The evangelists took the story of Jesus they had inherited and told it in a way that made sense to their hearers. Apparently Jesus once gave a long sermon describing a radical way of life. Matthew describes this sermon as “on the Mount” since his Jewish audience would make the immediate connection with Moses receiving the commandments on Mount Sinai. Jesus would be seen as giving a new law. Luke describes the sermon as “on the plain” for his gentile audience needed to understand that God had come down the mountain and was present in their midst. Luke reports Jesus saying Be merciful, just as also your Father is merciful (instead of the Matthean “be perfect…”) to emphasize not fulfilling the law but divine compassion.