Matthew 7:28, 29
“Jesus the Teacher”
August 10, 2003 - Ninth after Pentecost

         “So if I were to let go of this test tube as I swing my arm, it would fly across the room, releasing all the kinetic energy I imparted by smashing to bits.” Thus spoke my high school chemistry teacher Mr. Jerome one day to a room full of drowsy juniors right after lunch.

         “Do it!” came a voice from the back row. “Yeah, go for it!” joined in a few more bored jocks. Pretty soon the cry was unanimous. “Do it! Throw it! Yeah!”

         Our teacher got a kind of devilish grin. “O. K., I will,” he said, and let fly across the front along the blackboard. The test tube shattered safely behind the lab bench and the class let out a cheer. Mr. Jerome just kept on grinning. He now had everyone’s attention. He had created and utilized a teaching moment. For the rest of the period the class was engaged, listening and responding to the ideas he presented.

         Mr. Jerome was a good teacher. You all know the difference. For every teacher like him, there is another who is lifeless and dull, droning out dreary facts in a monotone that sounds as bored as her students are. We’ve all had both kinds. We know good teachers and bad teachers when we see and hear them. We recognize them by hard-won experience.

         That is why the fact that Jesus is almost universally recognized not just as a good, but as a great teacher is so significant. Most people know a good teacher when they encounter one. And most of those who have encountered Jesus, whatever other opinion they might form about Him, will always say this. He was a great teacher. From the very start of His ministry until the present time, those who have listened to Jesus have responded like the audience in our text. They are “amazed at his teaching.”

         The most shining facet of the genius of Jesus is His teaching. The power of His mind is nowhere better displayed than in both the method and the content of what He taught while here on earth. When He spoke, Christ attracted huge crowds of thousands of people captivated by His words. On more than one occasion, they became so caught up in listening that they forgot to go home and eat and He had to feed them with a miracle.

         So almost no one acquainted with the facts doubts the claim that Jesus Christ was a great teacher. Everyone agrees that is true. The disagreement comes in when we try to understand just why His teaching is great.

         Many teachers are good ones because of their methods. What they have to teach is nothing remarkable, the calculation of electron valances in chemistry, the diagramming of sentences in grammar, the causes of World War II in history. The content of their teaching is well-known, well-worn ground that has been taught by many other teachers in many places. What makes the difference is the way good teachers teach these old facts to a new generation.

         Jesus was certainly a genius of teaching method. He held the attention of those huge crowds without modern audio-visual aids, without even any amplification of His voice. He drew in His listeners with fine techniques of public speaking. He told wonderful stories. As we will see in a few weeks, He employed humor. He utilized the visual aids He did have at hand, the flowers, the birds, even the rocks on the ground. More technically, His speech included metaphor, simile, hyperbole, proverb, paradox and irony.[1] He was in total command of the language He used to express His thoughts.

         Christ Jesus was also master of a teaching style named for a Greek philosopher who lived hundreds of years earlier. Socrates made a mark on history, and made himself a royal pain in the rear, by asking questions designed to elicit both the knowledge and the ignorance of those with whom He spoke. Jesus also employed the Socratic method, not just declaring the truth, but asking questions of His listeners in such a way that they were guided to discover or confront the truth for themselves.

         Yet the method of Jesus’ teaching was not the whole story of His teaching genius. It’s not even half the story. What He taught was even more remarkable than the way He taught it. That can be seen in verse 29 of our text from Matthew 7. The crowds were amazed at His teaching “because He taught as one who had authority.” Although He often gave fresh insight into well-known truth from the Old Testament and from tradition, He didn’t just rehash and repackage old facts. He went beyond what His hearers expected, feeling free to correct and expand the accepted teachings of the time. And He taught as one with the authority to offer new truth.

         So the content of Jesus’ teaching included the wonderful new truths that the Kingdom of God was coming into the world, that God wanted to be known and loved as a Father, and that there was, as we will see next week, a new and better way to live – a new ethic for the kingdom, for those who would be the children of God.

         But the centerpiece of the new content in Jesus’ teaching was what He had to say about Himself. Gently, carefully, bit by bit, Jesus taught His disciples by brilliant words and stunning demonstrations that He was something new in the world. Not just another teacher. Not just a wise and venerable rabbi. Not even just a prophet. Slowly but surely, their eyes were opened to the fact that they had walked and talked not just with a man, but with God Himself in human form.

         That final section in Jesus’ curriculum was of course not learned truly without the finest act of self-sacrifice in teaching there has ever been. It was the object lesson to end all object lessons. Only when they had watched their Teacher die horribly on the Cross and then rise gloriously from the dead, did the lesson finally sink in. Their Teacher was the Son of God, God Himself come into the world to rescue them from sin and death.

         As I’ve tried to briefly explain, there is every reason to be theoretically impressed with the teaching genius of Jesus. The brilliance of His teaching is universally acknowledged. Even Muslims make a place for Him as a prophet in their faith. Hindus give room to Jesus as an avatar of the divine. His methods and message have won Him a place in history regardless of what a person ultimately believes.

         However, I would like you to be more than theoretically impressed with Jesus as a teacher. My hope is that the teaching of Jesus will make a giant and very practical difference in your life. My prayer is that you will not just admire Jesus Christ, but will believe what He taught and allow Him to be your Teacher.

         Rob Bell asked thousands of Covenant students for that kind of allegiance to Jesus this past Monday night. As he spoke in worship at CHIC, he explained how Jesus behaved very much like a first century rabbi. He gathered disciples with the traditional words, “Follow me.” Jewish children were all educated in Hebrew and the Scriptures, but most would soon drop out, taking up a trade. Only the best would stick with it and eventually a rabbi would come and say to them “follow me.” It was an honored privilege. There was a saying, “May you be covered with the dust of your rabbi.” Even the dust kicked up from the road was considered an honor as these students walked along behind their teacher.

         Jesus was both like and unlike those rabbis, Bell explained. When He said “follow me,” He spoke to those long since passed over, fishermen and tax collectors and even political dissidents. He gave the privilege of following and studying with Him to anyone who would take it on. His teaching is full of grace that has a place for every student who will take the road behind Him.

         Christ is a genius, but what He teaches is not just for geniuses. It’s not just for the top of the class or the first string. He wants you and I to be His students, to follow Him, to learn from Him how to live. I invite you to take His course, to enroll in His class, to discover for yourself what it means to be taught by Jesus Christ, the Son of God, our Lord.

         As you listen to our students share their experiences at CHIC, think with them about what it means to study with Jesus. How will you learn what He says? Who will you find to guide you? Where will you practice what you’ve learned? What will change in your life because you are His student? You have the greatest teacher in the world. I ask you to be the best student you possibly can.

         Amen.

Valley Covenant Church
Eugene/Springfield, Oregon
Copyright © 2003 by Stephen S. Bilynskyj