain.  It contains much of the material we read in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7), although is not as extensive.  Over His ministry of three years, Jesus repeated many of His teachings in diverse places.  His teaching is inseparable from His power and its healing effect.  We note the search for connection, and in the ways in which His power works, as all seek to touch Him and His power is activated through the connection of faithful touch.

Then He lifted up His eyes toward His disciples, and said:   "Blessed are you poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.  Blessed are you who hunger now, for you shall be filled.  Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh.  Blessed are you when men hate you, and when they exclude you, and revile you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of Man's sake.  Rejoice in that day and leap for joy!  For indeed your reward is great in heaven, for in like manner their fathers did to the prophets."  This passage is similar to the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount.  We note that Jesus includes as part of His beatitudes the blessing of even negative events, such as being reviled or called evil, for the Son of Mans sake.  He says one should rejoice and leap for joy at that time, for in like manner their fathers did the same to the prophets.

"But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation.  Woe to you who are full, for you shall hunger.  Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep.  Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for so did their fathers to the false prophets."  Here are four "woes" that Luke reports which are not found in Matthew's account of the Sermon on the Mount.  My study bible says that woe is an indication not merely of sorrow, but rather of unspeakable destruction (Isaiah 5:18-24, Amos 5:18-19, Revelation 12:12).  Cyril of Alexandria comments that those who cherish most of all the vices listed here are liable to "utmost misery," but hope is find in sacrificing earthly blessings in showing mercy to others.  We note that the blessings were linked to the lot of the prophets; here woes are linked to the praise gained by the false prophets.

 We should not think it so strange that Jesus connects particular "woes" with the "blessings" we know.  After all, His teachings are those that give us a spiritual truth in understanding just what blessings are.  "What do we really value?" He seems to be asking.   He's asking people to think about what they treasure most, what gives them real joy.  And the woe isn't really connected with some sort of punishment or threat.  The woe is connected with loss of what He offers, the life of the Kingdom, and the life in abundance of spiritual reality, an eternal life.  The woe is in losing all of this to a focus that depletes one's picture of what is possible.  That's why my study bible connects it with "unspeakable destruction."  It's really about an eternal loss, a state that of loss of potential life so great that it is a place of non-being.  Christ asks us to find spiritual substance, even as we are in this world.  He calls His disciples to forego the things that offer a kind of empty value system, the treasures that are desirable, pleasurable, tempting -- but when they become the fullness of what we treasure, they lack what He offers, what He's here to offer.  We don't like to hear "negative" things in our modern, rationalist world.  Many don't have a real sense of sinfulness, or rather a sense in which one could do better to realize potentials and to work at values that are in some sense hard to achieve as they are internal.  The payoff isn't immediate nor obvious.  Intangible internal goals often seem weak and lacking in substance compared to what we might gain in material terms, or in social terms, by ignoring those things and going along with a more worldly and common perspective.  There is a depth in what it is that Christ calls us to, a life that is full of meanings that continue to dig more deeply within us, rather than goals met through external and tangible gain.  And a "woe" is such a depressing thing to think about.  What can we do about it?  Christ calls us to a place in the heart in which we set down for ourselves a basic orientation to life.  Is there more than what's on offer from a purely material sense?  What's mercy?  What's it for?  Why is it important?  What is love?  So often it seems we consign ourselves to loss of what the world values if we place a higher order of value on those intangibles than on what clear-cut sorts of achievements or goals the material might offer.  But the problem with that is how easily our sight of the intangibles slip away.  Christ calls us to make an effort to determine what we're going to love, and who we're going to serve.  He calls us to a state of awareness, or alertness, a place where it takes work of some sort to really and truly understand what we're about, to be conscious of what we might be giving up.  He doesn't say, in the fullness of His teaching, that material things are bad or evil.  Rather, He teaches us first to seek this Kingdom He speaks about, and then all can be added unto that (Matthew 6:33).  The problem is, we don't necessarily know what that looks like, how it might shake up our lives and shift around what we place first as a goal.  We don't know what we might abandon that everybody else seems to chase, nor what we might have instead that doesn't seem to be on offer as a tangible goal.  But in some sense, He is the prize.  He is the thing we choose to have with us and within us in our lives.  It is He who might color our perspective and give us choices we didn't have; and this value is so strong that we are blessed when we're reviled by others for our choice.  In cherishing His life in us and for us, we find we're in the company of countless before us throughout many ages.  We walk in a place that's sacred and yet in the world.  It is that substance we lose if we overlook it or deny it; and yet it remains although ignored (John 1:5).  Which would you rather have?  How do you know what you lose without Him?



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