Last week we began a six-week series that focuses on Jesus. At that time I mentioned that in this season of Season of Epiphany we celebrating the growing light of Christ in the world. In the baptism of Astrid and Erin today, we lit candles and affirmed that as a baptized and baptizing people we are called to shine with the light of Christ. Of course in order for us to shine brightly, it is important for us to grow in our understanding the One whose light we seek to reflect.
Last week we explored the culture, geography, historical events and the faith that would have shaped and nurtured Jesus during his childhood. Today we will begin to look at some of the particular qualities of Jesus.
Teacher is the most common title given to Jesus by the gospel writers.
Of course, we would expect that Jesus’ own disciples and friends would call him teacher. James and John, two of the disciples come to Jesus one day saying, "Teacher," they said, "we want you to do for us whatever we ask." And one day when they out in a boat together and get caught in a storm, the disciples wake a sleeping Jesus and say to him, "Teacher, don't you care if we drown?"
But others also use this term for Jesus. Those who were suspicious critical of Jesus called him teacher. The Pharisees see Jesus enjoying a meal with a crowd of people and they ask his disciples,
"Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and 'sinners'?"
Or they demand that Jesus prove his powers by demanding, "Teacher, we want to see a miraculous sign from you."
But most of all, it’s a host of people who meet Jesus throughout his itinerant ministry who call him teacher. They ask him questions.
"Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life?"
"Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?"
"Teacher, …is it right to pay taxes to Caesar or not?
And they make demands on Jesus.
"Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me."
"Teacher, look at my son and heal him for he is my only child."
and they vow to follow him, "Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go."
Of course there were lots of teachers in Jesus’ day, so what sets Jesus apart as a teacher?
Most of Jesus’ contemporaries taught in a way that was prescriptive - that is they taught people to follow laws and rules based on the Torah (the first five books of the Bible) - such as the 10 commandments.
It may come as a surprise to know that very little of Jesus’ teaching is prescriptive. Yes, of course we remember his teaching of the great commandment - "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength, and with all your mind…" but even then, Jesus adds a twist and a surprise to a well-known commandment when he adds, "and you shall love your neighbour as yourself."
Regularly in the gospel accounts, Jesus catches people off-guard, surprising often shocking them by twisting a familiar saying or piece of wisdom into something new and unexpected.
These are short, pithy sayings of Jesus, are what scholars call, ‘aphorisms.’ What we commonly call the Beatitudes - the collection of blessing statements that we read today from Matthew’s Gospel, are actually ‘aphorisms’.
What makes them unique as a teaching method of Jesus is that they often throw into question, the commonly accepted wisdom and truths of the day.
When we read these sayings of Jesus - one verse neatly printed one after another in our Bibles, we sometimes overlook their potency and we certainly miss out on the interaction and response they would have generated among the crowd who came to hear Jesus speak.
Remember that with a few exceptions, most of Jesus’ teaching venues were in informal settings, out in the countryside, in village squares or courtyards, at the local well, by the seaside, at all the places where people naturally gathered for commerce, for market, for fetching water, and to ply their trade. This was no formal school setting where the teacher spoke and everyone sat quietly and reverently!
Can you imagine sitting on one of those Galilean hillsides with a group of coworkers or family members or friends? Someone has told you that there is some guy wandering around with a new teaching. Curious, you come out to hear what he has to say.
And there he is, this peasant man, Jesus, sitting comfortably on a rocky ledge among you. You listen as he says, ‘Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.’
And you join the others, scratching and shaking their heads; everyone knows it is the wealthy and the powerful who are inheriting the earth and all its riches, not the meek - the meek are people like you getting trampled and left out. Hey, Jesus what do you mean? This doesn’t make any sense. Tell us more. And so the conversation begins.
Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Hey, Jesus, I know what persecution is and all that it has brought me is suffering and loss, you must be nuts! Show us this kingdom that you are talking about!
We need to lift these provoking, often perplexing sayings of Jesus off the printed page and catch a glimpse of the spirited discussion that his remarks would have created.
Forget the image of a meek and mild-mannered Jesus - think of Jesus as a teacher who stirred people up; encouraged discussion and challenged people to reexamine their assumptions about life and about God.
Of course, one of Jesus’ most powerful teaching methods was storytelling. We may not all remember every single remark of Jesus that the gospel writers include, but we sure do remember his stories.
Pretend once again that you are among the crowd listening to Jesus and someone pipes up, ‘Hey Jesus, you tell us to love God and you tell us to love our neighbour as ourselves - so who is my neighbour’.
Jesus pauses for a minute, he lifts a child on his knee and gathers a few others around him and begins, "A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell into the hands of robbers, who stripped him, beat him, and went away, leaving him half dead."
What’s the name of the story? That’s right ‘The Good Samaritan’.
A bit later you are sharing a meal together with Jesus, and you hear some of the religious leaders grumbling and criticizing, ‘This fellow Jesus welcomes sinners and eats with them.’
And Jesus lifts his head, looks them squarely in the eye and begins,
"There was a man who had two sons. The younger of them said to his father, ‘Father give me the share of property that will belong to me.’ So the father divided his property between the sons and a few days later the younger son took all he had and traveled to a distant country, and there he squandered his fortune in depraved living."
What’s the name of the story? That’s right ‘The Prodigal Son’.
As you continue to share a meal together, someone in the group asks, ‘Jesus, you talk a lot about this kingdom of God. Will I be welcomed at the banquet table in God’s kingdom?’
And Jesus, accepting a cup of wine, leans up against a grassy knoll and begins.
"Someone once organized a great feast and sent out many invitations. When the feast was ready he sent out servants to tell those invited, ‘Come now, the feast is ready.’ And one by one they all made excuses…"
What is the name of the story? That’s right, the story of the Great Banquet.
And we could go on, there is the story of the Sower, the story of the Persistent Widow, the story of the rich man and Lazarus, the story of the Lost Sheep, the story of the Rich Fool, the story of the Mustard Seed, the story of the Workers in the Vineyard.
In all, the gospels record at least 30 stories of Jesus that are commonly called parables. In Greek, which is the language the gospels were originally written in, the word parable means, ‘to cast alongside’. A parable is a story that is ‘cast alongside’ of daily life to help lead the listeners to see life from a different perspective. Parables are not a long tedious lecture, they are not a list of commands, rather they are Jesus’ invitation to see life differently; to provoke the audience to go deeper than a pat answer, to encourage them to reconsider their taken-for granted-assumptions.
You see, Jesus wasn’t a teacher of facts or knowledge in a traditional sense. His teaching invited people to contemplate the meaning of life, to look at life through the eyes of God, to begin to explore the character of God and the way of life that God intended for humanity.
And you know, as friends of Jesus, that is the kind of teaching and learning that we are committed to. As parents and as a congregation who promise to raise our children in the Christian faith, as people who gather for worship week by week, as family and friends who meet over the dinner table, as curious folk who join study and discussion groups, we are committed to a mutual discovery of the meaning of life. We invite questions and discussion; we read and tell the stories of Jesus, welcoming questions, discussion and debate.
We let these stories sink into our consciousness, trusting that they will open our hearts and eyes to recognize more clearly the character of God and the way God calls us to travel.
And we gather to tell each other our own life stories. For we know that as children of God and as bearers of the light of Christ, we have our own sacred story to tell and to live. And when we tell and live our sacred story, we are light for each other and for the world.
Amen.
(with thanks to Marcus Borg and his book, Jesus, Uncovering the Life, Teachings, and Relevance of a Religious Revolutionary , Harper Collins 2006)
