Imagine sitting on a Galilean hillside, the morning sun warming your face as a rabbi begins to teach. But this isn’t like any teaching you’ve heard before. The scribes you’re used to hearing always quote someone else: “Rabbi Hillel said this” or “Rabbi Shammai taught that.” They build their authority on other authorities, creating chains of human wisdom stretching back through the generations.
But when Jesus speaks, something is fundamentally different. He doesn’t quote other rabbis. He doesn’t build His teaching on anyone else’s foundation. Instead, He says, “You have heard it said… but I say to you.” The crowd is astonished because Jesus speaks with inherent authority, the kind of authority that can only come from God Himself.
This is the foundation of Matthew’s Gospel: Jesus is not just another religious teacher offering helpful advice. He is God in the flesh, speaking with divine authority. When He teaches about anger, lust, divorce, oaths, retaliation, and loving enemies, He’s not giving suggestions or presenting options. He’s declaring the truth about how God’s kingdom works and what righteousness really looks like.
The astonishment of the crowd should be our response too. We live in a culture that treats all spiritual teachers as equals, as if Jesus’ words carry the same weight as any other religious figure or modern guru. But Matthew wants us to see that Jesus is completely different. His words carry the weight of divine authority because He is the Word made flesh.
If Jesus truly speaks with God’s own authority, then we cannot pick and choose which of His teachings we like and which we’ll ignore. We cannot treat His words as interesting philosophical ideas to consider alongside other worldviews. Everything He says matters. Everything He commands is binding on our lives. The question isn’t whether His teaching sounds appealing to us; the question is whether we will submit to His authority.