Matthew's compilation of Jesus' teachings that we call the "sermon on the mount" concludes with these two verses (7:28-29), which state that "the crowd" had their minds blown away by his teaching. He knew what he was talking about unlike the teachers' of the law who, apparently, seemed just to be blowing smoke most of the time. That comparison is important because it was about politics as much as about religion, there being no distinction between the two in that era.As we read through the gospel, I've been making some noise about its political nature and implications. Partly, we need to be reminded that it contains real world stuff, CNN headlines material. Partly, as we can see here, Jesus' political context clearly mattered to the compiler/author . These two verses are not from Jesus himself. They are editorial material that claim to represent the thinking of "the crowd". They don't have to be here, but here they are; and 7:29 makes it clear that the public was comparing Jesus to the religious big shots and finding the big shots wanting. Those big shots were as much political leaders as they were religious teachers, and very soon they would begin to react to what they perceived as Jesus' challenge to their power (see Matt. 9:3). If the author didn't think this political stuff wasn't important, he or she wouldn't keep reminding us about it.
One thing that made Jesus so politically potent was the mind-blowing way in which he spoke. The Greek word that I've translated as "mind-blowing" here, according to Biblehub.com, is ekplésso (ἐκπλήσσω), which means being utterly amazed, dumbfounded, or left at a loss for words by something that causes one to gape in astonishment. In first century Palestine, a country-bumpkin self-appointed rabbi stepped out on thin ice when he blew the minds of his audience. That made the powers that be look bad and, more importantly, suggested that the rabbi could become a political player, an agitator of the public.
We can imagine that small church in some city in the eastern Mediterranean listening to the gospel being read for the first time and thinking to themselves right about now, "Oh, oh, this could be a problem." Their interest would have been piqued. They knew the outcome, but not the details. Now, things started to make sense. The gospel was revealing to them the first steps on the way to the cross.
