The account given in Matthew and Luke are compared, and we are supposed to be driven into a corner, from which there is no escape, by the question, “Which of the two really reproduces the words of Christ?” For instance, did He say, “Blessed are the poor in spirit” (Matt. 5:3), or, “Blessed be ye poor” (Luke 6:20); or again, did He say, as in Matthew 7:24, “Whosoever heareth these sayings of Mine,” or as in Luke 6:47, “Whosoever cometh to Me and heareth My sayings”?
A little careful reading will show that there is, or ought to be, no real difficulty here at all, for the following two verses show unmistakably that Matthew’s and Luke’s reports contain, not two conflicting accounts of the same sermon, but two separate and faithful records of two different sermons altogether.
According to Matthew 5:1, Jesus went up into the mountain (evidently alone), for we read that, “when He was set His disciples came unto Him”; whereas Luke tells us that, after He had spent a night in prayer on the mountain, He came down with His disciples and sat on a level place (R. V., Luke 6:17). So that it is very clear that the Lord Jesus preached a somewhat similar sermon on two different occasions, although it is often assumed that Matthew and Luke report the same sermon.
This is further shown by the fact that the sermon recorded by Matthew was preached some time before Matthew was called to be a disciple of Christ—the sermon appearing in chapters 5, 6 and 7, and the call of Matthew in chapter 9:9; whereas, on reference to Luke 6:15, it will be seen that Matthew was amongst the disciples which came down with Jesus into the plain (or level place) when He preached that sermon.