What is the Sermon on the Mount?
The Sermon on the Mount is the long discourse of Jesus recorded in Matthew 5–7, with a shorter parallel in Luke 6, spoken to His disciples on a mountainside while crowds listened in. It raises two questions that have divided readers ever since: what exactly was Jesus describing, and who was He describing it for?
Where It Sits in Matthew's Story
Matthew places the sermon right after a burst of miracles that drew national attention. The order is deliberate: power first, then explanation.
J. N. DarbyTwo things are then brought forward in the Gospel narrative. First, the power which accompanies the proclamation of the kingdom... Secondly (Matt. 5-7) the character of the kingdom is announced in the sermon on the Mount, as well as that of the persons who should have part in it (the Father's name also being revealed)... Redemption is not spoken of in it; but the character and nature of the kingdom, and who could enter.
The kingdom He sketched had nothing in common with what the nation expected of a king.
James McBroomA King like this must have a kingdom altogether different from anything which had ever been before. It is therefore a description of the character of His kingdom. Those things which are necessary for a nation and kingdom among men, such as wealth, education, and distinction of rank and a standing army are conspicuous by their absence, the reason being that all the requirements of His are stored up in Himself.
The Beatitudes as a Portrait of the Speaker
The sermon opens with a series of blessings — the poor in spirit, those who mourn, the meek, the peacemakers. These are not abstract virtues.
James BoydIn the sermon on the mount (Matt. 5, 6, 7; Luke 6), especially in what is called the beatitudes, we have set forth the moral characteristics of those who have a title to the kingdom; and those beautiful moral qualities are simply the graces that adorned His blessed person in His pathway through this proud, lawless, and rebellious world. His description of the heirs of the kingdom was but a description of His own spirit, walk, and ways among men and under the eye of God.
Two Names Threaded Through It
Alongside the kingdom, the sermon introduces a relationship. Jesus repeatedly speaks of "your Father who is in heaven," and that name governs the whole standard of behaviour He sets.
J. N. DarbyIt will be noticed that the name of Father is very distinctly used in this discourse of the Saviour... Such is the measure of conduct set for the disciples with respect to others — "perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect." From this name flow the principles of their walk in this world.
Yet the disciples could not have grasped what they were being given at the time.
Arend RemmersThis was, at the time of the "sermon on the mount," yet future. Nevertheless, the Lord speaks to the disciples already of "your Father which is in heaven," although they knew neither the basis of this new relationship — the work of Christ — nor its intimacy and power through the Holy Spirit.
Not a Gospel of Good Advice
A common mistake is to treat the sermon as the whole of Christianity — a moral programme by which people improve themselves.
Arno Clemens GaebeleinAs the teachings of the Epistle to the Romans have been and are being abandoned in Christendom, the false application of the discourse here in Matthew has been taken up. There is therefore a continual increase of teaching about lifting man out of his lost place into a better sphere by means of ethical teachings taken from the sermon on the mount.
What the sermon leaves out is as telling as what it contains.
J. N. DarbyNot one word of the glad tidings of Christ's death and resurrection is in it... but the terms of the sermon on the mount were addressed not to sinners, but gave the character of Jewish saints who would have part in the kingdom; most instructive to us to show us what characterizes it, now it is set up, and that he who contradicts it cannot have really a part in the kingdom.
Commentators differ over how directly it applies to Christians today. Some warn that treating it as the believer's rulebook produces "legal bondage," while all agree it remains a real guide for the way we live.
The Ending: Two Builders, One Voice
The discourse closes with a story about two houses and a storm — and the difference between them is doing, not merely hearing.
F. B. HoleThe parable does not teach salvation by works, but salvation by that living faith which leads to the works. If we cast our minds back over the Sermon on the Mount we shall realize at once that nothing but genuine faith in Him could induce anyone to do the things which He taught.
The crowd's reaction was to the Speaker more than the subject.
J T MawsonThe prophets of old had come before the people with "Thus says the Lord" on their lips... but in the Sermon on the Mount Jesus stood forth and said, "I SAY TO YOU," and those who heard Him were astonished at His teaching, for He taught them AS HAVING AUTHORITY.
Summary
- The King speaks. After miracles proved who He was, Jesus set out the character of His kingdom and who could enter it.
- The King's own portrait. The Beatitudes describe the graces that marked His own walk, now to be reflected in His people.
- The Father named. Running through the sermon is "your Father in heaven" — a relationship the hearers could not yet fully know.
- Not the gospel. Redemption, the cross and the resurrection are absent; treating the sermon as a self-improvement plan replaces salvation with ethics.
- The storm tests it. Hearing is not enough — only the house built by doing His words stands, and only faith in Him produces such doing.