Our weekday lectionary gives us a succession of readings from the gospels of Mark, Matthew and Luke through the year.  The compilers of the lectionary after the 2nd Vatican Council evidently followed the majority of scholars who see Mark as the first gospel written, and Matthew and Luke following Mark as they write their own story of Jesus for their own time and place.

Mark was written for the church of Rome, just recovering from the  horrific persecution of Nero. Matthew was written for a Jewish Christian church struggling with a resurgent Pharisaic Judaism.  Luke wrote for a church made up increasingly of gentiles. The compilers left the Gospel of John for the lenten and eastern seasons and some other days of the year.

Some weeks ago we read Matthew’s account of the beatitudes which Jesus preached on the mountain, as the new Moses. Today we read Luke’s account of the beatitudes which Jesus preaches on the plain, where “ he came down… and stood on a stretch of level ground and…a great crowd of his disciples and a large number of the people from all Judea and Jerusalem and the coastal region of Tyre and Sidon came to hear him.”

Luke indicates more than Jews came to hear Jesus.

In Luke’s account, Jesus speaks to his disciples. Luke Timothy Johnson says the crowds are like bystanders listening by in Luke’ account.  It’s to his disciples Jesus speaks. He promises they will be blessed, but he also warns those who received much not to fail the poor, the hungry and those who weep. “Woe to you.”

Who are the disciples to whom Jesus speaks? They are not only those he chose on the mountain, but they are his disciples Luke sees in the communities of his day. They are those Paul speaks to and warns in his letter to the Corinthians which, appropriately,  we read along with Luke’s Gospel these weekdays. All of them are ordinary Christians who were given much.

Commentators on Luke’s Gospel say that Luke is easy on the weak and hard on the strong. Think of the two sons in the parable of the Prodigal Son.

Blessed are you who are poor, for the Kingdom of God is yours.

Blessed are you who are now hungry, for you will be satisfied.

Blessed are you who are now weeping,for you will laugh.

Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude and insult you, and denounce your name as evil on account of the Son of Man.

Jesus says to the marginalized.

But woe to you who are rich,

 who are filled now,

 who laugh now, 

 who have all speak well of you.

Does he mean us?