Scripture · Matthew 18:2
Matthew 5:1–3 · The sermon among rural workers
The Sermon on the Mount
When Jesus saw the crowds, He went up on the mountain and sat down. His disciples came to Him, and He began to teach them, saying: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
A small child sits in the grass beside Jesus’ bare feet. Around the wooden bench, women and men listen in the clothes of a working village.
What does The Sermon on the Mount show?
Jesus sits at the right in a blue robe, one hand lifted and the other extended toward the listeners. A woman in a yellow blouse holds her palms together; a girl in a white blouse looks up beside her. Behind them, men carry long-handled farm tools against a hillside dotted with buildings.
The Hungarian National Gallery identifies this as Uhde’s first biblical subject painted in an outdoor setting. The change lets evening light, air, and the presence of farm tools become part of the sermon. These listeners seem to have brought the day’s work with them. Jesus occupies their ground and shares their light, while the child sits beside His feet; the teacher’s authority does not depend on being lifted above the company.
Featured in: Fritz von Uhde’s Bible Paintings: Jesus at the Peasants’ Table, and Why It Was Called Blasphemous
What does Matthew 5:1–3 mean?
Matthew 5:1–2 describes Jesus sitting on the mountain as his disciples approach, then beginning to teach. Uhde carries the seated teacher into a different setting: the listeners wear nineteenth-century clothes, and the mountain sermon becomes a gathering among workers and children.
The first words of the teaching bless the poor in spirit, followed by those who mourn, the meek, and those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. The painted faces make room to consider what such words might mean to particular people. The rural setting invites that question in the viewer’s own world as well.
Matthew 5:1–2 supplies the gathering and the teaching; Uhde’s village setting asks how closely those words might approach our own daily lives.
Sources
Hungarian National Gallery — Sermon on the Mount. The collection’s image, medium, dimensions, and description of the contemporary rural setting.
Hans Rosenhagen — Uhde: Des Meisters Gemälde (1908). The illustrated catalogue identifies the Budapest painting on pages 75–76 and dates it to 1887.
Matthew 5 — Berean Standard Bible. Jesus sits to teach, beginning with the Beatitudes.
Also from Matthew:Marriage of the VirginThe Dream of Saint Joseph
Continue looking:The Sermon on the MountThe AngelusWheatfield with Crows