Sermon on the Mount

The event

Seeing the crowds, Jesus goes up on a mountainside — traditionally identified with the gently sloping hill above Capernaum now called the Mount of Beatitudes — and sits down to teach, the customary posture of a rabbi. What follows in Matthew 5-7 is the longest continuous block of Jesus's teaching in any Gospel, opening with the Beatitudes: startling blessings on the poor in spirit, the mourning, the meek, and the persecuted, upending ordinary expectations of who is truly blessed.

Jesus goes on to reframe the Law itself, insisting he came not to abolish it but to fulfill it, then pressing its demands inward — anger as the seed of murder, lust as the seed of adultery — because true righteousness must exceed the Pharisees' external show. He teaches his followers to pray using what's become known as the Lord's Prayer, warns against storing up treasure on earth, and famously urges, "do not be anxious," pointing to the birds of the air and the lilies of the field as evidence of the Father's care.

The sermon closes with the parable of two builders: one who hears Jesus's words and does them, building on rock that withstands the storm, and one who hears but ignores them, building on sand that collapses. Luke's parallel "Sermon on the Plain" covers similar themes more briefly, which most evangelical harmonists take as either a condensed retelling of the same occasion or a similar sermon given on another day — Jesus, like any traveling teacher, surely preached comparable material more than once.

Dating

Placed early-to-mid in the Galilean ministry, c. AD 28. Whether Luke's 'Sermon on the Plain' records the same event or a distinct occasion is debated among evangelicals; both readings preserve full confidence in the content as authentic teaching of Jesus.

Scripture references

• Matthew 5:1-7:29
• Luke 6:17-49