Part One: Observation
After reading through the entire Sermon on the Mount work on the following observation items. Be thorough enough in your observation that your analysis is clearly understandable to the reader.
1. Who are the main participants in the Sermon on the Mount experience/event?
2. How is the sermon organized into separate sections? What are the major themes and emphasis taught in each section?
3. When is this sermon given in the time line of Jesus three year ministry? Does this time line influence why Matthew places it so near the beginning of the book?
4. How is the sermon first presented? Is there any significance to the fact that Jesus sat down to preach it?
5. Where is this sermon presented? In which location? Why here and not somewhere else like in the temple in Jerusalem? Would the responses have been different in a different place?
6. Why did Matthew think this sermon was important enough to devote three whole chapters to it?
7. Are there any key words repeated throughout this whole sermon? Does any of the subdivisions contain key words or phrases that are repeated?
8. Other clues
a. Purpose: Why did Jesus preach this sermon in the first place? What did he hope to accomplish?
b. Literary Forms: When Jesus preached this sermon would his presentation be classified as historical, biographical, poetic, prophetic, etc.? When Matthew wrote it down much later was it historical, biographical, prophetic etc.?
c. Questions: What questions are found in this sermon? Do the questions Jesus asked indicate any significant insights about spiritual experiences, life, faith, etc.?
d. Connectives: Are there any special patterns of linkage found in the sermon?
9. Does the use of verbs help clarify anything important? Do verb tenses, past, present and future etc. influence the teaching? Do imperative sentences occur often? If imperative sentences occur does this impact the meaning of the text?