Just as the disciples chose to hear Jesus, we can choose to invite the Gospel message into our hearts, in our minds, into our very beings. We can invite the Gospel message to transform us, to help us become the people of love and grace. Or we can choose to make the Gospel message simply words we say on Sunday morning.
February 16, 2025
Messages from the Gospel of Luke
“To Hear and To Be Healed”
Luke 6: 17-26
Rev. Dr. Heather W. McColl
Luke 6: 17-26
He came down with them and stood on a level place with a great crowd of his disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea, Jerusalem, and the coast of Tyre and Sidon. They had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases, and those who were troubled with unclean spirits were cured. And everyone in the crowd was trying to touch him, for power came out from him and healed all of them.
Then he looked up at his disciples and said: “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. “Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be filled. “Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh. “Blessed are you when people hate you and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you on account of the Son of Man. Rejoice on that day and leap for joy, for surely your reward is great in heaven, for that is how their ancestors treated the prophets. “But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation. “Woe to you who are full now, for you will be hungry. “Woe to you who are laughing now, for you will mourn and weep. “Woe to you when all speak well of you, for that is how their ancestors treated the false prophets.
To Hear and to Be Healed Luke 6: 17-26
When we look at this text from the Gospel of Luke, we need to realize that it can be summed up in one question, that question being…As followers of Jesus Christ, why do we do what we do? Why do we gather on a Sunday morning and come to this sanctuary? Why do we sing songs of praise? Why do we extend an invitation to all come and partake the bread of life, to drink from the cup of the new covenant? When we look at this text from the Gospel of Luke, we need to realize that it can be summed up in one question, that question being… As followers of Jesus Christ, why do we do what we do?
For Luke, the answer to this question is simply this…as followers of Jesus Christ, we do what we do because we have heard Jesus, and we want to be healed. We want our communities to be healed. We want the world around us to be healed. For Luke the answer to this question is simply this…as followers of Jesus Christ, we do what we do because we have heard Jesus. We have answered his call to leave everything behind and follow him.
We do what we do because we have the audacity to believe that the Gospel turns our world upside and levels the plane for all of God’s people. We have the audacity to believe that love and light will have the last word. We have the audacity to believe that God is here, that God is at work in and among us, bringing forth healing and wholeness for all of God’s people. As followers of Jesus Christ, we have the audacity to believe that one day, God’s Beloved Community will come to fruition here on Earth just as it is in heaven.
Now this belief is not one of our own making. Rather it is one of our own choosing. And that makes all the difference. What I mean by this is that we choose to center ourselves in the presence of God. We choose to start every conversation grounded in God’s love. We choose to hold firm to the promises given to us by our God. Each and every day, we choose to become the people of love, people of mercy, people of grace which God created and calls us to be.
That’s the part we never really talk about when it comes to faith. Sure, we talk about us choosing to take Jesus as our Lord and Savior. But we never really talk about how that choice of choosing Jesus, of choosing the Gospel message, of choosing love because hate is too much of a burden to bear, as people of faith, we never really talk about how this choice of choosing Jesus shapes everything we do and say, shapes who we are, shapes how we view the world. We never really talk about how choosing Jesus shapes our understanding of the work of God here and now.
And that’s pretty sad really. It’s sad because by not talking about, by not naming how choosing Jesus, choosing the Gospel shapes everything we do and say, we have allowed, yes, allowed others to control the narrative. We have allowed others, we have allowed the world, we have allowed false prophets to turn Jesus, to turn the Gospel into something it is not. Something which serves our wants, something which chooses comfort over wholeness, something which skews the Gospel towards power and might instead of it being a call to embrace the least of these.
When we look at our text, we realize that the author of Luke does not hold anything back in this sermon given by Jesus to his disciples, to the crowd of his followers, to us as his disciples. Luke is setting up the responsibility of the Gospel, for the Gospel on us as Jesus’ followers. He is telling us in pretty frank terms that the choice is ours. We can choose to live in a way which reflects the values of God’s Beloved Community, values of respect, community, compassion, love and grace. OR we can choose to buy into the narrative of this world, a narrative which tells us fear will overwhelm, power and might will dominate, a narrative which tells us that the only way to be in community is through an us versus them mentality.
Because unlike a similar text in the Gospel of Matthew, Luke does not couch these blessings and woes in spiritual terms. Rather, he uses everyday scenarios to contrast how the decisions we make as followers of Jesus Christ affect those around us. Do we hoard our resources like food and water while there are people starving in our midst? Do we ignore the oppressive systems which thrive on despair and desperation? Do we create situations which intentionally separate, divide and belittle? Or do we choose the way of love and grace? Do we choose the way of God’s Peaceable Kingdom? Or do we choose to defy the narrative of power and might and proclaim the good news to the poor, release to the captives, sight to the blind, and proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor?
In other words…as followers of Jesus Christ, Luke is challenging us to think about why we do what we do? Do we truly believe God is at work in our midst bringing healing and wholeness? Or are we simply going through the motions? Luke wants us to think about why we do what we do because it is a reminder to us, for us as followers of Jesus Christ that some two thousand some years later, we have a choice. We can choose to invite the Gospel message into our hearts, in our minds, into our very beings. We can invite the Gospel message to transform us, to help us become the people of love and grace. Or we can choose to make the Gospel message simply words we say on Sunday morning, stripping it of its power to transform our world?
You see, what Luke wants us to remember is that The Gospel Message for us as disciples of Christ has been and continues to be an invitation. Sure, God has claimed us and named us as God’s Beloveds. Sure, God loves us more than we will ever know. But we still have a choice because that is who our God is. Our God has extended an invitation to come, to become, to hear and be healed. Yet it is our choice whether we accept the invitation or not.
As ones who chose Jesus as our Lord and Savior, who chose the one who brought forth new life, chose the one who overcame the darkness and despair, as ones who chose the Risen Savior as our Lord, we are called to continue Jesus’ work for justice, not only for a select few but for all of God’s children. As followers of Jesus Christ, who have chosen to leave everything behind and follow him, we are called to be a presence of love and grace, not only for the people who think like us or act like us but for all of God’s children. As ones who have chosen the Gospel message to guide us and lead us, we are called to proclaim the good news of healing and wholeness for all of God’s creation.
As ones who have chosen love and light over despair and desperation, we cannot force the Gospel Message to be something it is not. It will always, always be an invitation which flips our world upside down. It will always, always be an invitation to see things differently, to see them not as how the world sees things but to see things, to see people through the eyes of God’s compassion and love. As ones who have chosen Jesus as our Lord and Savior, we know that the Gospel message will always, always be an invitation to think about why we do what we do. Amen.
See also: Theology Tuesday for Sunday, February 16, 2025 – To Hear and to Be Healed Luke 6: 17-26.
Additional sermons are available in the Sermon Library.
Listen to the podcast.
Leave a Reply
Your email is safe with us.