Holwerd in The Lectionary Commentary, “Luke’s sermon is much shorter (30 verses to Matthew’s 107), and it contains only four beatitudes compared to Matthew’s eight.” Yet, both of these divine sermons have the same goal. Luke’s “Sermon on the Plains,” is shorter than the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus began to teach a message very similar to the Sermon on the Mount. They wanted more teaching, more application for living, more understanding, and, thus, more hope.

The passage in Luke 6 refers to Jesus’ “Sermon on the Plains.” The Lord Jesus had descended the mount after a night of prayer. We are also concerned with Luke 6:27: “But I say to you who hear, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. How easily a unified people become “Balkanized” (broken into competing groups, divided) when pride and self-interests supersede love and a common heritage in God. This undesirable state creates a culture of suspicion, intrigue, concealment, treachery, and sabotage casting a shadow on unity, and turning a nation into a divided people. They and other unscrupulous figures who use their delegated authority from Rome to fleece their own people represent an existential threat to Israel’s identity. These, like Matthew, and Zacchaeus, were tax collectors. This humbling situation is magnified by the appointed Jewish governors and other public officials who are seen as turncoats. These are people who are under the oppressive regime of the Roman empire. The other contextual factor that exists in Jesus’ statement in the sermon on the mount is pride, position, and power.

This remains a challenge for our generation, as well. 2 So, we can say that the presenting issues we observe in the text have to do with a misunderstanding of loving one’s enemies. John Stott wrote, In each antithesis (‘You have heard that it was said … but I say to you …’) he rejected the easy-going tradition of the scribes, reaffirmed the authority of Old Testament Scripture, and drew out the full and exacting implications of God’s moral law. Paul’s, London, wrote of Matthew 5: “All the articles of our religion, all the canons of our church, all the injunctions of our princes, all the homilies of our fathers, all the body of divinity, is in these three chapters, in this one Sermon on the Mount.” 1 The Sermon on the Mount, on a hill north of Galilee, has been called a radical re-interpretation of the Old Testament Scriptures by Jesus. John Donne (1572-1631), the poet-preacher of St. In this passage, Jesus is seated before a crowd and teaching the Word of God that is being fulfilled in His own person. 'You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven.' - Matthew 6:43-45 What Does 'Love Your Enemies' Mean in Matthew 6:44

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