Gathered around Jesus in Luke's narrative of the Sermon on the Plain are the representatives of two classes that so often in history have only met at the barricades: the rich and the poor. In the opening words of his sermon Jesus comforts the poor and warns the rich. Luke does not mention the middle class, but they are certainly there also. Peter, James and John had left behind profitable fishing enterprises whose catches were probably sold in all the upscale delis of Jerusalem. The church for whom Luke wrote included such a cross section of urban society in the first century.
