Jesus: the teacher of wisdom

rabbi: educated teachers who interpreted the law surrounded by followers. term of respect.

  • Jesus was a teacher, providing guidance n advice on the application of the law to moral problems

  • sometimes described as a ‘Rabbi’ » Mark 11:21

  • some argue that…

  • Jesus is best understood as a teacher of wisdom

  • His message has therefore been carried beyond the time n setting of occurrence

  • Jesus had moral wisdom from valuable insights into the Hebrew tradition which He applied for life, for everyone

quotations

  • Richard Dawkins: “Jesus was a great moral teacher”

  • Gerd Theissen, Annette Merz in ‘The Historical Jesus: “In discussing with other scribes, gathering disciples around Him, teaching in a synagogue worship and answering the theological enquiries of lay people, Jesus, the former disciple of the rabbi John, corresponded to the contemporary notions of a rabbi.” » unlikely that Jesus was John’s disciple, coz of John’s reaction when Jesus sought to be baptised by John

  • Wittgenstein: ”Truth and authority of Christianity lay not in God’s promise of redemption but living life as honestly as possible. What gave Jesus authority was His role as a teacher of wisdom. “

  • Leo Tolstoy: “Significance of Jesus’ life lay in His moral teaching with 5 moral commandments: Do not be angry, but be at peace with all men; do not seek delight in sexual gratification; do not swear anything to anyone; do not oppose evil, do not judge and do not go to law, do not make any distinction among men as to nationality, and love strangers like your own people.”

“The power and authority of Jesus’ moral teaching is that it does not rely on abstraction but rather a real engagement with and affirmation of life.”

Nietzsche

background

  • Jesus could clearly read, and He spent much of His time in synagogues preaching and reading stories to those present

    • many of His listeners were surprised at the high level of education He seemed to have

  • He spoke on moral issues and ideas, mainly:

    • the importance of love

    • self-sacrifice

    • concern for the poor n dispossessed

    • honesty

    • justice

    • peace

  • He used moral education techniques w controversial/surprising stories

  • stories were wise, insightful and convicting in regard to preconceptions

    • eg calling the Gentiles pious n religious impious in the Good Samaritan

Jesus’ moral teaching:

  • His wisdom is a message of repentance n forgiveness ie repent, believe the Good News

  • continually spoke of forgiveness of sins, healing the sick n spending time w rejected groups of ppl/sinners

  • mindset: hope for mankind inc outcasts » Luke 7:47

  • vision = universal one of healing, bringing God and all of humanity back tgt again

  • Sermon on the Mount

    • long speech

    • ‘new Moses’ giving Law from the Mountain

    • first of 5 blocks of teachings

    • comes at start of Jesus’ ministry, followed by 2 chapters of miracles

    • Matthew: highlights Jesus as a teacher rather than a miracle-worker

    • re-interprets Moses’ Law, based on love

  • Parables

    • short stories w meanings n messages:

      • sheep and the goats

      • the Good Samaritan

      • the Lost Son

      • Lazarus n the Rich Man

      • the lost sheep

primary content of Jesus’ moral teaching:

  • forgiveness n repentance

  • love for God n man

  • moral purity

  • overturning social norms

  • personal responsibility

  • power n wealth

forgiveness n repentance

  • metanoia: repentance in Greek: ‘a radical change of mindset or heart’

  • desire to change whole way of life » Jesus’ primary message

  • w/o repentance, can’t fulfil His other teachings

  • examples:

    • Zacchaeus the tax collector » offered to return money to all those he’d cheated

    • the lost son » realised error of his ways, returned to his father’s house to beg for forgiveness

    • Matt 8:22

love

heavily influenced key passages in Paul

  • God:

    • Matt 22:37-38: ‘Jesus replied: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment.’

  • fellow believers:

    • John 13:34: ‘ “Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.”

  • neighbours:

    • Matt 22:39: ‘ “Love your neighbour as you love yourself.” ‘

  • enemies:

    • Luke 6:35: ‘ “But love your enemies, do good to the, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back.” ‘

moral purity

  • advocated for moral purity n identified moral purposes in life

  • love, forgiveness n orientation toward those most in eed

  • commanded that the hungry be fed, the sick healed n the naked, clothed

  • purity we should seek is measured by externalities, but by inner intention

  • Matt 5:28

  • Matt 5:22

  • Matt 5:48

overturning social norms

  • Jesus had female friends, often mentioned in the Gospels

  • many of His followers were women, of high status n financial means = supported ministry

  • Luke 8:1-3

  • scandal » healed a woman through touch

  • inclusive attitude towards women, in contrast to time period

personal responsibility

  • keeping Sabbath day holy = central religious n social law:

    • 4th Commandment in Exodus'

    • basis for social justice » everyone in society is entitled to a day free from labour

    • Jesus argued that ppl were using the Sabbath laws as a means of avoiding social responsibility

  • hypocrisy: teachers of law were allowing an ox to be fed but not treatment of the sick

  • risky » Sabbath law-breaking = death penalty for blasphemy

  • Jesus wanted to show that:

    • morality requires personal responsibility, w/o blind obedience to the rules

    • religious practices are there to serve human needs

    • being holy is not achieved simply by carrying out external rituals but by purity of mind

power n wealth

  • Jesus, as powerful authority figure, warned them about lording power over others

  • some argue He viewed wealth as an obstacle to closeness w God

    • wealth often hides right moral path, by treasures n material things

    • Matt 19:21

    • however, Jesus was specifically addressing that particular young ruler whose devotion to money stood in the way of his devotion to God

    • love of money is the issue

responses

john hick

  • notes that the way in which Jesus is aware of God’s will and God’s willingness to act isn’t unique to Him, but is found in Moses, Jeremiah, the Isaiahs, Muhammed, Guru Nanak, St Francis, Kabir, Ramkrishma, etc » Jesus is not a unique figure with a unique role in salvation

  • concludes that Christianity w/o incarnation becomes one of many religious perceiving God in diff ways

  • all aim for self-centredness to become other-centredness n love-centredness

    • this transformation is his definition of salvation

    • Jesus is a model for the kind of transformation suggested, lived exemplary life

  • adopting metaphorical understanding of incarnation over literal + setting aside traditional Christian doctrine that Jesus had a divine nature

  • also possible to retain great significance around Jesus’ work n life, as a divinely-inspired moral teacher + and a wise n holy man

  • Hick believed that Jesus as a metaphorical incarnation remains close to God and an inspiration

cs lewis: liar, lunatic or Lord

“I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: ‘I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept His claim to be God.’ That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic - on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg - or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come up with any patronising nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”

CS Lewis

bonhoeffer

  • links incarnation to human salvation and an understanding that we meet God in human beings

  • strongly links to the idea that we encounter God in the oppressed, the struggle for justice, etc

“when God’s Son took on flesh, He truly and bodily, out of pure grace, took on our being, our nature, ourselves. …Now we are in Him. Wherever He is, He bears our flesh, He bears us. And where He is, there we are too - in the incarnation, on the cross, and in His Resurrection. We belong to Him because we are in Him. That is why the Scriptures call us the body of Christ.”

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

responses to hick

  • His other-centred/love-centred version of religion has a distinctively Christian flavour, differs from religions emphasising detachment eg Buddhism

  • Hick interprets salvation as personal change » different from salvation from sin n death

  • lacks Gospel message of political n social change