The Sermon on the Plain: Loving Your Enemies (Luke 6:17-49)
Jesus comes down from the mountain with His twelve apostles and stands on a level place. A large crowd has gathered from all over Judea, Jerusalem, and the coastal towns. People are pressing in to hear Him and to be healed. Jesus looks up at His disciples and begins to teach.
He pronounces blessings on the poor, the hungry, the weeping, and the hated. Then He gives warnings to the rich, the well-fed, the laughing, and the praised. Then comes the heart of the sermon: "Love your enemies. Do good to those who hate you. Bless those who curse you. Pray for those who mistreat you." He pushes harder: if someone takes your cloak, give them your shirt too. Lend money without expecting it back. The standard is not fairness. The standard is God Himself: "Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful." Even sinners love people who love them back. What is the credit in that?
Jesus warns against judging others when you have your own blind spots, using the memorable image of a person with a beam of wood in their own eye trying to remove a splinter from someone else's eye. He says a good tree produces good fruit, and a corrupt tree produces bad fruit. What comes out of a person's mouth comes from what is stored in their heart. He ends the sermon with a story: the one who hears His words and puts them into practice is like a man who dug deep and laid his foundation on rock. When the floodwaters came, the house stood firm. The one who hears and does not obey is like a man who built on soft ground. When the flood hit, the house collapsed completely.
A Curious Question
Jesus said that even people who do not follow God love people who love them back. That is not hard. The hard thing is loving people who are unkind or unfair to you. He said the standard is not "treat people the way they treat you." The standard is "be merciful the way God is merciful." God sends rain on both kind and cruel people. He is generous even to people who ignore Him. What would it actually look like in your week to treat someone the way God treats people, generous and kind even when they have not earned it?
Old Testament Connection
The Sermon on the Plain deliberately echoes Moses on Mount Sinai. Moses came down from a mountain with the law that defined Israel as God's covenant people. Jesus comes down from a mountain and gives a teaching that redefines what the people of God look like from the inside out. In Leviticus 19:18, God commanded Israel to love their neighbors. Jesus extends that command radically: now it includes enemies. This is not a contradiction of the Old Testament. It is a fulfillment of its deepest logic.
The mercy Jesus calls His followers to reflects the character of God revealed throughout the Old Testament. Psalm 145:9 says the Lord is good to all, and His tender mercies are over all His works. Lamentations 3:22-23 declares that God's mercies are new every morning. Jesus is not introducing a new God. He is saying: the God who has always been merciful to Israel is now calling His people to image that same mercy to the whole world. The wise builder who puts Jesus' words into practice is building on the same foundation the whole Bible has always pointed to: not human effort or religious performance, but trust in and obedience to the living God.
Discussion Questions
- Jesus said "Love your enemies." Think of someone who is genuinely difficult to be around or has been unkind to you. What would it look like to do something good for that person this week, not because they deserve it, but because God is merciful?
- Jesus talked about a person who had a huge plank in their own eye while trying to fix a tiny splinter in someone else's eye. What do you think He was trying to say about how we look at other people's mistakes versus our own?
- The wise builder and the foolish builder both heard the same teaching. The difference was what they did with it. What is one teaching of Jesus you have heard many times but have not fully put into practice yet? What makes it hard?
"So What?" What Can I Do?
Jesus said the one who hears His words and does them is like a house built on rock. Hearing is not enough. This week, pick one specific command from this passage and actually do it. Write it on a sticky note and put it somewhere you will see it every morning. Start with something concrete: pray for one person who has been unkind to you, or do something kind for someone who has not thanked you for anything lately. Choose one. Do it. That is what building on rock looks like.
Memorize God's Word
Luke 6:35b: "He is kind to the ungrateful and the evil."
Hand Motions:
- He is kind: Place one hand over your heart and give a gentle smile, expressing warmth and care.
- to the ungrateful: Hold one hand out with palm up in an expectant gesture, then turn it downward as if refusing to say thank you.
- and the evil: Cross your arms and frown, then slowly open your arms wide as if that difficult person is being welcomed anyway.
Praying with Kids
Father, thank You that You are kind even to ungrateful and difficult people. Thank You that You do not wait for us to deserve Your goodness before You give it. That is the only reason we can come to You at all. Help us to be like You: merciful to people who have not earned it, generous to people who might never say thank you, and kind even when it is hard. And help us to be like the wise builder: not just hearers of Your Word, but people who actually do what You say. In Jesus' name, Amen.
Craft: The Wise Builder's Rock
Children will decorate a large painted rock with the memory verse as a physical reminder to build their lives on the words of Jesus.
Materials Checklist
Instructions
- Apply a white acrylic base coat to each rock and allow it to dry completely. Do this before class if possible.
- Have each child write the memory verse on the rock using fine-tip permanent marker: "He is kind to the ungrateful and the evil." Luke 6:35
- Decorate the remaining space on the rock with waves, a simple house, or other images from the lesson.
- Apply a thin coat of Mod Podge or sealant spray to protect the design.
- Encourage children to place the rock somewhere at home where they will see it daily, as a reminder to build on the words of Jesus.
Effective Teaching Techniques
This lesson covers a large amount of teaching, so choose your focus before class. The "love your enemies" section is the most countercultural and the most important for children to wrestle with. A powerful setup is to ask children: "What do you do when someone is mean to you?" Take two or three answers. Then ask: "What does the world say is the fair thing to do back?" Then teach what Jesus says instead. The contrast makes the command land with appropriate weight. For the wise and foolish builder parable, bring two small cups of sand and two of a firmer material like kinetic sand or a small pebble. Place a small object (a block, a toy house) on top of each and gently press. The one on sand shifts. The one on rock stays firm. The physical demonstration is more memorable than any explanation. Avoid spending equal time on every verse in the sermon. Depth on one truth beats breadth over twenty.