Jesus has completed his great Sermon the Mount. The sermon serves as a kind of membership charter in the Kingdom of God. That is, citizens of God’s Kingdom will be characterized by a particular way of life which reflects the Lordship of Jesus. Members of the new covenant community – the church – are possessed of a righteousness that is not their own but nevertheless has a growing impact in how they live.

Chapter seven concludes with Matthew’s record of the reaction of the crowds to Jesus’ teaching. The response of the crowds is one of astonishment. Jesus taught not as one whose authority was derivative. That is, Jesus did not merely comment on the Torah or earlier traditions as the scribes did. Rather, he spoke as one who possessed authority over the tradition. The form of Jesus’ speech is not founded on rabbinic tradition. He even goes so far as to apply God’s law in ways that they had never heard before (“You have heard it said…but I say…”).

The authority that left the crowds astonished was an authority native to the Person of Jesus. It is the authority he possesses as the only begotten Son of God. Though the crowds do yet conceive of the full truth behind his apparent authority, what they have heard are the words of the Christ, the Son of the living God. In Jesus, God spoke to the people in a new way. He was not merely an expert in God’s law. He was the Source. Jesus was not merely interpreting the law. He spoke to them as the divine Lawgiver.