The Sermon on the Mount

The Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 5–7) is the first and greatest of Matthew’s five discourses and the fullest single block of the Lord’s moral teaching in the New Testament — the Beatitudes, the salt and the light, the six antitheses, the Lord’s Prayer, the warnings against anxiety and judging, and the house built on rock. This file sets out its content and structure and its place in the Church’s exposition, above all in Chrysostom and the Orthodox ascetical tradition.

Tradition: Pan-Orthodox (Apostle and Evangelist)

The Setting and Shape

Matthew opens the discourse with deliberate framing: “Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and when he sat down his disciples came to him. And he opened his mouth and taught them” (Matt. 5:1–2). The ascent of the mountain, the sitting (the posture of the authoritative teacher), and the solemn “he opened his mouth” present Jesus as the Lawgiver of the new covenant — a typology drawn out in the companion file. Where Luke gives a shorter parallel “on a level place” (Luke 6:17–49, the “Sermon on the Plain”), Matthew gathers a much larger body of teaching into one sustained discourse, three chapters long, closing with the formula “and when Jesus finished these sayings, the crowds were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as one who had authority, and not as their scribes” (Matt. 7:28–29).

The Sermon falls into recognizable movements. It opens with the Beatitudes (Matt. 5:3–12), nine blessings on the poor in spirit, the mourners, the meek, those who hunger for righteousness, the merciful, the pure in heart, the peacemakers, the persecuted. It continues with the images of salt and light and the disciples’ calling to let their light shine (5:13–16); then the great statement on the Law — “I have come not to abolish but to fulfil” (5:17–20) — and the six antitheses, “you have heard that it was said… but I say to you,” on murder and anger, adultery and lust, divorce, oaths, retaliation, and love of enemies (5:21–48), each deepening a command of the Law into an interior righteousness. The central chapter treats the three acts of piety — almsgiving, prayer, and fasting — to be done “in secret” and not for show (6:1–18), and at its heart gives the Lord’s Prayer (6:9–13). It continues with teaching on treasure in heaven, the single eye, serving God and not mammon, and the great counsel against anxiety — “seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things shall be yours as well” (6:33). The final chapter warns against judging (7:1–5), gives the “ask, and it will be given you” (7:7–11) and the Golden Rule (7:12), and closes with the two ways, the two trees, the two builders — the wise man who built his house on the rock and the foolish man who built on sand (7:13–27).

The Beatitudes and the Lord’s Prayer

The Beatitudes are the gateway of the Sermon and have been read in the East as a ladder of the virtues, each blessing both a gift and a stage of the soul’s ascent. Chrysostom expounds them as an ordered progression — poverty of spirit (humility) as the foundation, mourning over sin as the next step, meekness, the hunger for righteousness, mercy, purity of heart that sees God, and peacemaking that makes one a son of God — culminating in the blessing on those persecuted for righteousness’ sake (John Chrysostom, Homilies on the Gospel of St. Matthew, Homily 15; NPNF I/10). Gregory of Nyssa devoted a series of homilies to them as the steps of the beatific ascent (On the Beatitudes). The Beatitudes are sung in the Divine Liturgy at the Little Entrance, woven into the Church’s worship as the charter of the Kingdom’s blessedness.

The Lord’s Prayer (Matt. 6:9–13), given at the center of the Sermon, is the prayer of the whole Church, recited in every Liturgy and every Hour. Matthew’s form — “Our Father who art in heaven… Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven… and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors… but deliver us from evil” — is the longer of the two New Testament versions (cf. Luke 11:2–4) and is the one received liturgically. The Fathers from Tertullian and Cyprian onward treat it as the summary of all prayer; Chrysostom notes that the very address “Our Father” makes the Christian a child of God and a brother of all who pray it (Chrysostom, Hom. Matt. 19; NPNF I/10).

The Antitheses and the Greater Righteousness

The structural heart of the Sermon’s ethic is the demand for a righteousness that “exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees” (Matt. 5:20), worked out in the six antitheses. Each takes a command of the Law and presses it inward: not only “do not kill” but “do not be angry”; not only “do not commit adultery” but “do not look lustfully”; not only “an eye for an eye” but “do not resist one who is evil… turn the other cheek”; not only “love your neighbor” but “love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” (Matt. 5:21–48). The Sermon closes this movement with the staggering command, “You, therefore, must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (5:48). The antitheses are not a repeal of the Law but its interiorization and fulfilment: the new righteousness reaches the heart from which the outward act proceeds. The Orthodox ascetical tradition reads the Sermon precisely here — as the charter of the inner life, the warfare against the passions at their root, the purity of heart that the Beatitude promises will see God (5:8). This is why the Sermon stands behind so much of the Philokalia and the monastic teaching on the thoughts: the deeper righteousness is a matter of the heart, and the Kingdom is entered by the narrow gate of repentance and the inner transformation the Sermon describes.

The Sermon in the Church’s Reading

The Sermon has been continuously expounded across the tradition. Chrysostom devotes Homilies 15–25 of his series to it, reading it as a practicable rule for all Christians and not a counsel for the few (Chrysostom, Hom. Matt. 15–25; NPNF I/10); Augustine’s two-book treatise Our Lord’s Sermon on the Mount gave the West its classic exposition and first named the discourse (De sermone Domini in monte; NPNF I/6). Against any reading that would relegate the Sermon to an unrealizable ideal or a merely future Kingdom, the Eastern tradition has held it as the actual path of the Christian life — demanding, but the very demand of the Gospel, made possible by grace. The two builders with which the Sermon ends make the point: the words are given not to be admired but to be done, and only the house built on the rock of obedience will stand (Matt. 7:24–27).

See Also

References

  • The Holy Gospel according to Matthew 5–7. Cited by chapter and verse; the Lord’s Prayer at 6:9–13; the Beatitudes at 5:3–12.
  • John Chrysostom. Homilies on the Gospel of St. Matthew, Homilies 15–25 (on Matt. 5–7); Homily 19 (the Lord’s Prayer). Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series I, Vol. 10.
  • Gregory of Nyssa. On the Beatitudes. (Eng. trans. various; ACW 18.)
  • Augustine of Hippo. Our Lord’s Sermon on the Mount (De sermone Domini in monte). Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series I, Vol. 6.
  • Davies, W. D., and Dale C. Allison. Matthew (ICC), Vol. 1 (on Matt. 5–7). Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1988.