And it came to pass, when Jesus had ended these sayings, the people were astonished at his teachings:
All Commentaries on Matthew 7:28 Go To Matthew 7
John Chrysostom
AD 407
Yet was it rather natural for them to grieve at the unpleasantness of His sayings, and to shudder at the loftiness of His injunctions; but now so great was the power of the Teacher, that many of them were even caught thereby, and thrown into very great admiration, and persuaded by reason of the sweetness of His sayings, not even when He ceased to speak, to depart from Him at all afterwards. For neither did the hearers depart, He having come down from the mountain, but even then the whole auditory followed Him; so great a love for His sayings had He instilled into them.
But they were astonished most of all at His authority. For not with reference to another, like the prophet and Moses, did He say what He said; but everywhere indicating Himself to be the person that had the power of deciding. For so, when setting forth His laws, He still kept adding, But I say unto you. And in reminding them of that day, He declared Himself to be the judge, both by the punishments, and by the honors.
