In Luke, Jesus goes to the mountains for prayer, reflection, refreshment, rejuvenation. It is while enjoying one of these mountaintop moments that Jesus singled out 12 apostles from among his many disciples. Immediately after this, Jesus leads his newly appointed apostles back down the mountain to "a level place," a place where apostles, disciples and a crowd of eager people stand shoulder to shoulder. The level place accords them all equal footing, just as they are all equally in need of Jesus' message.

Although this week's gospel lesson does not include Luke's version of the "blessings and woes" (vv.20-26), their distinct Lukan structure carries into the texts we do read. Unlike Matthew's version of these sayings, rightly called the "Beatitudes" because only blessings are listed, Luke cr…