Getting to Know Jesus #15

We have seen in the middle of Luke 6 that Jesus is in the middle of this large plain, where people from all over Israel, end even outside of Israel, have gathered together to listen to what He has to say:

20 And he lifted up his eyes on his disciples, and said:
“Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.
21 “Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you shall be satisfied.
“Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh.
22 “Blessed are you when people hate you and when they exclude you and revile you and spurn your name as evil, on account of the Son of Man! 23 Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven; for so their fathers did to the prophets.

We might refer to this as the Reader's Digest version of the Sermon on the Mount and the Beatitudes: Blessed are you... you really have your act together, when you are content in this life and focused on what is eternal, when hunger for God's truth exceeds physical hunger, when life is about more than being happy.  All of those things were present tense, but notice the last one: Jesus says: Blessed are you when... there is another way they would get to prove their devotion to things eternal: opposition and persecution for following after Him.  This is where the path of following Jesus leads: it's not always easy and often is lonely and hard, but just like feeling blessed for the other conditions, it is a cause of rejoicing to be counted worth of such treatment for the name of Christ. He was preparing them to go back into their world.