Jesus ( said to his disciples:”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, that you may be children of your heavenly Father, for he makes his sun rise on the bad and the good, and causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what recompense will you have? Do not the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet your brothers only, what is unusual about that? Do not the pagans do the same?

So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect.” (Matthew 5:43-48)

I have been using James Tissot’s painting of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount to illustrate the readings from Matthew’s gospel we’ve been reflecting on these days. Tissot seems to capture how Jesus sometimes taught, perhaps on a raised place outside the towns he visited. Here Jesus teaches outside Capernaum near the Sea of Galilee, sitting on a rock on a rising hill, still pointed out to pilgrims visiting the Holy Land today.

All kinds of people come to hear him. A woman with a baby in her arms is there, ordinary men and women, not just his chosen twelve, are there. Some are making their way to hear him. They’re the crowd whom he teaches.

Matthew’s Sermon on the Mount is a compilation of what Jesus taught at various times in his ministry. Some say, because of its Jewish references, that it’s a compilation of Jesus’ teaching offered to Jewish converts entering a Jewish-Christian community, which was Matthew’s church.

As we hear this teaching we may wonder how ordinary people, like those in Tissot’s painting, received it. Was it beyond them? 

How would people today from Ukraine and Russia or in the Middle East, for example, react to Jesus teaching “Love your enemies”? I’m sure they would not be the only ones to find this teaching beyond them. 

It’s been suggested that the Sermon on the Mount is meant for people who are especially spiritual, but I return to Tissot’s painting and think he’s right. It’s meant for us all. 

Someday, we hope soon, peace efforts will begin in earnest in Eastern Europe and Gaza and, if there is going to be real peace, ordinary people have to realize they are children of their heavenly Father who makes his sun rise on the good and the bad and causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust. They must love their enemies. 

And what about his teaching on prayer? How shall we pray today? He will teach us.