Luke 6:12-19
Chapter 6
12
Jesus went out into the hills to pray, spending the whole night in prayer with God.
13
When day arrived, he called his disciples to him and chose twelve of them, whom he called ‘apostles’:
14
Simon, whom he named Peter, and his brother Andrew; James and John; Philip and Bartholomew;
15
Matthew and Thomas; James, son of Alpheus, and Simon, called the Zealot;
16
Judas, son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who would later become the traitor.
17
Coming down the hill with them, Jesus stood in an open plain. Many of his disciples were there, along with a large crowd of people from all parts of Judea, Jerusalem, and the coastal cities of Tyre and Sidon.
18
They gathered to listen to him and to be healed of their diseases. And those troubled by unclean spirits were healed.
19
The entire crowd tried to touch him because of the power that flowed from him and healed everyone.
Commentaries
The Twelve.
Jesus chooses the Twelve, but first, he spends the entire night in prayer. He makes his decision at a crucial moment in his ministry, just before the ‘Sermon on the Plain,’ which, although it lacks the content and scope of its counterpart in Matthew (the ‘Sermon on the Mount,’ Mt 5-7), still represents the life mission for those who want to follow him and spread his Gospel.
A Large Crowd Approaches – Sermon On the Plain: Blessed and Unblessed.
Luke highlights Jesus’ beatitudes through four difficult aspects of life: poverty, hunger, weeping (sadness), and persecution. And not because they are divine will, quite the opposite. That is why we can understand his woes as a prophetic lament—essentially, a warning to those who promote and perpetuate injustice, indifference, inequality, and marginalization. With these woes, Jesus denounces the mean-spirited attitude of those who have based their lives on possessions and goods without considering those who have nothing; of those who consume and gorge themselves without thinking of the hungry; of those who enjoy life and have fun without acknowledging those who weep and suffer; of those who chase fame and comfort instead of standing against injustice. What is the meaning of a life lived this way?