Sermon on the Plains overview

As I looked over the Sermon on the Plains, I realized I should have taken a step back before I started my last post.  Kenneth Bailey, author of Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes, showed  the typical format of a Jewish sermon, how it is often pyramid-shaped, with the main point in the center and matching points on either side.  With apologies for jumping in without looking first, let me try something very different to see if I learned anything from Dr. Bailey. 

The sermon starts out with four blessings, culminating in a time to rejoice, followed by four corresponding woes.  I attempt here to show the verses that correspond to one another with indentation and color coordination:

Blessed are the poor

Blessed are you who hunger

Blessed are you who weep

Blessed are you when people hate you because of the Son of Man

Rejoice in that day!

Woe to you who are rich

Woe to you who are well fed

Woe to you who laugh

Woe when people speak well of you

The next section has a sandwich of two commands to love our enemies, three corresponding ways to do so and the Golden Rule in the middle:

Love your enemies and do good to those who hate you

Bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you

Turn the other cheek, if someone takes your coat, give your shirt also

Give to those who ask and don’t demand anything back

Do to others as you would have them do to you.

If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? 

If you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? 

And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you?

But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked.

Here is the pivotal verse, the main point of the sermon.  Each of the four sections points to this verse:

Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.

The third section mirrors the second, emphasized by the main point above: be merciful.  

Don’t judge others and you won’t be judged

Don’t condemn others and you won’t be condemned

Forgive and you will be forgiven

Give and it will be given to you, pressed down and overflowing

Can the blind lead the blind?  

Why look at a speck of sawdust in your neighbor’s eye and ignore the plank in your own?

How can you take the speck out and fail to see the plank in your own eye?

Hypocrite!  First remove your plank.  Then you will see clearly

No good tree bears bad fruit, no bad tree bears good fruit 

The good man brings good from his heart, evil man brings evil from his heart 

And lastly, this fourth section sums up the entire sermon, similar to the Sermon on the Mount.  The day when people revile us, as indicated in the blessings at the top, is the day when the torrent strikes.  Will your life withstand the torrent?  How do you react when people hurt you?

Why do you call me Lord, Lord and not do what I say?

He who hears and puts into practice is like the man who has his foundation on the rock

When the flood came and torrent struck the house

but could not shake it, because it was well built

He who hears and does not put into practices is the man who built with no foundation

The moment the torrent struck

The house collapsed and its destruction was complete.

It is crucial that we do more than simply acknowledge with our mind and our words that Jesus is our Lord.  Believing in Jesus must mean doing what he said.  Jesus, God incarnate, was and is merciful.  Like anything else that doesn’t come naturally, we need to practice doing likewise.

As with the Sermon on the Mount, I think you will agree, this is not just a collection of sayings.  If anything, it is such a beautiful sermon, it leads to the opposite problem (once again): how did Luke write it down so precisely (a topic touched on last time out)?