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Luke Lesson 19 (2009)

“Looking at his disciples, he said: ‘Blessed are you who are poor,
for yours is the kingdom of God.’”

Years ago, there was a heated discussion at a conference based around the main question: “What makes Christianity different from all the other religions of the world?” Some of the participants argued that Christianity is unique in teaching that God became a man. But someone objected, saying that other religions teach similar doctrines. What about the resurrection? No, it was argued, other faiths believe that the dead rise again. The discussion grew heated. C.S. Lewis, a strong defender of Christianity, came in late, sat down, and asked, “What’s the rumpus about?” When he learned that it was a debate about the uniqueness of Christianity, he immediately commented, “Oh, that’s easy. It’s grace.” He was right. The very heart of the gospel Jesus preached on earth was God’s grace, as God spoke concerning the ministry of the Messiah in Isaiah 61:1-2, “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim the freedom to the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” God’s grace!

These days, especially due to tight budget situations, many people look for something that costs less or is free, like free samples, free movie downloads, free music online, sale items, low cost housing, low cost health insurance, cheap tickets, and inexpensive travel packages. One advertisement says, “Save money: live better.” Although we know that cheap things are probably low quality, they still draw our attention, and people always like free stuff. In fact, there are a lot of gimmicks out there that allure people who like free and cheap stuff. However, there is one thing that we, as Christian, have to be extremely careful about, that is “Cheap Christianity.”

In his book, titled The Cost of Discipleship, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a great German theologian who was martyred by the Nazis in 1945 said that cheap grace is grace without discipleship and grace without the cross. Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance. What the theologian says is that cheap grace is not grace at all. What he meant is that even though God’s grace of forgiveness of sins is freely given, it cost a lot. It actually cost God the precious life of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord. We need to think about what kind of grace we have embraced. Is it cheap grace or costly grace?

In today’s passage, Jesus called a large crowd of his disciples to him and chose twelve of them, whom he also designated apostles. Then he spoke to them of the blessings and woes, in which he invited them to accept the high cost of discipleship. He said to them, “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.” (20) Let’s think about what kind of blessings we have as his disciples and what warnings we should heed from what he said.

As we have studied in the previous passages, Jesus proclaimed the grace of forgiveness of sins and welcomed anyone who came to him, including those who were rejected by the religious community, like the man with leprosy, the paralyzed man, tax collectors and prostitutes. This kind of radical ministry alarmed the Jewish religious leaders. They were greatly offended when they saw that Jesus didn’t seem to be serious about keep their ceremonial rules and religious traditions, particularly the Sabbath regulations. When they raised a question about his disciples’ violating the Sabbath, Jesus defended his disciples, and in fact, on one Sabbath, Jesus challenged that it was rather their way of observing the Sabbath that was to be questioned. On another Sabbath Jesus healed the man whose right hand was shriveled. The religious leaders became very angry, and from that time on they began to discuss with one another what they might do to Jesus. The tension between Jesus and the Jewish religious leaders kept escalating.

Look at verse 12. “One of those days Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray, and spent the night praying to God.” Obviously, the gospel of God’s grace could not be mixed with the legalism of Judaism as he mentioned earlier, “New wine must be poured into new wineskins.” (5:29) Jesus knew that it was not God’s will to repair old Judaism, which was like an old wineskin. He needed a new wineskin, a new attitude and new people. What did Jesus do? Jesus prayed. He spent the whole night praying to God. What would have Jesus prayed about during the whole night? It was more about spending time with God the Father alone. When I was in college in 1970’s in Korea, we used to have something like group dating. Around 10 male students and 10 female students would meet in one place, and then two by two they would start a conversation with their partners. If you don’t like your partner, it might be a huge burden for you to spend time together. Even thirty minutes felt like thirty years. But if you liked your partner, one hour felt like one minute and you want to meet with your partner over and over again. That was like Jesus’ whole night prayer, having fellowship, talking, listening, rejoicing, crying and submitting to God. Jesus went out to a mountainside obviously because it provided privacy and seclusion from the noise and attention of the crowd. Jesus often prayed alone, and he sometimes spent the whole night in prayer because of serious matters. Perhaps Jesus was aware of what was going to happen to him due to the rejection of the Jewish religious leaders. Since Jesus still loved them, their rejection hurt him a lot. How did Jesus embrace all these things? He prayed. He spent time alone with God. Apparently, he was comforted and strengthened by having fellowship with God.

Look at verse 13. “When morning came, he called his disciples to him and chose twelve of them, whom he also designated apostles.” Jesus selected the Twelve from the larger group of those who followed him around. Only Luke mentioned that Jesus designated the twelve apostles, meaning “sent.” Jesus appointed them to be the new leaders for the ministry that Jesus began and would continue. In other words, in God’s salvation plan for the world, these Twelve Apostles in one sense replaced the twelve sons of Jacob (Israel).

Verses 14-16 lists the Twelve Apostles: Simon Peter, Andrew, James, John, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James -son of Alphaeus, Simon the Zealot, Judas, son of James and Judas Iscariot, who later became a traitor. There are two Simons – Simon Peter and Simon the Zealot, two James- James son of Zebedee and James the son of Alphaeus, and Two Judas – Judas son of James and Judas Iscariot. However, they were all different. Jesus did not select a homogenous group. There were fishermen, tax collectors, an extremely political person, and a few others whose identities are not disclosed. Their characters were different from one another. They were competitive and they were everyday sort of people. Jesus chose them but not without consulting with God the Father.

Some of may think that we chose God. That’s true in saying that we decided to believe in Jesus. However, without God’s choosing and calling, we would not be able to choose God. This is God’s grace of calling, as Romans 8:29-30 reads, ‘For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified, those he justified, he also glorified.” Jesus also said to his twelve disciples in John 15:16, “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit – fruit that will last.”

The grace of God’s calling is indeed great, and it includes the grace of discipleship and ministry along with the grace of forgiveness of sin. Apostle Paul said in Romans 1:5, “Through him and for his name’s sake, we received grace and apostleship to call people from among all the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith.” Paul was a self-righteous man and persecuted the Church of God. But he was converted by God’s grace. Paul was just amazed that a sinner, like him, could be forgiven and even given such a great vocation as a messenger and carrier of the good news of the kingdom of God. He realized that God’s grace is given free but is never cheap, knowing the ultimate sacrifice Jesus had to make for this grace to be given free. In his eyes, the grace of God was his most precious treasure and greatest wealth, for which he would be willing to consider everything a loss. (Phil 3:7-8)

Look at verses 17-19. Jesus went down the mountain with them and stood on a level place. A large crowd of his disciples was there and a large number of other people were there too. They came from all over Judea, including Jerusalem. They also came from the coast of Tyre and Sidon. They had all come to hear Jesus and to be healed of their sicknesses. People who were troubled by evil spirits were made well. Everyone tried to touch Jesus. Power was coming from him and healing them all. This is a small picture of Jesus’ ministry that would be continued through his disciples until his second coming: preaching and care for healing.

These days, the US government’s first priority is to restore the nation’s economy and create more jobs for the American people. That restoration is very important not only for our country but all nations of the world. So many special workers and government and private agencies are mobilized to fix this problem. We need to ask God for his mercy in this matter. However, the more fundamental problem is we, as Christians, should be concerned as well about letting people know the grace of God’s forgiveness of their sins. Recently, during the economic downturns, some of our members got a job. We shared their joy together. However, some didn’t. We also share in their struggle together. We firmly believe that God will provide what we need. God our Father is gracious, and everything is under His control. One thing we should remember is that our first vocation as a Christian or a disciple is not just to make money and survive but to participate in God’s redemption. 2 Corinthians 5:17-19 reads, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us.” Wherever you may be, as nurses, doctors, teachers, students, businessmen or women, lawyers, librarians, soldiers, homemakers or any occupation you may have, either employed or unemployed, if you are a Christian, your first vocation is to bring people to find peace with God, with themselves and with others. This may not be an easy task, but that’s what Jesus is calling us for.

We are not perfect. We make mistakes all the time. We have limitations. We make wrong decisions and fall into temptations. But the greatest mistake and failure we can make is to take God’s grace lightly as if it were cheap. Ghandi once stated a very powerful truth when he said, “The biggest enemy of Christianity is not other religions. The real enemy is those who say they are Christian but live a life contrary to that reality.” We may not agree with all Ghandi’s ideas, but what he said is true. How easy it is for us even though we say we are Christians, to still take God’s grace lightly and forget what Jesus has called us for? We need to examine ourselves whether we are taking God’s grace lightly or not. Jesus was willing to sacrifice his own life for us, even shedding his blood on the cross. He didn’t cry for his own pains and sufferings. He was willing to forgive all our sins through his death on the cross. That’s why he cried out to God on the cross, “Father, forgive them for they do not know what they do.” But Jesus will be very sad if we forget his grace or take his grace very lightly. We should not make Christianity cheap by failing to live as disciples of Jesus Christ. Jesus said to his disciples (Christians) in Mark 8:38, “If anyone is shamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him, when he comes in his Father’s glory.”

Look at verses 20-23. “Looking at his disciples, he said: ‘Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you who hunger now, for you will be satisfied. Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh. Blessed are you when men hate you, when they execute you and insult you and reject your name as evil, because of the Son of Man. Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, because great is your reward in heaven. For that is how their fathers treated the prophets.” When Jesus said “Blessed are you who are poor”, he was not necessarily talking about a person’s financial status. He didn’t say “Blessed are all who are poor.” He said “Blessed are you who are poor.” He is talking about priority and commitment to Jesus. In fact, some of his disciples gave up everything in order to follow Jesus as his disciples, like Simon, and his brother Andrew, James and his brother John, who gave up their lucrative fishing business. Levi, the tax collector, also left his job in order to be a disciple of Jesus. It does not mean that from now on we should all quit our job and become welfare-collectors. In following Jesus and carrying out our vocation as his disciples and apostles, we may suffer loss for a while, becoming financially poor, being rejected by others. But all these are temporary, and the ultimate result will be great, truly comforting and satisfying.

On the other hand, those who give up or take God’s grace of calling lightly in order to pursue material wealth, selfish gain, instant pleasure and human recognition are those who are making terrible mistakes. That’s why Jesus said in verses 24-26. “But woe to you who are rich, for you have already received your comfort. Woe to you who are well fed now, for you will go hungry. Woe to you who laugh now, for you will mourn and weep. Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for that is how their father’s treated the false prophets.”

People are restless and burdened not just when they are physically tired and have a lot work to do. They are restless and burdened when they are not in control of their desires. They fall into temptation and do what they shouldn’t to do. They may want to be in control of their lives and live freely. Yet, once a person is caught up in their unhealthy desires, like greed for money or fame or even lust after certain people or material objects, they are not free and cannot be happy. They have no control and no freedom. But the gospel of Jesus Christ does not make us slaves. The grace of Jesus sets us free and even empowers us to live a new life in a different and a higher realm. We can be in control of ourselves. That’s why Jesus said in Matthew 11:29-30 to take his yoke upon him. It means we should live our lives completely united with him. Christians are disciples whose lives are fully committed to Jesus Christ our Lord. Jesus said that when we take his yoke upon us, we will find rest for our souls. The burden of this world is heavy, too heavy for us to carry. Living a dedicated life to Jesus’ discipleship is a truly blessed life. God our Father gave us His one and only Son to save us from sin and death and give us eternal life. The grace we received from God is the most precious treasure and the greatest wealth. It is still our choice. God is willing to give us His blessing. But if we refuse through our wrong choice, that will be the saddest thing that can happen to our lives. It may not be easy but it is a very important and crucial decision. What is your choice? Jesus our Lord promises us, “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.” May God bless us to make the right choice every day in our journey in this world that our lives may be completely united with him as his disciples.