Sermon on the mount.

(Matt. 5-7 chapters; Luke 6:12-49).

The full Sermon on the Mount is outlined only by Evangelist Matthew. Saint Luke recounts the Sermon in a condensed version, excerpts of which are encountered in the whole of his Gospel. The Sermon on the Mount is remarkable inasmuch as it embodies the essence of the Gospel’s teachings.

To this day, not far from the sea of Gennesaret, between Capernaum and Tiberias, the “mount of beatitudes” from which the Lord gave His sermon (due to the large assembly of people), is still being depicted as the Lord’s Sermon on the Mount. Proud in being the chosen people and unwilling to accept their loss of autonomy, the Jewish people began to dream of such a Messiah, who would free them foreign domination, take vengeance on all their enemies, become their ruler and conquer all the people of the world, while they receive a fairy-tale good fortune: He will command the sea to expel all its pearls and other treasures, clothe them in purple robes and feed them with manna, even more sweeter than that sent to them in the wilderness. Imbued with these false wishes of the Messiah giving them these earthly blessings, the Jews surrounded Jesus in the expectation that He will any minute now, declare Himself King of Israel, realising their anticipated blessed era. They assumed that the end of their suffering and humiliation is at hand, and from this point on they will be happy and prosperous.