Big Idea: Jesus contrasts the blessings of life in the kingdom of God, with all its hardships, with most people’s idea of the good life.

Understanding the Text

Following after the selection of the Twelve, this is the beginning of a programmatic sermon on the blessings and demands of discipleship, which continues to the end of the chapter. The parameters are thus established for the role that the disciples will play in the developing story.

Outline/Structure

Luke 6:20–49 is a much shorter “equivalent” to the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5–7. Both sermons begin with beatitudes and end with the parable of the two houses. Most of what Luke includes in between is paralleled in Matthew’s longer discourse (though not always in the same order, and often in quite different words), but Matthew…