The Man of St Matthew

THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW

The Sermon on the Mount: Overview

"Sermon" may not be the best description of this discourse because the evangelist describes it as a teaching (5,2). It is also as we have seen the first of the five discourses which are a major feature of this Gospel. But we will stay with the traditional term.

Reading through the Sermon on the Mount will indicate that it has been carefully composed. We can see that the teachings are tightly organised or arranged from 5,3 - 6,18, whereas the arrangement from 6,19 onwards becomes much freer.

The phrase which is key to the composition is "the law or/and the prophets" which is found in both 5,17 and 7,12. This repetition gives us a bracket around the body of the sermon, especially as the Golden Rule in 7,12 is presented as a conclusion. It's unfortunate that many translation omit the "therefore" at the beginning of the verse which makes it a conclusion.

The second half of chapter 5, from 5,17 to 5,48, presents a series of "I say to you" statements by Jesus. There is a clear conclusion at the end of the chapter: "You must be perfect..." (5,48).

The first half of chapter 6, 6,1-17, is a presentation of almsgiving, prayer and fasting bound together by the need to act in secret and "the Father will reward you" (6,4; 6,6; 6,17). Omitting the Lord's Prayer (6,7-15) makes the similar structure for the three very clear (as can be seen in the Gospel reading for Ash Wednesday).

There follows from 6,18-7,12 a series of teachings which are not clearly bound together. There are none of the usual clues, no common words, no repeated phrases. We will look at them more closely in due course.

5,3-16 and 7,13-27 therefore become the introduction and conclusion to the Sermon. The significance especially of reading 5,3-16 together will be considered when we come to our reading.

That leaves 5,1-2 and 7,28-29 as the setting and the ending of the sermon. Notable is that the crowds are mentioned both at beginning and end of the sermon; the crowds are present hearing the sermon even if the disciples seem to be the primary audience.

This gives us an outline of the Sermon as follows:

The Body is presented in three parts: 5,17-48; 6,1-17 and 6,18-7,12.

We will therefore read 7,1-12 with chapter 6 so as to keep the third part of sermon together.

Return to the main page.

Matthew 5-7 and Luke 6

Both Sermons begin with Beatitudes and end with the parable of listening to the words of Jesus. Yet Luke's Sermon is much shorter. Notably, Luke omits Matthew's presentation of Jesus as the fulfillment of the Law in chapter 5 as well as the presentation of almsgiving, prayer and fasting in chapter 6.

Return to the main page.