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When I was a little boy, one of the tools my dad had that just totally fascinated me was his level. It was two feet long. Smaller than the Fat Max 48”-er I got here. The little bubble in the tube was what got my attention. I just liked making it go back and forth and seeing if I could keep it between the lines. It had bubble tubes in the middle and on both ends; triple the fun. I know: simple mind, simple pleasures.
At that age I didn’t understand what the bubble was actually for. The concepts of level and true were beyond me. I know that if you’re building a house, a floor, a wall, or a fence this is the tool that keeps things, well, level. Things won’t be leaning or tilted, one side higher than the other. If things are true, square, and level your house is less likely to fall down.
From an engineering standpoint, if things are level, it means that the structural load-bearing forces that act on the building will be equally distributed. Admittedly, I’m not an engineer and I’m probably just BS-ing you on this, but if things aren’t level, in time your structure, due to leaning, will begin to torque or twist and come on down. Level is good.
This is true for society as well. The philosophical term associated with the concept of level in a society would be equality which has a link to justice and fairness. If equality is not practised, then there will wind up being problems in the areas of fairness and justice and in time a society will collapse under the weight societal forces such as the economy and politics that have become unjust and unfair. People need to be on a level playing field so to speak for a society to work. I was born a white male and that gave me advantages in our society. Like marbles will roll in the direction a floor is leaning. So also in a society that is not level, opportunities and resources will naturally roll towards those who have the advantages. In our society there has been a lot done legislatively and so forth to make things more level, but we still have a way to go yet.
That in mind, let’s take a look at our passage here from Luke which is the beginning of what is traditionally called ‘The Sermon on the Plain”. It has similarities to what in Matthew’s Gospel we call the Beatitudes (The Blessed Are’s) which serve as a preamble to The Sermon on the Mount. But Luke’s version here is different. Luke portrays things in a much more literal, straight-forward, dare I say, level way. In Matthew it’s a very lofty, up on the mount sort of thing when Jesus says “Blessed are the poor in spirit”. But in Luke, it’s a well-grounded “Blessed are you who are poor”, meaning literally poor. Jesus is speaking about the literal economic and social status of his disciples with the terms rich and poor rather than about their spiritual disposition.
Well, back to the location of the Sermon. Luke notes that Jesus delivered this sermon on a plain. He came down to a level place, a plain. And it is here on this level place that I suggest that Jesus gives his vision, his manifesto, for the way things will be societally in the Kingdom in which he rules. Things will be level or rather made level.
This is a very important moment in Luke’s story of Jesus. This is really the only sermon that Luke has Jesus preach. It’s a central moment in the story line where Jesus is doing something that began with John the Baptist. John the Baptist came on to the scene preaching a message first proclaimed by the prophet Isaiah. It went: “The voice of one crying out in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways made smooth; and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.’” And now, here on the level, the plain, we find Jesus teaching in a place where it seems the valleys have been filled and the mountains and hills are made low. He’s on the Plain, the level place, and he is going to talk about the salvation of God, what it looks like. If you have been listening to all the songs that have been sung in Luke’s Gospel so far – Mary’s Magnificat, The Song of Zechariah the Father of John the Baptist, and the by the old prophet Simeon – then you will have figured out that the salvation of God has something to do with a complete turning upside-down of things in the world with respect to status, power and wealth. And so, Jesus here in his Sermon on the Plain, his Sermon on the Level, he’s going to reveal how the playing field will be level in his kingdom.
So, Jesus is standing on a Plain, the level place. He is surrounded by a crowd of his disciples and also by a multitude of people from all over who are not just Jews. Luke says the people of the multitude are simply there to listen to Jesus teach or to be helped by him; healed of disease or freed from an unclean spirit. They keep coming up and touching him and power is going out of him and people are being healed and the unclean spirits are leaving. The Kingdom of God, the reigning of God, God putting things right is manifesting powerfully there.
Please, you need to appreciate this moment. It is a powerful, powerful, powerful moment in history. I like to imagine it as being like a supernova of God’s power. Jesus isn’t saying anything. People are just coming up and touching him and being healed and freed. People coming in despair and leaving full of joy. The lame leaping, the mute speaking, the blind seeing. People shouting joyfully, praising. Imagine the shout of joy if in a moment this pandemic ended.
Jesus finally begins to speak, but it’s almost clandestine. Instead of addressing the multitude, he turns to the little crowd of disciples and speaks directly to them. What he is about to say, he doesn’t say it to the world. He says it to his disciples who are standing in the midst of the world. He speaks first to those who are committed to following him. So, apparently, among those who follow him things are to be different than the way things are out there in the world. This is important to note, particularly to the church today in which there really isn’t a noticeable difference in the way we live in comparison to those outside the church.
Jesus begins to speak and speaks “blessings and woes” to his disciples. These aren’t blessings and curses which means if you do this, God will bless you with wealth and health and peace and security. But if you do that, God will damn you or put a plague on your house or send locusts or marauders or make you a cat owner. These “blessing and woes” are statements of the way we are when the Kingdom of God is present in our lives in the world. The term “blessed” means something like you will know a particular kind of joy from the presence of God in your lives particularly during difficult circumstances and this will be enviable to those around you.
The ”Woe” part in Greek is “Ouai” (pronounced oo-eye”). It’s that noise you make when you realize you’ve messed up royally. You’ve gotten it all wrong. These woes are like, “Ouai, you’ve missed the boat for empty rewards.” The world’s values are not Kingdom of God values. The world will call you blessed, blessed by God, if you are wealthy and able to do whatever brings yourself joy, able to eat your fill at every meal if you want, able to not worry but rather celebrate and laugh. The world will call you blessed if you have never had to grieve, never had to lose anything or anyone. It will call you blessed when you are well-liked and spoken well of by most people. Jesus likens all that stuff the world values to false prophecy, to false comfort, to something that only leaves you hungering for more and in the end you actually do lose.
Having it all doesn’t mean it came from God. Having it all usually means things aren’t level. Let me pull out the level again. If the bubble is up, that means this side has got the bubble and the down side has nothing. But, it’s just a bubble. Why is it such a big deal to have the whole bubble? Why can't we just have the bubble in the middle for everyone to share?
Back to the Sermon on the Plain, remember Jesus is saying this to his disciples, those desiring to follow him and live his way. Remember he is saying this to them in the midst of a supernova of the power of God bursting forth healing and freeing of people who are, with respect to the level, on the down side.
Let’s go back to the blessed side of things, the side that according to the values of the world doesn’t appear to be blessed. I mentioned a moment ago that the idea floating behind the term we translate here as “blessed” or some translations use “happy” is that of being in an enviable position that others will want to be; particularly that of having a God-given joy in the midst of pretty difficult circumstances. Jesus wants his disciples to know that because of their association with him, their fidelity to him, they will not have it good according to what the world values.
Those who follow Jesus will be poor, economically disadvantaged. Yet, the Kingdom of God is theirs. The supernova of Kingdom of God power will be manifesting in and through them. They will be part of a close fellowship who share so that if one has much and another little, the one who has much shares so that all have enough. Wealth and the pursuit of wealth, in turn, will only be a distraction. In the early church the rich sold fields to give to those who had need. They virtually eliminated poverty in their midst.
The followers of Jesus will indeed at times be literally hungry, not having enough to eat because of their association to Jesus, their faithfulness to him, but they will be filled – but with what? Well, the presence of God experienced in the midst of the fulfilling fellowship of true friends, friends who are on the level, friends who will share their food.
The followers of Jesus will know grief because they will have to leave family and friends behind who don’t understand their allegiance to Jesus, the supernova of the Kingdom of God, or his way of life that is contrary to the values of the world. They will also lose each other due to persecution. People will hate them, exclude them, insult them, defame them because of their association to Jesus. But that’s simply the proof they belong to God.
Winding down, imagine being in the midst of this supernova of the Kingdom of God. A multitude of people coming to Jesus to be healed and set free and then after touching him, they are healed and set free. They are shouting for joy as they go away leaping because Jesus has put their world to right. Then, in the midst of all that, Jesus tells his disciples that they will suffer on account of him but he tells them to rejoice and leap for joy for they are the enviable ones, they are the ones to whom belongs the Kingdom of God.
I read Luke’s account of Jesus’ Sermon in the Plain here. I try as best as I can to imagine that supernova moment…just how “WOW!” that was and I just wish it would break forth in our midst. I also imagine Jesus speaking to me, as one of his followers, these blessings and the “Ouai’s”. I’ve had a taste of the blessing. I’ve had a taste of the consequences that come with being a disciple of Jesus. There is a cost to following him. I’ve experienced the joy. I’ve felt the presence of God. I’ve experienced the fellowship that shares and supports. I’ve felt the blessing. But…those “Ouai’s”, they hit home. They really hit home. So much of my life is lived according to the values of the world. I’ve got some levelling to do. How about you? Amen.
