As Christians throughout the world observe this season of Lent, I will be refocusing my blog on the life of Jesus. Jesus was a teacher. Christians have always believed he was more than just a teacher, but certainly not less. He instructed a group of 12 disciples for 3 years before his death and resurrection, and even after his resurrection, he went out of his way to teach and open the eyes of his followers who were bewildered at the turn of events that culminated in Jesus’ crucifixion (Lk. 24:25). Because Jesus was both Lord and Rabbi, it is worthwhile to examine how Jesus educated his followers.
When turning to the gospels, the first thing that we must mention is that all of Jesus’ teaching, and really his whole life, was Word-centered. The Bible’s narrative, beginning with the books of the law, and stretching into the prophets and the “writings,” form the background for his entire ministry. When I read the New Testament for the first time, it was clear that I was starting in the middle of a story. For example, in the first chapter of John’s gospel, John the Baptist is asked if he is Elijah or “the Prophet.” Without an understanding of biblical prophecy, this is hard to understand. Also, in Mark’s first chapter, Jesus breaks onto the scene and announces, “the kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news.” Without the Psalms, this announcement is tough to grasp. Jesus’ life was a fulfillment of the Word. He literally lives in the narrative of the Scriptures.
As a boy, Jesus’ was immersed in the Scriptures, as all young Jewish boys would have been. His father Joseph, a carpenter or possibly a stone-worker, would have taught his son the family trade, and educated his child in the Hebrew Scriptures from the first moments he could speak. Memorizing entire books of the law would not have been uncommon. And we know that when Jesus was 12, he was debating and discussing interpretation of the law with the best religious scholars of his day. When he launched his public ministry as an adult, nearly everything he did was either a fulfillment of Scripture or a teaching of Scripture. His reverence for the Hebrew Bible was unparalleled (Matt 5:18), and the gospels are filled with his engaging with the scribes and Pharisees about interpretation of the law (Matt 12:1-13). He referenced Scripture tacitly in his teachings (Matt 12:39-42), and he quoted it often and with exactitude (Matt 13:11-15). When he was on the cross, at the darkest point of his life, Scripture was on his tongue (Lk 23:46, Mk. 15:33). And when he rose from the dead, he gave a Bible lesson to his followers on the road to Emmaus (Lk 24:27). Jesus’ entire life, ministry, death, and resurrection were filled with Scripture. God’s Word came out of his pores.
Jesus was clearly a teacher of Scripture. To think that he could, in any way, rightly instruct his followers in what we would call today a “secular” fashion, is a contradiction. Our categories today call religion a personal value that belongs in the home and the church, but not in public discourse, and certainly not in a public school or university. Although this will have to be a topic for another posting, Jesus clearly did not believe that “religion cannot be known. It’s just a matter of personal opinion.” He centered all that he was on the divine revelation of God that claims not just to be a handbook for living, but instead, as Lesslie Newbigin points out, “universal history.” It reveals God’s eternal purposes for both the people of Israel and all the world’s gentiles. Because the Bible is the best source on how things really are, it was the core of Jesus’ thought and pedagogy.
Today, the Bible is taught in church, in the family, and in religious schools, but I have never seen anybody teach Scripture on CNN or MSNBC. And it is certainly not taught as being true in our schools. (Some public schools teach the Bible alongside of other holy books. But such teaching assumes a morally and religiously pluralistic worldview which has its roots in the Enlightenment, not in the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures). But the life accounts of Jesus make one thing abundantly clear: Scripture was the center point of Jesus’ educational program. If Scripture is not the center point of our own teaching, whether we inhabit public or private schools, Christians must ask where we have gone wrong.
In the United States, movements to hang the ten commandments in city hall or allow students to pray in public school are met with fierce criticism. Many are deathly afraid of a regress to an imperceptible “dark age” of religiosity in the US. They say it violates the first amendment (which, to my untrained eye, doesn’t seem to make sense. Compelling religious adherence in a school and openly teaching the Bible’s truths in a school seem to be different animals). Given, those who are teachers in the public sphere will face this difficult battle. But if we step back from current political battles, and take a look at Jesus’ own life and teachings, we cannot ignore the Scriptures as a part of all student’s courses of study. If God’s purposes for humanity are universal, then God’s word also must be universally taught.
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