Jesus the Teacher Matt 7: 24-29

Jesus was a teacher. People called him Rabbi. He gathered around him a group of people called disciples. Disciples are people follow in the way epitomized by the life and teaching of a leader. The word disciple come a Latin word which means to learn. Often however we are suspicious when we hear words like ‘disciple’ because we think of Jim Jones who founded a religious movement called the People’s Temple which ended up with the mass suicide of nearly 1,000 disciples in Jonestown Guyana. Or, we think of the Waco massacre when sect leader David Koresh and his disciples slugged it out with Federal Authorities at the Branch Davidian ranch in Waco, Texas. Closer to home we think of sects and religious groups who are founded around charismatic leaders. Their disciples are often odd and apparently brainwashed and we certainly don’t want to go there.

Yet our scriptures talk often of Jesus as a teacher and of those who follow as disciples. Discipleship is an honoured and treasured term. I remember as a young man reading Jesus’ teachings and being drawn into a way of looking at the world and other people that resonated deep within. I was fascinated by Jesus and when I read his teachings I felt stirred. He seemed to radiate the presence of God. As a young child I took some of Jesus’ teachings seriously and discovered it was much better to tell my parents that I’d broken a precious ornament rather than concoct a story about how the cat had mysteriously jumped up and knocked the prize vase off the mantelpiece. It felt good to tell the truth and not carry around untruths and the knowledge I’d told lies. I was amazed at the way Jesus reached out to strangers and people who were rejected by others and tried to do the same. I saw kids being treated badly by others at school so would try and befriend them. Kids from other countries or with a different skin colour would often be picked on or ignored, so I tried to put myself in their shoes and act accordingly. I took to heart Jesus’ advice to live simply and tried to avoid being duped into the consumer dream that happiness is found in having the latest whatever. Later in my student years at university we set up our flat to live simply, because a group of us believed that’s what Jesus taught. Part of that dream was to adopt a vegetarian lifestyle so as to consume less of the world’s resources which we did for some years, but alas the meat lover has won through again. We talked about issues together and were part of the anti-nuclear movement staging street dramas and doing whatever we could to alert others to the evil of nuclear weapons. When Jesus said ‘blessed are the peacemakers’, we took his words seriously. To spend billions on making and peddling weapons of destruction in a world wracked by poverty and basic health and education issues, seems so wrong. Jesus clearly stood for another way. His rage at the merchants ripping off the poor in the temples was clear evidence of that. His overturning of the money tables was not an anti-business protest, but was a protest about ripping people off and inappropriate and evil ways of making money. In our flat we talked often of how we could be a witness for Jesus and we tried to invite someone to share a meal with us each week. We also went out of our way to volunteer time at our local church.

When it came to the inevitable O.E. (overseas experience) I felt called by Jesus to do something different. I wanted to look at world poverty and decided I wanted to live in a wealthy country and a poor country to see what I could learn. In America I volunteered to help in a rehab community for people suffering from mental illness, and in India I helped with the Presbyterian mission project in Jagadhri as well as spending time in a multi-faith ashram. Apart from the practical work it was also time to learn about the spiritual practices of Jesus like the setting aside of quiet time to meditate and reflect on God and on what was really motivating and driving my life. Learning from other Christian traditions and other religions was an important part of listening to Jesus, and seeking to be a disciple….someone who was constantly learning from Jesus.

Youth is, of course, a time to experiment and learn. Unburdened by responsibility you can take risks and can be idealistic. Time progresses and sadly these elements get trampled in our lives. We tend to adopt a settled and safe routine that then doesn’t like risking, getting out of the boat, or pushing boundaries. We tend to become one of the crowd and our Christian faith becomes a chameleon faith of fitting in and adapting to our society. Jesus becomes domesticated. No longer is Jesus a teacher and we disciples, but we are much happier to talk of Jesus as possibly a friend, or as a nice guy who lived some years ago who blessed children. To think that Jesus might radically shape our lives and the way we live now becomes a bit far fetched. How could a peasant boy who lived 2,000 years ago in backwater Galilee have much relevance to our very different world today? That is a question that most people answer very simply. He doesn’t.

I believe that most of us want to live a life that honours God, our creator, a life that is meaningful, a life of significance, a life that honours our soul. We want to live a life of integrity, a life that is true to our essence, and which will make a difference in our world. To do this I believe we have to draw close to Jesus, who is the Messiah. I believe we also need to catch a fresh glimpse of Jesus the Rabbi or teacher, and ourselves as disciples.

We have to be prepared to learn, to risk and experiment, and to be different. This is not easy for us and I don’t think most of us can mange that alone. One of the major challenges for our church going forward is to change our thinking about church as a place we go on Sunday to sit and pay our dues, to being a community of people where we learn together what it is to be a disciple of Jesus. Rather than seeing church as a lecture hall where we listen to a sermon, we should see it more as a Weight Watchers group (or similar) where we put into practice what we hear so that something changes in our lives.

I was speaking to a person who told me he had started coming to St Mark’s. He’s not here on Sunday but he is here on Tuesday nights at the Weight Watchers group. He said he’d been trying to lose weight for years and knew all the head stuff about what was required. Eat less, exercise more….it’s pretty simple really. But however hard he tried he never managed to put it into practice. His weight remained the same or in reality slowly crept up over the years. What made the difference he said was meeting with others who supported him and encouraged him to keep on track. He needed to learn some strategies to do things differently, and he need to know others were with him as he stepped out of the boat and instituted some changes in his life. In just a couple of months he’s lost nearly 15kg. It’s being part of a group together that’s made the difference, he said.

I don’t quite understand why our religion and spirituality is so private. I do know that while it remains a strictly private matter, we can never really come to grips with living the Jesus way. It’s a bit scary to think that Jesus might ask us to be different and to stand out in some way. It’s a bit scary to think that maybe we might have to change something in our lives, and exercise our spiritual muscle a bit more, but that will be the case if we choose to get serious with Jesus. The truth is, Jesus didn’t just communicate some nice ideas, but declared “I am the way” and invited his disciples to form a group that would learn together and practice together a new way of living that was fueled and inspired by his example, teachings, and sacrifice. As a rabbi or teacher, he taught his disciples to risk trusting him and to learn a new way of living that would see the Kingdom of Heaven come to earth. It wouldn’t happen all at once but was about small steps that would make a difference.

I believe the gospel of Jesus, spreads not by force, or fear, but by fascination. People asking questions together, people talking together, people finding courage to be true to themselves and their souls. People building their lives on a rock and not on shifting sand. People looking to Jesus as the rabbi, the teacher, the way of life. People who are keen to be disciples together.

Dugald Wilson 4 December 2011