Jesus as Teacher

 "You call me teacher and Lord---and you are right, for that is what I am."  --John13:13

I enjoy visiting living museums where you can see how people used to live in past centuries.  This photo of a school room was taken at Old Bedford Village in Pennsylvania.  

This month I'm sharing Diana Butler Bass's chapter on Jesus as Teacher from her book, Freeing Jesus.  She writes about the various times Jesus taught:  when he was 12 in the Temple and later in his early 20s.  Once he began his ministry of teaching in earnest at around age 30 he also taught from hilltops, boats, in people's homes, and along the side of the road.  

When we go to school we are taught to not run in the hallways, to be quiet and sit still at a desk, listen, take notes, do homework, then take a test to see if we've learned the lesson.  Jesus is sometimes portrayed as a teacher of rules and right ways to live, but Diana Bass quotes from Marcus Borg's book, Jesus: A New Vision:

Jesus was not primarily a teacher of either correct beliefs or right morals.  Rather, he was a teacher of a way or path, specifically a way of transformation.

What was different about Jesus from most teachers was that he "embodied the love that he spoke of in his stories and sermons.  Jesus, who was complete love, the man for others, taught us to go and be likewise.  He did not teach rules.  He taught that love ruled.  He lived what he taught." 

I have always wondered why the New Testament, as we know it, did not get assembled until the 4th century.  Why the epistles were sometimes written decades after Jesus' death.  Why didn't Jesus keep a journal or dictate his teachings to one of his disciples.  Once I found out about the Holy Spirit when I was 28 I had the answer to my questions.  Jesus actually told us why as recorded in John 14:26:

But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.

We must remember much of the New Testament is comprised of letters that the apostle Paul and the disciples wrote to the new Christians to encourage them and to help them settle disputes among themselves.  While people who receive the Holy Spirit are saved and sealed, our minds still need to be renewed.  Sinning does not just stop once we receive our new hearts.  Our new hearts contain the Holy Spirit who enables us to stop sinning.  This is why I can't understand why some churches expect the unsaved to follow the rules.  They can't!  For someone who does not have the Holy Spirit to guide them, to provide for them, it is only natural for them to take matters into their own hands; i.e. have an abortion, steal, and behave badly towards other people.  This is why you can't legislate morals.  Yes, it would be wonderful to live in a world where everyone did what was "right", and why "right" for one person isn't going to be "right" for another.  Right, after all, can be subjective.  Going to war and killing people is one of those subjective situations.  Everything that is wrong about the world is due to sin.  The sin of not trusting and relying on our creator God for all our needs.  I don't know anyone who is not guilty of this, including myself 100% of the time.  The Good News (i.e., the Gospel) is that God loves us anyway, those who have believed and asked for redemption, will be with Him one day even if we never get it 100% "right" here on earth.  This is God's grace towards us.

This is why Jesus died on the cross for our sins and was resurrected.  He came to show us the way back to God through Himself, with the promise that He would never leave us.  In doing so we are transformed into the same light that shows the way back to God.  God in us and we in Him.  We are one with God.  It changes everything.  Nothing is the same.  We are new creatures in Christ.

As to why we have a Bible....Was it just Constantine's idea to have a book compiled when he established Christianity as the official religion?  I still don't have a satisfying answer.  It seems to have caused more dissension than unity.  There are different interpretations of many passages leading to confusion and disharmony.  The only answer I come up with is God provided it so that people who claim to have a new revelation from Him haven't a leg to stand on if it contradicts what's in the Bible.  OR perhaps it's to show us that relying on the Holy Spirit in us is the only true way to understand and do the Word of God, Jesus Christ.  In the end it is God's love in us that enables us to do for others as He does for us.  We don't need a book to tell us what to do and what not to do.  He leaves the How part up to our talents and means.  After all our individual creativity is because we are made in the image of a creative God.    

Father, I still have much to learn, that is, to have my mind renewed so that I can grow in Your grace, and be a brighter light in this darkened world.  Thank you for each moment I have left to share Your Love.

Link to Scripture:  John 1:1

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