Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comRobertson Word Pictures - Luke 6:20 - 6:20
(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)
This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
And he lifted up his eyes (kai autos eparas tous opthalmous autou). First aorist active participle from epairō. Note also Luke’s favourite use of kai autos in beginning a paragraph. Vivid detail alone in Luke. Jesus looked the vast audience full in the face. Mat 5:2 mentions that “he opened his mouth and taught them” (began to teach them, inchoative imperfect, edidasken). He spoke out so that the great crowd could hear. Some preachers do not open their mouths and do not look up at the people, but down at the manuscript and drawl along while the people lose interest and even go to sleep or slip out.
Ye poor (hoi ptōchoi). The poor, but “yours” (humetera) justifies the translation “ye.” Luke’s report is direct address in all the four beatitudes and four woes given by him. It is useless to speculate why Luke gives only four of the eight beatitudes in Matthew or why Matthew does not give the four woes in Luke. One can only say that neither professes to give a complete report of the sermon. There is no evidence to show that either saw the report of the other. They may have used a common source like Q (the Logia of Jesus) or they may have had separate sources. Luke’s first beatitude corresponds with Matthew’s first, but he does not have “in spirit” after “poor.” Does Luke represent Jesus as saying that poverty itself is a blessing? It can be made so. Or does Luke represent Jesus as meaning what is in Matthew, poverty of spirit?
The kingdom of God (hē basileia tou theou). Mat 5:3 has “the kingdom of heaven” which occurs alone in Matthew though he also has the one here in Luke with no practical difference. The rabbis usually said “the kingdom of heaven.” They used it of the political Messianic kingdom when Judaism of the Pharisaic sort would triumph over the world. The idea of Jesus is in the sharpest contrast to that conception here and always. See note on Mat 3:2 for discussion of the meaning of the word “kingdom.” It is the favourite word of Jesus for the rule of God in the heart here and now. It is both present and future and will reach a glorious consummation. Some of the sayings of Christ have apocalyptic and eschatological figures, but the heart of the matter is here in the spiritual reality of the reign of God in the hearts of those who serve him. The kingdom parables expand and enlarge upon various phases of this inward life and growth.