The Sermon on the Plain - The Setting

The people that came to Jesus came to be healed and to listen to him. Matthew said that the people liked to listen to Jesus because he taught them with authority. While the Religious leaders argued about minor details of the Law, Jesus preached boldly and decidedly what the Law taught...and the people liked that.

The Sermon on the Plain like the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7) were framed like an Israelite covenant which leads some scholars to conclude that the sermon was a renewal of the covenant of Moses. More of that can be found in my blog about Politics and the New Testament.

More than the Sermon on the Mount, the Sermon on the Plain addressed class division. The Sermon on the Mount focused on the poor in spirit, the meek and the persecuted. The Sermon on the Plain focused on the poor, the hungry and the hated. Matthew is palatable to middle class of today that sees little connection between poverty and spirituality. Luke is offensive and virtually ignored by 21st Century Christians who live in the West, who although they may struggle from paycheck to paycheck, have enough to eat three meals a day and have enough to live in houses and accumulate things such as televisions, computers, pictures, nicknacks, and so forth.

To understand this better, let me design a chart.

BASIC NECESSITIES OF SURVIVAL which include food, clothing and shelter
CULTURAL NECESSITIES which may include a telephone, a car, cleaning materials, and work clothes.
SURPLUS which includes games, beer, and most of our possessions.

Somewhere around 90 - 95% of Jesus' audience struggled to obtain and to keep the basic necessities of survival. Most of who read this blog will never in this life struggle for the basic necessities of life. Our struggles will be in the surplus zone.

This is why we tend to ignore the Sermon on the Plain and focus on the Sermon on the Mount. The Sermon on the Mount addressed people who struggled with fitting in and had a hard time dealing with life in general. The Sermon on the Plain on the other hand addressed people who struggled with something we know little if anything about. They struggled for basic survival.