Sermon on the Plain
The Sermon on the Plain was a sermon given by Jesus of Nazareth according to the Gospel of Luke 6:17-49; it may be compared to the longer Sermon on the Mount. Some commentators believe they in fact refer to the same event. Others say that Jesus frequently preached similar themes in different places, and still others that neither sermon really took place but that they were conflations of Jesus's primary teachings put together by Matthew and Luke from earlier source material.
Luke 6:12-20a details the events leading to the sermon. In it, Jesus spent the night on the mountain praying to God. The next day, he gathers his disciples and selects 12 of them whom he names Apostles. On the way down from the mountain, he stands at "a level place" where a throng of people had gathered. After curing those with "unclean spirits" (see also Demonic possession), Jesus begins what is now called the Sermon on the Plain.
Notable messages in the Sermon include:
- The beatitudes (6:20-26)
- Love your enemies and turn the other cheek (6:27-36)
- Treat others the way you want to be treated (6:31)
- Don't judge and you won't be judged, don't condemn and you won't be condemned, forgive and you will be forgiven, give and you will receive (6:37-38)
- Can the blind lead the blind? Disciples are not above their teacher (6:39-40a)
- Remove the log from your own eye before attending to the splinter in your friend's (40b-42)
- A good tree does not produce bad fruit and a bad tree cannot produce good fruit, each tree is known by its fruit (43-45)
- Why do you call me Lord, Lord yet not do what I command? (46)
- Whoever follows these words of mine builds on rock and will survive, whoever does not builds on sand and will be destroyed (47-49)
According to 7:1, after Jesus had said everything he had to say to the crowd, he went to Capernaum.
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