According to Luke, the only person who is ready to weather life and the afterlife (6:48–49) is the person who follows Jesus and becomes like him.

There is no disciple who is better than his teacher. Any disciple who is prepared will be like his teacher. (Luke 6:40)

I found it helpful to walk backwards through Jesus’s Sermon on the Plain in Luke.

End

What does it mean to “be prepared” for life? It means being like a good tree that bears good fruit (6:43–45). Being prepared means listening to Jesus’s words and following his example (6:46–47).

Middle

The preceding verses make clear what it looks like to be prepared. Being like Jesus means loving your enemies (6:27, 33, 35), blessing and praying those who curse you (6:28), doing good to those who slight you (6:29), giving to those who ask (6:30, 34, 38), treating others like you want to be treated (6:31, 41–42), being compassionate like the Father (Luke 6:36), and not treating other people as thought they are worthless (6:37).

Beginning

This way of life includes various types of poverty (6:20), hunger, weeping (6:21), and endurance of mockery and exclusion (6:22), but it’s the only way to flourish (μακάριοι 4x in 6:20–22). Jesus warns that other displays of strength are the opposite of flourishing (οὐαί 4x in 6:24–26).

Conclusion

The people most worthy of our attention and celebration — actions that are truly honorable and awe-inspiring — are ones that look like Jesus. There is no shortcut or other options.

Prayer

☩ Lord, keep us from chasing any type of success that looks like anything other than you. Your way of being in the world — as we see it in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John — this what we want to become. May we always seek conformity to your image. Meet us in our seeking and make us like you. ☩

Footnote

A summary of Jesus’s Sermon on the Mount in Matthew can be found here: The Sermon in Paraphrase.