Jesus' Sermon on the Mount ends with the parable of the builders on rock or sand. Doing what Jesus asks results in building a life that endures; not doing it results in disaster. The choice is ours, and it's a scary one. How can we read these words so that we can know what Jesus meant and do it?In this book, Scripture scholar Dennis Hamm takes an in-depth look at the Sermon on the Mount in the Gospel of Matthew and the Sermon on the Plain in the Gospel of Luke, paying special attention to the distinctive ways these two evangelists present and interpret Jesus' teachings. Hamm helps us to hear Jesus' words in their original cultural setting as well as in the context of the Old Testament and the Gospels. In doing so, he throws new light on these teachings and suggests what they mean for us today. This book is both informative and pastoral, helping us to realize that the "e;you"e; addressed by Jesus in the Sermon is not a lonely individual but a healed and praying community, and that the one we pray to is not a long-ago and faraway Jesus of Nazareth but our living Lord and Friend.

Jesus' Sermon on the Mount ends with the parable of the builders on rock or sand. Doing what Jesus asks results in building a life that endures; not doing it results in disaster. The choice is ours, and it's a scary one. How can we read these words so that we can know what Jesus meant and do it?In this book, Scripture scholar Dennis Hamm takes an in-depth look at the Sermon on the Mount in the Gospel of Matthew and the Sermon on the Plain in the Gospel of Luke, paying special attention to the distinctive ways these two evangelists present and interpret Jesus' teachings. Hamm helps us to hear Jesus' words in their original cultural setting as well as in the context of the Old Testament and the Gospels. In doing so, he throws new light on these teachings and suggests what they mean for us today. This book is both informative and pastoral, helping us to realize that the "e;you"e; addressed by Jesus in the Sermon is not a lonely individual but a healed and praying community, and that the one we pray to is not a long-ago and faraway Jesus of Nazareth but our living Lord and Friend.