Stephen
Terry, Director
Jesus as the Master Teacher
Commentary
for the October 31, 2020 Sabbath School Lesson
"Now when Jesus saw
the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to
him, and he began to teach them." Matthew 5:1-2, NIV
The Bible tells us that
in the beginning God walked with mankind in the Garden of Eden.[i] What an experience that must
have been. But how can God, who is ineffable, eternal, immortal, and omniscient
find value in that. It would be as though I found it important to walk
side-by-side with an ant discussing how its day went. Why would God lower
himself to do such a thing? Perhaps because of love.
Have you ever created something challenging that you were especially proud of?
Things like that have a way of finding a special place in our hearts. When
something happens to harm or destroy that special creation, we can become heart
sick at the loss. I can almost hear the tears in God's voice when he came for
his usual walk with his special creation, Adam and Eve, and found they were hiding
from him. He knew that they had been damaged, their innocence lost. Carefully
he explained to them the changes that would now come about. That which had been
easier in their innocence would become harder, tainted by selfishness and
struggle.
Some might wonder how
God, who spans eternity was able to walk so intimately with mankind back then. The
Bible gives us clues in the epistles of the New Testament and in the words of
Jesus in the Gospels. We are told that Jesus was the active agent of Creation,[ii] bringing the world into
existence, including mankind who was intended to rule over the world.[iii] Jesus identified himself as
God by referring to himself as the "I Am," just as God said when he spoke from
the burning bush to Moses, and the Jews understood that reference and
considered it blasphemy.[iv] The Hebrew letters of the
Old Testament that refer to God's name are a form of the verb "to be." In other
words, God is considered the source of all being, all existence. Saying that he
is the "I Am" is to say that he wants to connect with us on that level. Our
life derives from him and the natural response would be for us to turn toward
that light of life as naturally as a sunflower follows the sun. Something within
us seeks that connection, but shame and guilt causes us to turn away from the
light. Like Adam and Eve, we try to hide in the darkness of the bushes and
trees when we fear God is near. But he reassures us that we should not let that
stand in our way. Two thousand years ago, he did not come to judge us,[v] he came to restore what was
lost and repair what was broken. The prophet Isaiah tells us that those who
respond to his call will be known as "repairers of the breach" that was made so
long ago in Eden.[vi]
What a privilege it must
have been for the disciples to be able to walk and talk with someone who had walked
and talked with mankind in the beginning. But they did not understand the opportunity.
Instead of plumbing the depths of Creation and the intent and meaning behind their
own existence, they tended to think only about seeing Jesus as a means to power
over their enemies and as an avenue to freedom from want and disease. But in all
fairness, most were simple fishermen and villagers not used to grappling with
issues much deeper than whether or not there will be enough fish to feed their
family with some left over to sell in the market. They saw money as an avenue
to self sufficiency which may have been why Jesus taught so many lessons about it,
lessons that they remembered and recorded in the Gospels. John referred to
himself as the disciple Jesus loved[vii] (a bit of self promotion
that seems to fit with his propensity to argue about who should be the closest
to Jesus).[viii] Jesus had tremendous
patience for all of his disciples. He was able to teach them without being condescending
even though it would have been a natural response. For instance, how
meaningless it must have seemed to him for the disciples to argue about who
gets to sit next to God who is omnipresent. That reality means that everyone
who chooses to sit next to God can because they already are next to his
presence. But while Jesus made some inroads teaching them about the divine
character and the love it contained, he found that the disciples struggled with
understanding his nature. But they were not alone, theologians have struggled to
define the indefinable nature of God for thousands of years. The First Council
of Nicaea, in 325 AD, argued the point vociferously as to whether the Son of
God was the same substance as God the Father or only similar(homoousios vs
homoiousios).
Such theological hair splitting has defined the Christian church even to the
present day. But such arguments are most often done by apologists and are based
on two assumptions, both false. The first assumption is that it is possible to
have a perfect understanding of God's nature. This ignores the limitations of
our own nature. For instance, we cannot draw a picture of infinity. The best we
can do is to symbolize it with a figure eight lying on its side. But God is
infinite by definition, and therefore equally impossible to draw. Perhaps this
is why the Ten Commandments precluded attempting to make such images. Any
attempt would have to be a lie in the same way that a sleeping figure eight
cannot be infinity in any real sense. For the same reason, the Bible is able to
depict the character of God as love, a concept we can grasp even though we have
difficulty realizing it in our lives, but its attempts to define God's nature are
only literary placeholders for reality. We can say God is omnipresent, but like
the disciples we struggle with that idea. For instance, we think we must be somewhere
special to be close to God. But that is a denial of his omnipresence. God is no
more present in a special building than he is in our backyard. To think he is represents
the primitive religious thinking of those ancient worshippers who thought God
was residing in their valley or on their hilltop, and moving to a different
location meant learning how to worship a different god of that place according
to the local rituals.
When we begin to understand
what Jesus tried to reveal about the nature of God, much of the religious structure
we have built over many centuries becomes superfluous to worship in God's
presence. It also makes denominationalism ridiculous. It is the starkest irony
to teach others that Jesus died upon the cross for the sins of all mankind, but
to insist that our denomination is the one he died the most for, guaranteeing a
special status for those who are wise enough to recognize our specialness. Our
tendency to believe that we know God so much more perfectly than anyone else
and then condemning others for not recognizing it is tantamount to blasphemy. This
is what wrung from the lips of Jesus, "Father, forgive them, for they do not
know what they are doing."[ix]
The second unwarranted
assumption that gives rise to apologetic denominationalism is that God needs us
to defend him. God the omnipotent becomes God the impotent without our arriving
to save the day. But the truth is that we cannot even save ourselves, let alone
be defense attorneys for God. And why would we even feel we need to be? God was
exonerated before the entire universe upon a cross on Golgotha. What more can
be added to that? But we continue to try to defend God, just as we continue to
try to add our own works to the formula for salvation. Whatever we do to make
ourselves appear righteous is only "filthy rags."[x] But instead of repenting in
sackcloth and ashes for our presumption, we boldly step forth and proclaim that
we are the uniquely authorized mouthpieces for God and that salvation depends
on membership in our denomination. If the new convert finds Jesus somewhere
along the way, so much the better, but the sure test of that discovery is too
often determined by the rules the denomination has voted upon with little
consideration for the fruit upon the tree.
Strangely, the servant
leadership model that Jesus showed is rarely to be found in those rules. We
have all heard of the "fruit inspectors" who judge the genuine experience of
others by their fruits, but what standard do they use? Do they use the "fruits
of the Spirit" as Paul outlined them:[xi] "love, joy, peace,
forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control?" Or
are they determined to be based on peculiarities of worship formats, diet, or
veneration of other human beings? Does God's nature find expression in our
lives or do we practice religion despite that. Perhaps instead of trying to
defend our picture of God, we should consider simply surrendering to him and
relieving ourselves of the burden of being God's public defender. He can supply
a better defense than that should he need to. He assures us, "If I were hungry,
I would not tell you, for the world is mine, and all that is in it."[xii]