READINGS:
Luke 6:17-26
 

Spot the Difference

I wonder how good you are at those “spot the difference” challenges? You know, when someone displays two almost identical pictures, and you have to find ten or so differences. They test our powers of observation. So often, we assume the scenes are the same just because they have so many things in common. 

In some ways, we could play that game with the gospel reading from Luke that we’ve just heard. It has much in common with a similar text in another gospel. This one is often referred to as the ‘Sermon on the Plain”, rather than Matthew’s “Sermon on the Mount”—an easy first “spot the difference,” if it were only the location that was different! 

In Luke’s account, before delivering this sermon, Jesus spends the night in prayer and then chooses His twelve apostles. This suggests that what follows is His foundational teaching at the very beginning of His ministry. It shapes and defines what He believed was at the heart of His earthly mission. It is His manifesto—one that He was calling His disciples not only to live out but also to share with others. The essence of Christianity, one might say. 

We are so used to hearing people share their manifestos—their mission statements. Organisations, politicians, and even churches lay before others what they see as their core values and what they intend to do. We hear so many well-crafted and well-meaning words—hopes and visions. But in the end, for every organisation, the challenge is not just to speak the words but to bring them to life in concrete actions. That is where many stumble. 

Jesus’ manifesto

Jesus’ manifesto, as presented in today’s gospel, reinforces the idea that God’s kingdom turns human expectations and values upside down. The lowly are lifted, and the powerful are warned. Here, we hear the theme of God’s kingdom favouring the poor and challenging the powerful.  It calls followers of Jesus to embrace humility, justice, and dependence on God rather than worldly security. 

In many ways, Jesus’ words are deeply rooted in the Jewish prophetic tradition—words that would have been well known to Him. Both the blessings and the woes echo the prophetic warnings found in Old Testament books such as Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Amos. We hear the same messages, where God condemns injustice and promises to uplift the poor. Another text we could “spot the difference” with! Just have a look at Hannah’s Song in 1 Samuel 2:1-10 when you return home—it, too, speaks of the hungry being filled and the rich being humbled. 

When some people compare Luke and Matthew’s versions of Jesus’ early manifesto, they conclude that Luke’s Sermon on the Plain is more challenging than the other—perhaps even more radical. It gives us a glimpse of Jesus as someone truly in touch with the plight of His people: the downtrodden, the poor, the forgotten. Not only that, but Jesus was determined that such people should not be seen as suffering because of God’s judgement. 

The well-heeled and fortunate of Jesus’ day may have looked at the poor and assumed their hardship was a sign of divine punishment. But Jesus turned that thinking upside down. For Him, people were not poor and struggling because God intended them to be so—their circumstances were not a punishment from God but simply the reality in which they found themselves. 

And despite even the direst circumstances of their lives, they were never outside God’s love. Jesus knew, as we do today, that not everyone who places their trust in God has an easy life—far from it. He also saw that those who lived corrupt lives sometimes led very comfortable ones—often at the expense of others. It was true in Jesus’ day, and it is no different today. 

A radical manifesto

However, the teachings of Jesus—this radical manifesto—challenge us throughout the ages to live differently  and to think more radically. Rather than just seeing this passage as a reversal of fortunes, we might recognise that true blessing and inner peace come from recognising God’s presence in all circumstances—whether we are rich or poor, full or hungry. 

Somehow, it is about seeing the fingerprint of God in each person.  When we begin to do that, we start to see social action not just as solving poverty and injustice from a position of power, but as being with the poor—entering into genuine relationships with others, in a way that reflects Christ’s solidarity with the suffering and marginalised. 

Francis and the leper

There is a very moving story of St Francis of Assisi and his encounter with a leper. Francis, by all accounts, found people with leprosy terrifying. Not only was there the fear of contracting the disease, but he also found their appearance deeply distressing. But in the end, by God’s grace, his heart was changed. He was able to see the face of Christ in the face of the leper. It was only at that moment that he could fully embrace someone on the margins of society. He was transformed. He had not cured leprosy, but he had made every leper realise they were loved—by another human being and by God. 

Spot the difference: Jesus’ teaching and our local church

If we are going to continue to play “spot the difference”, we might just be brave enough to ask how we, as individuals or as a church, are modelling the teaching found in the Sermon on the Plain. 

I wonder:

• What are the differences? What is the same? 
• Where do we see this radical manifesto being lived out today? 

The Church, of which we are part, should model the Kingdom of God in its everyday life. The Beatitudes are not just ethical demands but a description of what Christian community should look like—a space where the lowly are lifted, the hungry are fed, and power is redefined through love and service. 

I wonder:

• Just imagine this in the place where you find yourself. 
• What are the photos that you could take locally that demonstrate the Gospel we have heard today?