This may sound to you like Matt. 5-7, called The Sermon on the Mount because Jesus went up on a mountain (Mt. 5:1). We once had a tour guide in Israel who took
us up a hill at the north end of the Sea of Galilee. On that little rise he suggested that the flat area on the hill might have been the kind of place where Jesus preached
the Sermon on the Mount, assuming the
two to be the same.
There are similarities. Both have beatitudes
(blessings), the commands to love one’s enemies and not to judge, and the
illustrations of fruit on a tree and building your house on a good foundation. But there are differences.
For example, Jesus pronounces woes in Lk.
6:24-26 which are not in Matt. 5-7. Luke
omits the Jewish context that is
critical to Matthew’s record. There is
no reference to Jesus’ coming to fulfill the law or of the need to be more
righteous than the Pharisees. In Lk.
6:27-36 Luke does not include the phrase you
have heard it said that Matthew uses so as to contrast Jesus’ teaching with
Jewish tradition and Moses’ Law. Luke
refers to being sons of the Most High,
a title of God that speaks of His greatness above the gods of the nations
(6:35) in the same context where Matthew speaks of God as your Father in heaven (Mt. 5:45).
Further the
Sermon on the Mount occurs earlier in Jesus’ ministry than the Sermon on the Flat Place. In Matthew it was later that Jesus chose the
Twelve; in Luke the sermon immediately follows that event. It is very likely that Jesus taught these
things more than once. Matthew’s version
sounds much more like it was pointed at the Jews (he was writing for the Jewish
crowd) whereas Luke, wrote more to the Greek mind. Remember Theophilus (Lk. 1:1-4) and note that
6:17 tells us the crowd included people from Tyre and Sidon which are Gentile
areas. Luke was led to record Jesus’
teaching aimed at the broader audience.
It both cases it is Jesus’ teaching on life in His Kingdom and thus it
relates to the new wineskins that are
essential for living out the gospel of
the kingdom.
1. The
key to happiness, 6:20-26.
Both sermons begin with beatitudes, blessed being
Greek for happy. Woe
announces a warning. To understand this
remember James 1:9-11 where the lowly
have blessings to look forward to that will sustain them in their lowliness
while the rich have dangers that they face simply because they are rich.
In addressing His disciples (v17) who are poor,
hungry, filled with sorrow and hated for Christ’s sake, He says happiness is
bound up in hope. He does not tell
anyone they need to be poor; nor does He justify laziness that contributes to
poverty. Some are simply needy but they
can be happy. Likewise, disciples who
are rich, full, filled with laughter and well-spoken of by men need to be careful. Again, it’s no sin to be rich; but riches
present dangers that rob us of happiness.
The bottom line is that true happiness is found
in following Christ. Both Matthew 5-7
and Luke 6 agree on this!
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