Jesus as Teacher
Series: Meeting Jesus Again - Part 2
2023 - A Lenten Journey
Matthew
(based on the book Freeing Jesus, by Diana Butler Bass)
When Jesus finished these words, the crowds were amazed at his teaching because he was teaching them like someone with authority and not like their legal experts.
Matthew 7:28-29 (CEB)
Listen to this week’s sermon here:
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In recent years, American teachers have been caught in the crossfire of culture wars. By any objective standard, they are underpaid and underfunded in the classroom while at the same time navigating constant attacks from parents and politicians telling them exactly how they can and can’t do their job. School board meetings across the nation are often more contentious, and even violent, than congress. On the whole, it would seem that teachers are among the most under appreciated and undervalued members of our society.
Christians were once on the front lines of supporting public education, believing that everybody regardless of race, gender, geography, or economic means, should have access to high quality learning. These days, many Christian communities support a move away from public schools toward private religious education, homeschooling, and other means of keeping their children separated from the growing diversity in the culture around us.
So what does all of this have to do with Jesus? Quite a bit, actually, if we are willing to acknowledge Jesus as rabbi or teacher.
I’ve heard people condemn the idea of Jesus as teacher for the same reason they struggle with Jesus as a friend. Many feel these roles are beneath Jesus. He is Lord and God or he is nothing. In our well intentioned attempts to keep Jesus elevated on his throne in heaven, I wonder if we’ve missed the whole point of why Jesus came in the first place. He didn’t come on a white horse in the clouds to enforce his Kingship. He came among the poor and the lowly as a friend and teacher, that all might have access to the God who loved them more than they could ever imagine. He came not just so people would “believe in him” and get into heaven, but to teach us how to make the heavenly kingdom a reality on earth.
I can’t help but wonder if the diminished value of teachers in our society has also contributed to our diminished respect for Jesus as our teacher. Don’t get me wrong. We love Jesus. We worship Jesus. We believe in Jesus. We are grateful that Jesus forgives our sin. But when it really comes down to it, do we really listen to him as our teacher?
He said to them, “Do you know what I’ve done for you? You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and you speak correctly, because I am. If I, your Lord and teacher, have washed your feet, you too must wash each other’s feet.
John 13:12-14
Are we willing to follow his teachings?
Are we willing to serve and wash the feet of others, even our enemies, as he taught us to do by his own example?
Teachers were once highly respected. We hung on their every word, not only the curriculum they taught, but on their example as role models in our lives. Perhaps we should work to re-establish the honored position of teachers in our society, and while we’re at it, maybe it’s time we let Jesus be our teacher as well.
What if Jesus really meant everything he said?
And what if we really trusted and obeyed?