'Irony In Sermon On The Mount'

Loving your enemies does not seem easy, praying for them even harder, and doing both for those who persecute you, practically impossible. Conversely, during the Sermon on the Mount, recorded in Matthew 5:43-48, Christ calls his followers to love their enemies, a calling that perhaps seemed just as contrary to first century culture as today’s culture. However, as seen through Christ’s ministry on earth, he did not call his followers to what seemed easy, but to radically transform their lives to adhere to a higher standard of righteousness. This paper will, through investigating the historical, literary, and theological background of the passage, address Christ’s calling to a higher standard of righteousness, in pursuit of perfection through
For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. 46 For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? 47 And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? 48 You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is
Therefore, people attracted to Christ, possibly due to his growing popularity (Matthew 4:24), composed a portion of the audience, as did the disciples of Christ. One could simply link this large crowd to the same crowd previously mentioned in Matthew 4:25, however “. . . 4:23-25 is a more general summary of major portions of Jesus’ Galilean ministry” (Blomberg 1992:96). Therefore, if Matthew’s account of the Sermon on the Mount compiles several different teachings from different times, Matthew 5:1 might refer to the same crowds. On the contrary, if one views the Sermon on the Mount as a specific scene that took place, the crowds mentioned 4:25 and 5:1 would differ. Regardless, the crowd clearly desired to hear from a teacher who could heal “. . . the sick, those afflicted with various diseases and pains, those oppressed by demons, epileptics, and paralytics. . .” (Matthew