The Sermon on the Mount

Matthew sets the scene with crowds from Galilee and beyond. Jesus went up the mountain, sat down, and taught his disciples within hearing of the crowd (Matthew 4:25–5:2; 7:28). Neither Matthew nor Luke names the hill. Both have Jesus enter Capernaum, near the Sea of Galilee, when he has finished (Matthew 8:1, 5) (Luke 7:1).

The discourse opens with the Beatitudes, a series of blessings on the poor in spirit, those who mourn, the gentle, those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, the merciful, the pure in heart, the peacemakers and the persecuted (Matthew 5:3–12). Jesus says that he has come not to destroy the law and the prophets but to fulfil them, and that his hearers’ righteousness must exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees (Matthew 5:17–20). Six times he sets a deeper demand beside what “was said”: not only murder but anger, not only adultery but the lustful look, no divorce except for sexual immorality, no oaths, no retaliation, and love even of enemies (Matthew 5:21–48).

The middle section concerns giving, prayer and fasting, which are to be done in secret and not for show. Here Matthew gives the Lord’s Prayer (Matthew 6:1–18). Then come sayings on treasure in heaven, on serving God or Mammon, and on anxiety: “seek first God’s Kingdom, and his righteousness” (Matthew 6:19–34). The last chapter warns against judging others, urges confident prayer, and sums up the law and the prophets in the rule to do to others what one would have them do to oneself (Matthew 7:1–12). It ends with the narrow gate, the tree known by its fruit, and the two houses, one built on rock and one on sand. The crowds were astonished, Matthew says, because he taught “with authority, and not like the scribes” (Matthew 7:13–29).

Luke’s parallel is spoken on “a level place” after Jesus has come down from the mountain. It has four beatitudes, addressed directly to the poor and hungry, matched by four woes on the rich, then the love of enemies, the warning against judging, and the two builders (Luke 6:17–49).

An early church manual, the Didache, gives the Lord’s Prayer in a form close to Matthew’s and tells believers to say it three times a day (Didache 8). Augustine, whose commentary of about AD 393 speaks of “the sermon which our Lord Jesus Christ spoke on the mount”, found in it “a perfect standard of the Christian life” (Augustine, On the Sermon on the Mount 1.1.1). Christians have differed on how its commands apply in public life. The Anabaptist articles agreed at Schleitheim in 1527 hold that Christ forbids his followers all swearing, citing the sermon, and that a Christian may not use the sword or serve as a magistrate (Schleitheim Confession articles 6–7). The Lutheran confession of Augsburg (1530) condemns the Anabaptists who forbid these offices to Christians and says that Christians may hold civil office, serve as soldiers and take oaths required by magistrates, because the gospel teaches an eternal righteousness of the heart and does not destroy the state or the family (Augsburg Confession XVI).