Theological Commentary: Click Here
Discipleship Focus: Teacher
- Teacher: One who holds forth the truth and is excited by it. The teacher looks for ways to explain, enlighten, and apply truth. A teacher's authority doesn't come from how smart they are but from the Word of God and the power of a transformed life.
Ever since I
was a little boy, I wondered if Jesus’ disciples were really dense. How many of us don’t understand the parable
of the soils or the parable of the weeds?
Of course we do! We’ve been
taught these parables since before we can remember.
That’s
actually an issue for us. Because Jesus
taught in this manner, our own pastors and spiritual leaders imitate Him and
teach in this manner. So when we get to
passages like this, we have been trained to think about symbolism and analogy
and we quickly sort through the information and arrive at the answer.
This didn’t happen
with Jesus and is disciples. Jesus took
fishermen and tax collectors and other basic people and taught them. They weren’t religiously trained. This is actually why Jesus teaches in
parables. By using parables, He is
teaching His disciples to think more and more abstractly and make connections
that are not obvious to everyone else.
There’s a
really neat side-effect to this as well.
When Jesus teaches in parables, He can sift through the listeners and
figure out who it is that is really paying attention and who is just along for
the ride. He can hear the questions from
the people who are asking questions. He
can see the people who come and listen and leave without asking questions.
Looking at
this chapter, we see what it really means to be a teacher. A teacher takes opportunities when they are
presented. A teacher causes people to
start with the known and probe into the unknown. A teacher sees any opportunity as an
opportunity to sift through those around them and discern who is truly looking
to listen and learn.
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