A Word About Amazed
I often wonder what it must have been like for those early followers of Jesus to sit and listen to him teach. What did his voice sound like? I can’t imagine Jesus sounding like a taxi driver from New York City, or a cowboy from the Texas plains. We don’t know how he sounded in his native tongue. But we do know how he impacted the people who heard him.
The bible says that after he finished The Sermon on the Mount, the people who listened were ‘amazed’ at the authority with which he spoke. I wonder what it would have been like to sit and listen to Jesus teach. What kinds of amazing things would he have said that would have amazed even me?
So often, when I approach God, I do so with a certain ‘shame’ because of my human frailty. I mean, you wouldn’t have to follow me around for very long before you would see that I’m childish, and temperamental, and I can be self-focused and want my own way. If I was totally honest, I’m more like a little kid than I am a grown, mature, supposedly spiritually-minded adult.
But, if I was in some quiet, out-of-the-way place — and just having a conversation with him, what do I imagine Jesus saying to me in that kind of conversation that would amaze me? I mean, if he spent the time we had together telling me how childish I am, I wouldn’t be amazed. At least to some degree, I know that already.
When God fashioned a human being out of the insignifcant dust of the earth, and then breathed into that man the breath of life — his very breath, and man became a living soul? He stepped back and saw what he had created, and I think he was amazed. He declared, “very good’ over the man he made.
I wonder how my life would be different if I envisioned Jesus looking into my face, and saying, “Wow. You are wonderfully made.” If I imagine listening to what Jesus had to say about me, would I hear him telling me how childish I am? Or would I be amazed at how totally thrilled he is with me. If I took to heart — if I could listen with a different pair of ears — to what God meant, when he said through the prophet, “ “The Lord your God is with you, the Mighty Warrior who saves. He will take great delight in you; in his love he will no longer rebuke you, but will rejoice over you with singing.” Zephaniah 3:17 (NIV)
The bible doesn’t say that Jesus sang to those people who listened to him deliver the Sermon on the Mount, that day that they were all amazed. He didn’t have to sing to them, I don’t think.
But if Jesus looked into my face and began to describe how totally thrilled he is with me — what kind of amazing things he has personally placed into my life, my fiber, my being? I wonder what kind of song would come to mind? Probably ‘Amazing Grace.’
Again, the words of Zephaniah, the prophet: “The Lord your God is with you, the Mighty Warrior who saves. He will take great delight in you; in his love he will no longer rebuke you, but will rejoice over you with singing.”