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Learning with JesusMonday, November 29, 2004
Matthew 8:5-11 When Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion came to him, asking for help. "Lord," he said, "my servant lies at home paralyzed and in terrible suffering." Jesus said to him, "I will go and heal him." The centurion replied, "Lord, I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. But just say the word, and my servant will be healed. For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, 'Go,' and he goes; and that one, 'Come,' and he comes. I say to my servant, 'Do this,' and he does it." When Jesus heard this, he was astonished and said to those following him, "I tell you the truth, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith. I say to you that many will come from the east and the west, and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven." 
Jesus never wasted a teachable moment with his disciples. Like a surgeon in medical school he touched and healed the people who came to him, and at the same time prepared his students for their own work. The centurion was not a Jew, and even so he was welcome in Jesus' heavenly kingdom. As Jesus speaks racial superiority and exclusivity is suddenly a thing of the past. Since the time of Moses God had demanded that "his people" separate themselves from the world and keep their race pure. Jesus pushes far past this commandment in accepting the centurion. Over and over Jesus will tear his disciples away from their traditions, from their old understanding of God, from the culture they grew up in and loved. What is Peter thinking, and James and John? They must have sometimes shivered in the middle of the night, wondering what Jesus would do next, maybe wondering whether they should even be following him. What he said contradicted so much of what they had learned as children. But they stayed. And they learned so much, every day, from their teacher. Jesus was persuasive. He taught not just with words but with his actions. He taught in many ways: D didactically, meaning he used lectures and spoken instructions R role-playing situations with his disciples E experience, putting the disciples in the world and on the line to do what he taught them to do A asking questions - Jesus asked many more questions than he answered M modeling what he taught everyday in his own life S he asked the Holy Spirit to illuminate the disciples' minds Jesus, teach me too; show me how to think, how to ask questions, how to find answers, how to live. You can. Thank you. |