It is the Lord

Meditation June 21, 2020

Matthew 7

28And it came to pass, when Jesus had ended these sayings, the people were astonished at his doctrine: 29For he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.

We come to the end of the Sermon on the Mount. The sermon itself actually ended with the parable of those building on rock versus those building on sand. The verse, which ends chapter seven if a recording of Matthew’s observation of the reaction of the people to the teaching of Jesus.

He observed that “when Jesus had ended these sayings”, i.e. his teachings the people were astonished. ‘Ended’ or ‘finished’ does not me ended in the sense we often understand which is he stopped, ended, talking or as in he came to the end of the road – unless one’s purpose was to come to the end of the road. The Greek indicates more than that’s that. It indicates a goal has been reached; a purpose has been achieved. In short, we are not to look on the sermon as a hodge-podge of teachings by Jesus during His earthly sojourn that have been thrown together by a recorder. Rather He set out with a purpose and He has fulfilled that purpose. His purpose was to show His followers the path, the narrow way, they were to follow as new creatures. Thus, he describes for them the new character, poor in spirit, mourning sin, hungering and thirsting for righteousness etc. that is theirs if indeed they are truly His. He then instructs them in the way they are to conduct themselves in that new character in relation to both God and man, in the keeping of the two great commandments; i.e. to love God with all their heart their fellow man as themselves. He explains to them what they do and what they do not do as new creatures in Him, warns them of those who will seek to lead them off the narrow way and exhorts them to build on the solid foundation His teaching. Now he has ended, completed, carried out to the full that instruction he set out to give.

And Matthew tells us that when he had finished, the people were astonished. Literally, the word translated amazed, astonished, astounded etc. means to stand or strike out but it is used figuratively in the Greek describe being out of one’s mind, besides oneself. In other words, they were speechless, it made them, as it were, crazy, they could offer no rational explanation for what they had heard. It was unlike anything they had experienced in their lives.

The Scribe, Pharisees, Rabbis to whom they had always gone for religious instruction always taught them from the doctrines, the dogmas of some other, presumably more learned, teacher which was then mixed with their own, more often than not, erroneous interpretations and conclusions. Now Jesus had ended His teaching, He had taught them forthrightly, emphatically, who they were and what they were and were not to do and He had done so without one reference to the Rabbis except to correct them. Rather than citing the Rabbis as authorities, He said to them “You have heard it said….” Where would they have heard that but from the Rabbis? “But I say to you…” and you can hear the gasp of the people listening. He has just tole them the Rabbis are wrong; Listen to me. I speak with authority. I am not wrong.

Jesus appealed to no authority but Himself. The only basis He gave for His teaching was that He had said it. “I say to you….” I speak on my own authority. When the prophets of old spoke they reported to the people “thus says the Lord” ; when Jesus speaks He says thus “I say to you.” Prophets, true prophets, were heard because they spoke by the authority of God; Jesus was saying hear me because I speak by my own authority. There was no missing the implication. He spoke as God.

Many, perhaps most, believers have experienced what the people on the mount listening to Jesus must have felt that was manifestly astonishing. You have had those moments when God Himself drew near and hid you safely in the cleft of the rock until he had passed by. God drew near to answer Job’s complaints and Job said, “I am trifling, I am insignificant, I am despicable, I am vile. I lay my hand over my mouth”. When Thomas suddenly realized who was standing before him, he didn’t reach out his finger or his hand; he gasped ‘my Lord and my God.’ Thus, the reaction of the people who hear Jesus.

That should impress upon us something of our obligation toward the teachings found here. “(T)here is not a discourse to be found that can be compared with it for purity, and truth, and beauty, and dignity. Were there no other evidence of the divine mission of Christ, this alone would be sufficient to prove that he was sent from God. Were these doctrines obeyed and loved, how pure and peaceful would be the world! How would hypocrisy be abashed and confounded! How would impurity hang its head! How would peace reign in every family and nation! How would anger and wrath flee! And how would the race - the lost and benighted tribes of people, the poor, and needy, and sorrowful - bend themselves before their common Father, and seek peace and eternal life at the hands of a merciful and faithful God!” (Albert Barnes)