Learning from Jesus

The scriptures referred to are in the sermon.

I confess! I was one of those kids who loved school. It's not that I was enamored of homework but I loved learning new ideas and new skills. For instance, I desperately wanted to learn to read and to be able to decode all of the hieroglyphics on signs and buildings and on TV and in the newspapers and books. Reading gave my parents an advantage in understanding and getting around in the world. Besides, I love finding out things I previously didn't know as well as how the things I did know actually worked.

And so I loved—for the most part—my teachers, even those I feared. (And we did fear our teachers in those days. It wasn't that they would physically do anything to us but that they would tell our parents if we did something bad or goofed off. And in those days your parents would take the teacher's side. So we listened to our teachers and did what they said.)

I remember most of my teachers, especially the ones who had a great impact on me. That's the measure of a teacher: the effect he or she had on you. You couldn't attribute it to any single model of teaching they used. They were all different, with a variety of styles, approaches, moods, strengths and weaknesses. But they changed me. They made me see things and do things differently.

The word “disciple” is just a fancy way of saying “student.” The men and women who followed Jesus were his students and he was their rabbi or teacher. We know that Jesus radically changed their lives. The question is how? And how is he still doing it today?

One of the first things that strikes me about Jesus as a teacher is that he challenges his students. He doesn't always lay things out in a plain, straightforward way. He loved to use parables, little fables that sometimes were allegories where everything stood for something else, but often they had one simple and sharp point. The parable of the good Samaritan was the answer to the question “Who is this neighbor I'm supposed to love as I do myself?” And Jesus' answer is: anyone you encounter. The story, with its politically incorrect hero, makes the answer more memorable. (Luke 10:30-27)

Jesus was a skilled speaker and though what he said was true, he drove the truth home using such things as hyperbole and paradox. Jesus did not talk like a lawyer and so we must be careful to evaluate what he says in context and with an eye to his use of rhetoric. Jesus sometimes used simple contrast to highlight what was good and what was not, such as the story of the Pharisee and the tax collector in the temple or the different kinds of soil on which the sower's seed falls. (Luke 18:1-14; Mark 4:3-8, 14-20) He used a lot of humor and exaggeration, though this often gets lost in translation or through familiarity. But how else are we to react to the mental picture of people walking around with planks of wood in their eyes, trying to get close enough to help others with mere splinters in their eyes? (Matthew 7:3-5) Or the image of a camel squeezing through the eye of a sewing needle? (Mark 10:25) Who doesn't smirk a bit when Jesus illustrates the efficacy of persistent prayer by telling how a pit bull of a widow wears down an unjust judge until he rules in her favor? (Luke 18:2-8) And I think the parable of the dishonest steward only makes sense if Jesus is telling it sarcastically, as a dig at the way the Pharisees operate. (Luke 16:1-14) Finally, Jesus uses paradox to express truths that seem to simultaneously contradict and compliment each other. The metaphors he uses in John's Gospel, such as today's assertion that his flesh is food, either cause you to give up trying to understand Jesus or lead you to a deeper understanding of the nature of God and of our dependence on him.

By challenging his disciples to keep up with his thoughts, Jesus changed their perspectives on the world, on the kingdom of God and on himself. Let's go back to his saying that a camel could more easily get through the eye of a sewing needle than a rich man could get into God's kingdom. I've heard explanations involving special gates into cities. Forget them. They didn't exist until the Middle Ages. Jesus wasn't saying it was merely difficult; he was saying it is impossible. He was overturning his culture's way of looking at the wealthy. The common view in his time was that riches were a sign of God's favor, and poverty was a punishment for lack of faith. Some modern day prosperity preachers say the same thing. But it's not true. That's why Jesus singled out the rich and why his disciples were so shocked by his statement. “Then who can be saved?” they asked, thinking that if the prosperous didn't have an automatic “ticket to heaven” then the poor were completely out of luck. But Jesus points out that it is impossible for any human to earn his or her way into the kingdom. (Mark 10:27) We are none of us as good as we think we are. We must put our trust in his mercy and not in our own self-righteousness. We are all, rich or poor, dependent on God's grace.

Jesus often uses things his audience knows to explain things they don't know. He employs a lot of everyday imagery to illustrate spiritual truths. So he talks about tax collectors and wineskins and moneylenders and lost coins and foolish bridesmaids and birds and hired agricultural workers and building towers and occupying soldiers and vineyards and shepherds and mustard seeds and the Jerusalem city dump. When it comes to the kingdom of God, Jesus says it isn't totally foreign to our experience; we just use the wrong similes and metaphors for it. We think that there's an inevitable link between earthly success and spiritual worthiness. We mistake worldly popularity for God's approval. We confuse our values with God's. But Jesus says the real parallels are more organic and more surprising. So the kingdom of God is like a shrub, like yeast, like an outwardly disobedient son who changes his mind, like a field with weeds, like a slave deeply in debt, and like a wedding reception.

Jesus not only challenged his students to see and think differently but to act differently. People tend to forget that before he fed the 5000 he told his disciples “You give them something to eat.” (Mark 6:37) I don't think he was bluffing. Jesus authorized them to heal the sick; why not use that power to feed the poor with a handful of bread and fish? Jesus let at least one of them try walking on water. (Matthew 14:25-32) Jesus challenged them to step out on faith. He never intended what he said to remain theoretical. Christianity is not esoteric but practical.

Jewish culture has always revered learning. A religious Jew is to keep studying God's word his whole life. Somehow that has gotten lost in the modern church. We've dumbed down the gospel to “God loves me no matter what I do,” and figured that's all we need to know. It's amazing how many churchgoers are ignorant of 2000 years of Christian thought. For most of the last 2 millennia, the majority of astute philosophers, scientists and writers were Christians. There's no insurmountable obstacle to that being true again. The problem is that we have sold our birthright for the fast food of “spirituality for dummies.” We fill our bellies with the empty calories of comfortable sentiments while starving our minds of nourishing Christian food for thought. Studies show that churchgoers are only marginally better acquainted with scripture than non-believers. Only half of all Christian adults can name all 4 gospels. Our personal theologies consist of catchphrases and simplistic explanations of how God operates that are often wrong. How else can we explain that the Bible verse most people say they know—“God helps those who help themselves”—is in fact from Ben Franklin's Poor Richard's Almanac?

If you read 3 chapters a day, you can read the Bible in a year. If you look in most bookstores or search online, you will find tons of translations and stacks of study Bibles with helpful notes and articles on the text. Or to save money you can go to biblegateway.com or biblehub.com, or download their apps, and read any number of Bibles on your tablet or phone. Got tough questions about the faith? Go to christian-thinktank.com for intelligent answers to questions posed by the most skeptical critics. Or look up books published by Intervarsity Press or Zondervan or Baker Books for books on every issue and topic followers of Jesus have ever faced or have to deal with today. In the Middle Ages the average person was illiterate. Only the clergy and certain rich people could read and the local church's one Bible was chained to the lectern. Today there's no reason not to know what you believe and why you believe it.

Jesus told us that the greatest commandment was to love God with all our heart and strength and soul and mind. His last command was for us to go out into all the world and make students of his from all nations. Let us rise to the challenge our Lord and Teacher has issued us. After all, the world does not seem to be overflowing with moral and spiritual wisdom. Many popular preachers and spiritual teachers seem more interested in seeking earthly power, lots of money and even illicit sex. They are more focused on enjoying the worldly definition of the good life rather than equipping their students for the real good life: eternal life with the God who is love and who is revealed in the teachings, life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

People need guidance as they seek the truth about love, peace, justice and something to hope for. And though the Bible has an awful lot to say on these things, it's not fashionable to look there anymore. People think it's been tried and found lacking. But as G.K. Chesterton said, Christianity has been found hard and not tried. It may be because such hard questions about life have hard answers. And what's hardest is swallowing our pride and realizing that we need to be like children again, not pretending to be too cool for school but eager to learn new stuff, to see familiar things differently, and to be open to new experiences. For the young at heart, school is never out. And for the Christian, the challenging curriculum our Teacher expects us to master and put into practice may be scary at times, but like him, it's never going to be boring.

This was originally preached on August 23, 2009. It has been updated and revised.