the OTHER one = context
Before I begin this blog...
I want to give full and unequivocal credit for what I understand about the Luke Sermon on the Mount to my first pastor, George Caywood ~ the man who discipled me and grounded me in scripture. He is the ONLY person I ever heard give the insights about the differences between the 2 sermons. Thanks, George.
The "other" sermon on the mount ...
other: different ~ contra-distinct: distinguished by opposite qualities.
I think they were different sermons -- not just the same sermon heard and reported differently by two different men. There are practical reasons why I think so ~ one being that, as I mentioned in the last blog, in the Matthew gospel, Matthew was not yet a follower when Jesus preached the sermon. The sermon "happens" in chapter 5, and Matthew is called in Matthew 9. And it is MATTHEW'S account. . .that is, I think he knows when he left the "tables" and followed Jesus. But when you read the context of the Luke sermons, a story develops that shows a stark difference from the Matthew gospel story. In Matthew:
Matt 4:23-25 - Matt 5:1-2
Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people. News about him spread all over Syria, and people brought to him all who were ill with various diseases, those suffering severe pain, the demon-possessed, those having seizures, and the paralyzed, and he healed them. Large crowds from Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea and the region across the Jordan followed him. Now when he saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, and he began to teach them, saying:
Jesus sees that there is a crowd, goes up and sits down with his disciples and teaches...letting the crowd "overhear" as it were. The sermon is long. If you do any investigating at all you can find the strong Old Testament references in all Jesus' points -- he references Isaiah again and again, he virtually quotes Psalm 37. He is using texts that the people knew in order to layout the value system of His kingdom. Matthew prefaces the Sermon with a context and OT passages that make it clear that Jesus is the Messiah, and this is the Messiah's message and opening salvo, as it were.
But that is not what happens in the story in Luke. In Luke, Jesus has been ministering a while. He has done miracles, taught, called specific disciples, confronted the Pharisees. He now has a crowd of followers -- a huge crowd. He is ready to call THE 12. He is ready to begin discipleship -- specific discipleship, with 12 men, in whose hands He will leave the ministry and the gospel, and who He will send out to all nations. When the scholars broke down the gospels into chapters they end chapter 5 with Jesus' "wineskin" dialog:
Luke 5:36-39
He told them this parable: "No one tears a patch from a new garment and sews it on an old one. If he does, he will have torn the new garment, and the patch from the new will not match the old. And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the new wine will burst the skins, the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, new wine must be poured into new wineskins. And no one after drinking old wine wants the new, for he says, 'The old is better.' "
Then chapter 6 begins with 2 confrontations with the Pharisees. In the first, Jesus and his disciples eat some grain on the Sabbath, get confronted, and Jesus compares his actions to that of King David and ends the discussion by telling the Pharisees that (Luke 6:5) "The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath." In the second, Jesus heals a man with a withered hand in the synogogue on the Sabbath. There is no initial confrontation because Jesus just knew what was in the hearts of the Pharisees -- he throws down a gauntlet:
Luke 6:8-10
But Jesus knew what they were thinking and said to the man with the shriveled hand, "Get up and stand in front of everyone." So he got up and stood there.
Then Jesus said to them, "I ask you, which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to destroy it?" He looked around at them all, and then said to the man, "Stretch out your hand." He did so, and his hand was completely restored.
And the Pharisees pick up the gauntlet and now ... the fight is on:
Luke 6:11
But they were furious and began to discuss with one another what they might do to Jesus.
So the context ... the preface Luke sets ... is completely different. A line has been crossed and sides drawn up against each other. Jesus NOW is ready to call THE 12. This is the context of the sermon:
Luke 6:12-19
One of those days Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray, and spent the night praying to God. When morning came, he called his disciples to him and chose twelve of them, whom he also designated apostles: Simon (whom he named Peter), his brother Andrew, James, John, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James son of Alphaeus, Simon who was called the Zealot, Judas son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor.
He went down with them and stood on a level place. A large crowd of his disciples was there and a great number of people from all over Judea, from Jerusalem, and from the coast of Tyre and Sidon, who had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases. Those troubled by evil spirits were cured, and the people all tried to touch him, because power was coming from him and healing them all.
NIV
I think this is Luke's introduction to the sermon in his gospel because the way Luke lays out the story, Jesus bursts wineskins ... so the new wine He is about to deliver will have a new wineskin, so that the new wine He brings can last. Go -- read the sermon in its context. I will write about the difference next.
I want to give full and unequivocal credit for what I understand about the Luke Sermon on the Mount to my first pastor, George Caywood ~ the man who discipled me and grounded me in scripture. He is the ONLY person I ever heard give the insights about the differences between the 2 sermons. Thanks, George.
The "other" sermon on the mount ...
other: different ~ contra-distinct: distinguished by opposite qualities.
I think they were different sermons -- not just the same sermon heard and reported differently by two different men. There are practical reasons why I think so ~ one being that, as I mentioned in the last blog, in the Matthew gospel, Matthew was not yet a follower when Jesus preached the sermon. The sermon "happens" in chapter 5, and Matthew is called in Matthew 9. And it is MATTHEW'S account. . .that is, I think he knows when he left the "tables" and followed Jesus. But when you read the context of the Luke sermons, a story develops that shows a stark difference from the Matthew gospel story. In Matthew:
Matt 4:23-25 - Matt 5:1-2
Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people. News about him spread all over Syria, and people brought to him all who were ill with various diseases, those suffering severe pain, the demon-possessed, those having seizures, and the paralyzed, and he healed them. Large crowds from Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea and the region across the Jordan followed him. Now when he saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, and he began to teach them, saying:
Jesus sees that there is a crowd, goes up and sits down with his disciples and teaches...letting the crowd "overhear" as it were. The sermon is long. If you do any investigating at all you can find the strong Old Testament references in all Jesus' points -- he references Isaiah again and again, he virtually quotes Psalm 37. He is using texts that the people knew in order to layout the value system of His kingdom. Matthew prefaces the Sermon with a context and OT passages that make it clear that Jesus is the Messiah, and this is the Messiah's message and opening salvo, as it were.
But that is not what happens in the story in Luke. In Luke, Jesus has been ministering a while. He has done miracles, taught, called specific disciples, confronted the Pharisees. He now has a crowd of followers -- a huge crowd. He is ready to call THE 12. He is ready to begin discipleship -- specific discipleship, with 12 men, in whose hands He will leave the ministry and the gospel, and who He will send out to all nations. When the scholars broke down the gospels into chapters they end chapter 5 with Jesus' "wineskin" dialog:
Luke 5:36-39
He told them this parable: "No one tears a patch from a new garment and sews it on an old one. If he does, he will have torn the new garment, and the patch from the new will not match the old. And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the new wine will burst the skins, the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, new wine must be poured into new wineskins. And no one after drinking old wine wants the new, for he says, 'The old is better.' "
Then chapter 6 begins with 2 confrontations with the Pharisees. In the first, Jesus and his disciples eat some grain on the Sabbath, get confronted, and Jesus compares his actions to that of King David and ends the discussion by telling the Pharisees that (Luke 6:5) "The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath." In the second, Jesus heals a man with a withered hand in the synogogue on the Sabbath. There is no initial confrontation because Jesus just knew what was in the hearts of the Pharisees -- he throws down a gauntlet:
Luke 6:8-10
But Jesus knew what they were thinking and said to the man with the shriveled hand, "Get up and stand in front of everyone." So he got up and stood there.
Then Jesus said to them, "I ask you, which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to destroy it?" He looked around at them all, and then said to the man, "Stretch out your hand." He did so, and his hand was completely restored.
And the Pharisees pick up the gauntlet and now ... the fight is on:
Luke 6:11
But they were furious and began to discuss with one another what they might do to Jesus.
So the context ... the preface Luke sets ... is completely different. A line has been crossed and sides drawn up against each other. Jesus NOW is ready to call THE 12. This is the context of the sermon:
Luke 6:12-19
One of those days Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray, and spent the night praying to God. When morning came, he called his disciples to him and chose twelve of them, whom he also designated apostles: Simon (whom he named Peter), his brother Andrew, James, John, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James son of Alphaeus, Simon who was called the Zealot, Judas son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor.
He went down with them and stood on a level place. A large crowd of his disciples was there and a great number of people from all over Judea, from Jerusalem, and from the coast of Tyre and Sidon, who had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases. Those troubled by evil spirits were cured, and the people all tried to touch him, because power was coming from him and healing them all.
NIV
I think this is Luke's introduction to the sermon in his gospel because the way Luke lays out the story, Jesus bursts wineskins ... so the new wine He is about to deliver will have a new wineskin, so that the new wine He brings can last. Go -- read the sermon in its context. I will write about the difference next.
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