NOTES for Luk 6:12-19

In the Sermon on the Mount, as the passage from Luke’s Gospel that follows today’s reading is traditionally called, the Lord tells His listeners what true life and true righteousness are, and speaks about the meaning and moral foundations of life. It is precisely in connection with these words of Christ that the evangelist notes that all the people sought to touch Him because power went out from Him. This is a very important observation, because we must remember that God’s truth possesses real power precisely because it is truth.

The Lord says things that are far from obvious; it is very difficult to understand and accept His words, and still more difficult to fulfill them. The blessedness of the poor and the hungry, the joy of those persecuted for righteousness—none of this follows from the experience of human life. Yet we are given the opportunity to sense and experience in these words of Jesus the power of true life, because they are not merely the invention of an idle mind but the word of God addressed to us. That is why truth and purity in our relationships with one another become the place where, sometimes quite unexpectedly even to ourselves, we meet the Living God.