The speeches in Matt 5:3-7:27 and Luke 6:20-49, which are commonly called Jesus' ‘sermon’, reproduce the first major block of Jesus sayings in Q. Both synoptic sermons share the same core of sayings and the same general outline (bold elements in their table of contents).

This core includes the greatest concentration of genuine Jesus sayings anywhere in the gospels. Though some sayings reflect traditional Judaic social wisdom, which might have been learned from anyone, many others so contradict common opinion that they could only have come from a most unconventional sage. Thus, it is not surprising that six of the thirteen sayings which the Jesus Seminar agreed to print in red are found here.

Editing

The thirty verses in Luke best reflect the scope of Q's sermon. Remarkably, Matthew kept Q's sermon structure intact, although he stretched it to more than three times its length (107 verses) by inserting two large blocks of other sayings. Luke's version of this speech is more coherent. Much of the material that Matthew added digresses from the themes shared with Luke: comfort for those in distress, reaction to opponents, and self-correction. But thirty-six verses in Matthew's sermon (* items in table of contents) were drawn from other sections of Q. Luke recorded these sayings later. Matthew apparently thought that these ideas belonged up front. So, he edited Q's sermon by making block insertions. Ancient scribes often made interpolations.

It is hard to support an alternate explanation of the contents of Matthew and Luke's sermons. If Matthew's sermon was basic, Luke condensed it.  But then, in deleting two-thirds of it, he would have kept several sayings (* items) for use later. This is unlikely.  For a gospel writer's tools were oral memory and handwriting, a far less stable technology than the tools of modern desktop publishing.

Structure

Q's sermon was composed of four smaller blocks of sayings that were flexible enough to allow various revisions when recalled by preachers and scribes. Several elements are paralleled in other Christian texts of the first two centuries. But no other early writer reproduced this logical structure that Matthew and Luke took from Q. (Brackets [ ] indicate elements found only in Luke’s sermon):

A. Congratulations: poor, hungry, mourners
     Congratulations: persecuted (for Jesus)
     [Condemnation: rich, well-fed, happy, famous]

B. Love enemies: like your Father, God
    On reacting: to slap, turn cheek
          to demand, give more.
    Golden rule: treat others as yourself

C. Don't judge: forgive
    [Guides: blind fall in ditch]
    [Students: be like teacher]
    Correcting friend: sliver or timber
    Fruit tells kind of plant.

D. Obey master's words.
    Without firm foundation, house collapses.

Even this bare skeleton is a much longer and more complex logical structure than oral memory ordinarily retains. For people usually recall sayings separately and in no fixed sequence. Thus, the scribe who composed Q must have assembled this sermon by piecing together smaller blocks of sayings that circulated separately.

Situation

This sermon was written for the readers of Q rather than for people listening to Jesus. The situation that prompted it is unknown. But the sermon's structure and elements give several clues. The opening (A) shows that Q's audience was facing hard times and public opposition for its loyalty to Jesus. The next section (B) urges restraint in confronting opponents, while the third (C) warns against criticizing others. The saying about sliver & timber addresses someone who attempts to correct a comrade. So, friction among supporters of Jesus may have led some scribe to compose this speech. The conclusion (D), at any rate, urges people who call Jesus their master, to practice his sayings. This presupposes that Q's audience would recognize previous sayings as Jesus' own words.  Dire consequences are predicted for this group, if it fails to act on its founder's advice.

Parallels

The random order in which other early Christian writers cited some of these sayings contrasts with the tight logic of Q's speech. The seven parallels in the gospel of Thomas, for instance, are scattered (Thom 26, 34, 45, 54, 68, 69, 95). The line that opens Q's sermon (congratulations, you poor) is the fourth parallel in Thomas. The first Q parallel that Thomas recalled is, rather, the saying about taking a sliver from someone else's eye, which comes late in Q's outline (section C). In Q, this aphorism was followed by a small cluster of sayings about fruit, just before the sermon's conclusion (D). But in Thomas these elements are separated by eighteen sayings, only one of which (Thom 34) is from Q.  Moreover, the cluster in Thom 45 is not arranged like the fruit sayings in Matthew and Luke, which also vary.

Parallels to parts of Q's sermon quoted by early church leaders, like Clement of Rome and Polycarp of Smyrna, are just as diverse. Such varied texts show that the pattern of Q's sermon was created by one scribe, whose text was interpreted by Matthew and Luke.

Location

Q may not have tried to locate this sermon in time or space. The speech's original introduction was obscured when Matthew and Luke inserted it at different points in Mark's narrative. In Matt 5:1 Jesus goes up to ‘the mountain,’ while in Luke 6:17 he comes down to speak on ‘a level place.’ These vague locations fit the differences in each synoptic gospel's perspective on Jesus' role as God's agent. Matt 5:17 insists Jesus fulfills the law that Moses received on Mount Sinai, while Luke 3:5 heralds him as the one whose ‘way’ levels all. Yet, whatever the setting, the fact that Luke and Matthew present this speech as Jesus' initial address to his disciples clearly locates it early in Q. If Q was composed in stages, as many scholars believe, the sermon may even have been the core text to which later scribes added other blocks of sayings.