Astonished at His Teaching (Rapita in Ammirazione)

I don't know about you, but there are times when the Word of God fills me with such awe, that I can't find a way to fully express what it stirs up inside of me… But that doesn't stop me from trying.

So I really love the places where the Bible records the words of the people in reaction to something profound that Christ has spoken. This is what we see here in Marco, Mark 11:18. The English Bible uses the word astonished, saying the people were astonished at His teaching. Other ways of saying this would be amazed, enthusiastic, in admiration, or even spellbound. (I really like that last one.)

 
But after I read this in Italian, it brought me a step closer to being able to express what I often feel in response to God's Word.

In Italian, it says that the people, or the crowd, was rapita in ammirazione.

Rapita, can be translated here as captivated. It literally means kidnapped or taken captive. The words that Christ spoke were so profound that the people were taken captive by it.

But that's not all!

Not only were they held captive or captivated by His awesome teachings, they were captivated in ammirazione, in admiration.

This wasn't about feeling bound by strict laws they felt were too harsh. This was about having such great admiration for the truths Jesus revealed, that they were willingly locked in to Christ through their adoration of all that He said.

No prison here. Just access to, and pleasurable dwelling within the confines of the righteousness, peace and joy of God's Kingdom here on earth.

Wow! What a way to receive Christ's teaching. I think that whenever His words have this type of impact on us that it would be safe to say they fell on Good Ground, la Buona Terra, as we talked about previously. I think it's also safe to say that we could then expect to see it bring forth la frutta, fruit, one hundred fold in our lives.