Level Ground: Real Hope for Real Life

Travel with Jesus, on this Sixth Sunday of Epiphany, to stand eye-to-eye with those who desperately need help, healing, and hope. Matthew's Gospel features The Sermon on the Mount, but in Luke, Jesus and his disciples encounter this crowd on a "level place." Luke's Sermon on the Plain doesn't spiritualize the physical needs of people, showing Jesus's concern for both body and soul. Here's how Luke 6:17-26 NIV tells the story –

He came down with them and stood on a level place. A large crowd of his disciples was there, and a great number of people from all over Judea, from Jerusalem, and from the coastal region around Tyre and Sidon, who had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases. Those troubled by impure spirits were cured, and the people all tried to touch him, because power was coming from him and healing them all.

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 people hate you, when they exclude 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 ancestors treated the prophets.

 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 everyone speaks well of you, for that is how their ancestors treated the false prophets." – Luke 6:17-26 (NIV)

 The Crowds Press In

 The dust rises, kicked up by hundreds of tired feet. The air is thick with the smell of sweat and salt, bodies pressing against each other, moving forward like a tide that cannot be held back.

Mothers clutch sick children to their chests. Old men shuffle forward, their gnarled hands reaching out, trembling with hope. A blind beggar stumbles, pulled along by his brother. A woman, gaunt from hunger, whispers prayers under her breath, not sure if they will be heard—but daring to hope that today, maybe today, something will change.

And then, at the center of the chaos, there is Jesus.

 The people stretch out their hands—not for money or sympathy. They reach for Him. They press forward, shoulder to shoulder, not out of aggression but desperation.

 They have heard the rumors, the stories that spread like wildfire. That the sick are healed. That the unclean are made whole. That the crippled walk and the possessed find peace.

And so, they reach.

 Some grasp at the hem of his robe. Others fall at his feet, hoping that even the dust He walks on might carry some fragment of His power.

Jesus does not recoil. He does not push them away. Instead, "power was coming from him and healing them all," Luke tells us.

 The newly chosen disciples stand nearby, uncertain about what they are witnessing. This is not what they expected.

 Only days ago, they were in their boats, casting nets into the familiar waters of the sea. Simon Peter, James, and John had been hauling in fish, their hands calloused from years of labor. Levi had been sitting at his tax booth, counting coins, safe in his position, despised but secure.

 Then Jesus had come, calling them – "Follow me."

 And they had dropped everything – the boats, the money, and the predictable paths of their lives. They had followed Him into something new, something unknown, something they could not yet name.

 But standing here, watching this mass of desperate humanity pressing toward Jesus, the disciples must have wondered – What have we stepped into?

 Standing on Level Ground

 In Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus delivers a similar sermon from a mountainside, evoking the image of Moses receiving the Law. But here in Luke, something is quite different.

 Jesus has moved. He and the disciples had been on the mountain praying. But Luke says,

“He came down with them and stood on a level place.”

This time He’s not the Lawgiver from on high. He’s the carpenter’s son. He stands among the people he knows, not above them. His feet are on the same dusty ground as theirs. He meets their eyes at the same height.

And as the crowd moves and murmurs, the newly-called disciples nervously shift their weight, still unsure of their role in all of this. Jesus turns His gaze to them, as if to explain what they are seeing.

 A Blessing That Upends the World

And, then, He begins to speak –

 “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.”

 Jesus doesn’t tell the crowd to wait until heaven to experience blessing. He doesn’t say, “One day, you’ll get your reward.”

 No. He tells them, the kingdom of God is already yours. Right now.

 He continues –

 “Blessed are you who hunger.”

“Blessed are you who weep.”

 The disciples must have been baffled. The world does not call these people blessed. Who wants to be poor? Who wants to be hungry? Who wants to be hated, excluded, insulted?

 But Jesus sees something they do not see --

-- He sees the kingdom already breaking through in their midst.

-- The poor already belong to God.

-- The hungry will be fed, both with literal bread and the Bread of Life.

-- The weeping will not last forever. Comfort will come, and laughter, of all things, will fill their hearts again.

Jesus isn’t romanticizing suffering. He isn’t telling people to embrace hardship for its own sake. He is revealing the deeper reality of God’s presence – that God is already with those the world has forgotten. That God is already working among those who have nothing left. This is the upside-down kingdom. Jesus wants these on the bottom to know that God hears them, and that God's Kingdom changes things.

And then abruptly, Jesus shifts.

Perhaps He sees some people on the edges of the crowd, just watching – spectators at the spectacle. Not wanting to get their robes dirty. Not really a part of this rag-tag retinue.

But He has a word for them, too. Not a word of exclusion, but an invitation.

The Woes: A Hard Wake-Up Call

“Woe to you who are rich.”
“Woe to you who are well-fed now.”
“Woe to you who laugh now.”
“Woe to you when everyone speaks well of you.”

This must have landed like a blow on those who thought their lives were going pretty well. Which by most accounts, they were.

So, Jesus doesn’t say, “Woe to you because you are evil”.

No. But He does warn them—if you are full now, be careful. If you are comfortable now, stay awake. If the world speaks well of you, be wary.

Because it is easy to be lulled to sleep by comfort.

It is easy to believe that wealth, success, and good reputation are signs of divine favor.

It is easy to ignore the suffering of others when your own stomach is full.

But the kingdom Jesus proclaims does not operate on the world’s terms.

It is a topsy-turvy kingdom—where the last are first, where the lost are found, where the overlooked are seen and cherished.

And those who are satisfied now? If they are not careful, they will miss it entirely.

Where Do We Stand?

Which brings us to the question – If we had been in the crowd that day, where would we have been standing? Shoulder-to-shoulder with Jesus and those in need, or on the periphery as detached observers thinking, “There, but for the grace of God….”

Are we with the poor, the hungry, the weeping? Do we see them?

Are we side-by-side with Jesus, among the people he knows and loves?

Or are we too comfortable, too distant, too wrapped up in our own lives to notice?

Jesus stands on level ground, among the people.

And His example invites us to do the same --

-- To stand with those the world pushes aside.

-- To hunger for something more than our own success.

-- To see blessing where the world sees only brokenness.

-- To laugh in a way that makes room for others to laugh, too.       

Because this is where the kingdom is found. Not up in the clouds.

Not in palaces or in places of power, but here, among the entire crowd – the rich and the poor, the hungry and the well-nourished, the calm and the distressed, the successful and the downcast, those spoken well of and those nobody ever mentions – all together on the level ground called the Kingdom of God.

 Closing Prayer

Christ of the level ground,
You walk among us, feet covered in dust, eyes full of mercy.
You bless us all. It’s we who make distinctions between rich and poor, haves and have nots. All the while, we are at risk for missing the upside-down kingdom, whether we are down-and-out, or up-and-unconcerned.  

Open our eyes to see Your kingdom breaking through.
Open our hearts to hunger for more than comfort.

And give us the courage to stand where You stand—
on the level ground of this Kingdom you are bringing in. Amen.