If you had to choose one passage that best captured what Jesus actually taught — not the religion that grew up around him, but his own words — most scholars would choose the Sermon on the Mount.
Three chapters in the Gospel of Matthew (chapters 5-7), delivered on a hillside to a crowd of ordinary people in first-century Galilee. No miracles, no confrontation with authorities, no theological debate. Just teaching — and it is unlike almost anything else in the ancient world.
The Beatitudes: An Upside-Down Kingdom
The sermon opens with the Beatitudes — eight blessings that immediately establish that Jesus is working with a completely different value system than the one his audience takes for granted.
"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."
"Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth."
"Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied."
"Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God."
In the Roman world of the first century, blessed (fortunate, favored by the gods) were the rich, the powerful, the victorious. The meek were not inheriting anything — they were being trampled. The peacemakers were the Roman legions.
Jesus inverts every value. The blessed ones are the grieving, the humble, the persecuted, the pure in heart. This is not an accident or a metaphor. It is a complete reorientation of what God cares about.
The Antitheses: Radicalizing the Law
After establishing this inverted value system, Jesus goes further. He takes commandments from the Torah and deepens them to the point of being almost impossible:
"You have heard that it was said, 'You shall not murder.' But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment."
"You have heard that it was said, 'You shall not commit adultery.' But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart."
This is a crucial move: Jesus is not abolishing the law but interiorizing it. The problem is not just the action — it is the intention, the inner disposition that produces the action. Anger is the seed of murder. Lust is the seed of adultery. Deal with the root.
Love Your Enemies
The most radical teaching in the sermon — and arguably in the history of ethics — comes in chapter 5:
"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."
In the ancient world, loyalty was owed to one's own group. You loved your neighbors, your tribe, your nation. Enemies were enemies. Jesus dissolves this entirely.
His argument is theological: God sends rain and sun on both the righteous and the wicked. If God makes no distinction, neither should his followers. A love that only loves the lovable is no different from what everyone else does. *"Even the tax collectors do the same."*
The Lord's Prayer
Embedded in the sermon is the prayer Jesus taught his disciples — what became the Lord's Prayer (or the Our Father). Compact, balanced, breathtaking in its scope: address to God as Father, petition for the coming of God's kingdom and will on earth, request for daily bread, forgiveness of debts as we forgive debtors, deliverance from evil.
The petition about forgiveness is deliberate: *"forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors."* The measure of the request is the measure of one's own practice. You are asking God to treat you as you have treated others.
Do Not Worry
The sermon closes with a passage that many people who have never read the Bible recognize:
"Do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble."
And before it: *"Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these."*
This is not advice to be irresponsible. It is a call to trust — to live fully in the present rather than spending today in anxiety about a future that has not arrived.
The Sermon on the Mount has been called the most radical ethical document in history. It has also been called impractical, impossible, and designed to drive people to despair of their own ability and into dependence on grace. What it cannot be called is easy — or boring.
Traditions Covered