“What to expect”

By Rev. Michael Stonhouse

Meditation – Tuesday, May 13, 2025

Luke 6: 12-26 (Forward, p. 15) CEV p. 1063

Here’s something that has stoked my curiosity. Up until now I had not noticed it, given that I have tended to treat the Calling of the Twelve and the Sermon on the Plain as two separate, unrelated ‘items. However, I now wondering whether perhaps they aren’t. Perhaps they are connected. Our text tells us that Jesus went up onto the mountain to pray and afterwards chose the Twelve. Then, they together went down from the mountain, where Jesus gave today’s epic and rather unsettling sermon. “Blessed are the poor, the hungry, the sorrowing” etc.

I’m wondering whether Jesus was now letting His disciples, particularly the Twelve, know what they’re ‘in for’, what they are to expect as His followers. Poverty, hunger, sorrow, and rejection will sometimes be their lot, but, “don’t worry, it’s not the end”. Things will eventually be ‘evened out.’

Jesus does the polar opposite of what we often do when recruiting for volunteers. Far too often we honey coat it, painting the task as demanding little by way of time and effort. “Piece of cake’, we try to tell them. Jesus, however, does nothing of the sort. He lets us know plainly what we are in for, which then means that we can ‘count the cost’ and not be hoodwinked into getting into something that is clearly ‘over our head’. Actually, it is over our head, this discipleship, this following of Jesus, but it is something that we do with His help (that of the Holy Spirit) and with His presence (He is ever with us). But thanks, Jesus, you have warned us, and for this, we are grateful.

Forward notes: “Now during those days he went out to the mountain to pray, and he spent the night in prayer to God” (verse 12).

“Before appointing the twelve apostles, Jesus takes time away from everything to pray in solitude. It is a practice we see in Jesus’s life on

several occasions. Before embarking on something new or before a major event, he takes time to be alone in prayer.

“This has often been a challenging example for me to follow. I like activity and being in motion. When I finish one thing, I want to move right on to the next thing. But I have learned, sometimes the hard way, that time alone in prayer is essential. Taking a moment to recenter myself enables me to refocus on what is important: who God is calling me to be and what God is calling me to do.”

Moving Forward: “How often do you take time to pray before a big event?”