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‘It came to pass when Jesus had ended these sayings, the people were astonished at His doctrine.’
Mat_7:28
I. It is astonishing in its simplicity.—There are portions of Christ’s teaching which the wisest philosopher might find a difficulty in understanding, and which a little child can realise and love. We may read the mystery of God’s Word becoming Flesh, or the wondrous vision of St. John in Patmos, and we may ask, ‘How can these things be?’ whilst our little ones will read, ‘Suffer the little children to come unto Me,’ and there will be no difficulty to them. The doctrine of Jesus deals with the deepest mysteries—Heaven, Hell, the Resurrection, Salvation, the Life Everlasting. Yet it is simple enough to come home to the heart of the ragged outcast in the street and the pauper in the workhouse ward.
II. It is astonishing in its universal application.—It is a doctrine for every one. It could comfort Lazarus the beggar, and make Felix the governor tremble. It has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the careless empty and sorrowful away. It has added brightness to a palace, and has lighted up a garret. It has brought a hardened unbeliever to his knees, and carried a martyr through the fires of persecution. It is not a doctrine only for the learned, or for the wise, or old, or wealthy. The philosopher can learn more wisdom from that doctrine than he ever knew before; the wise man can there acquire the best of all knowledge, the knowledge of his ignorance.
III. It is astonishing from its authority.—Other teachers and moralists speak doubtfully, and offer certain theories as being possibly true. They suggest solutions of difficulties as probable. The universe may have come together, they say, in the form of atoms, and have become what it is; man may have developed from some lower type of organisation; our souls may be absorbed into the atmosphere at our death, or the souls of the wicked may be utterly annihilated. Now Jesus Christ does not speak in this way, but with absolute authority. He does not say that a thing may be, but that it is. He says in His doctrine that ‘all things were made by Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made.’
Illustration
‘The doctrine of Jesus Christ is very astonishing to many people at this very day, not only to the scoffer and unbeliever, but to those who are named by His name, and who profess and call themselves Christians. Too many among us put a thin varnish of Christianity over a life which is modelled on anything but the lines of the Gospel. Let us be honest with ourselves about this matter; let us look into our heart of hearts, that secret place of which no one but God and ourselves has the key. Would it not astonish some of us to learn that if our life is that of a Christian it must be formed after the pattern given on the Mount? For whom were that sermon and the whole teaching of the Gospel intended? For a particular class, for a select band of saints? Surely not; they were intended for all, as the guide which alone can point us along the narrow way and through the strait gate which lead to life eternal.’