JESUS: MASTER TEACHER
Jesus
was a born teacher. He was always an original thinker and a skillful teacher,
even in his youth. He simply could not refrain from so functioning, even when
supposedly engaged in play. At the age of eight he began to teach the alphabet
to James, the next born child. He early began to assist in teaching the home
school for his brothers and sisters. In his tenth year he was the generally
accepted leader of the Nazareth lads who stood for the higher ideals of their
day and generation. He delighted in talking over things cultural, educational,
social, economic, political, and religious with his adult associates. They were
charmed by the depth of reasoning and the keenness of his observations. During
his thirteenth year he became humanly assured that he was destined to perform a
mission on earth for the enlightenment of man and the revelation of
God.
[123:6:4] [124:1:13] [124:2:5,6,8] [124:4:5] [124:5:3]
During his first visit to the Temple, while asking questions of the Jewish teachers, he conveyed his teaching by the questions he would ask. With an appealing combination of sagacity and humor, and by the deft and subtle phrasing of a question he would at one and the same time challenge their teaching and suggest his own. Jesus was always eminently fair and considerate in asking his penetrating questions. He exhibited that same reluctance to take unfair advantage of an opponent which characterized his entire subsequent ministry; he was utterly free from all egoistic desire to win an argument merely to experience logical triumph over his fellows. Jesus was supremely interested in just one thing: to proclaim everlasting truth and thus effect a fuller revelation of the eternal God. When Mary and Joseph found Jesus in the Temple after having searched for him for some three days, they brought to an inglorious termination one of the greatest opportunities ever to be granted him to function as a teacher of truth, a preacher of righteousness, a revealer of the loving character of his Father in Heaven. [125:5:8] [125:6:5,6]
With the coming of his fifteenth birthday, Jesus could officially occupy the synagogue pulpit on the Sabbath day. Several times a year he read the Sabbath scriptures at the synagogue and many times offered comments on the lesson, but usually he so selected the passages that comment was unnecessary. He skillfully arranged the order of the reading of the various passages so that the one would illuminate the other. [126:1] [127:3:8]
During his twenty-third year while attending the Passover in Jerusalem, Jesus met a young Hellenist named Stephen with whom he had a four-hour discussion of the way of life and the true God and his worship. In later years, this same Stephen, while boldly preaching the new gospel, dared attack the Jewish Temple and its traditional practices which resulted in the irate Jews stoning him to death. Standing by was one Saul of Tarsus. [128:3:5,6]
Jesus most cleverly and intentionally contrived to detach various episodes of his life so that they never became, in the eyes of the world, associated together as the doings of a single individual. He did not want to build up such a human record of his achievement as would attract attention from his teaching. He recognized that his followers would be tempted to formulate a religion about him, which might become a competitor of the gospel of the kingdom that he intended to proclaim to the world. Jesus refused to take undue or unfair advantage of the human mind. He did not want men to believe in him unless their hearts were responsive to the spiritual realities revealed in his teachings. [128:4:5-7] [129:3:5]
During his twenty-eighth year while attending the Passover in Jerusalem he met a wealthy traveler from India and his young son, Ganid. Gonod, the father, arranged with Jesus to become interpreter for both and tutor for the son as they traveled to Rome and various other points on the Mediterranean. This tour consumed most of the twenty-eighth and the entire twenty-ninth year of Jesus’ life. He never told his Apostles about his Mediterranean tour. The only person who knew of this tour was Zebedee, the boat builder [father of James and John], and he told no one. During this tour Jesus was known at various times as the Damascus scribe and the Jewish tutor. [129:2:9,10] [129:3:2]
Jesus spent about one-half day acting as interpreter for Gonod and as tutor for Ganid. The remainder of the day he devoted to making those close personal contacts with his fellow men, those intimate associations with the mortals of the realm. [130:0:5]
While the three were in Alexandria Jesus told Ganid that the pride of unspiritualized learning is a treacherous thing in human experience. The true teacher maintains his intellectual integrity by ever remaining a learner. During Jesus’ twenty-seventh year while living with the Zebedee family in Capernaum, he spent at least five evenings each week at intense study in the synagogue where there were many new books. [129:1:10] [130:3:7]
At a later time, during an all-night talk with the leader of the Stoics, Jesus explained that unless the moral insight and the spiritual attainment of mankind are proportionately augmented, the unlimited advancement of a purely materialistic culture may eventually become a menace to civilization. A purely materialistic science harbors within itself the potential seed of the destruction of all scientific striving, for this very attitude presages the ultimate collapse of a civilization which has abandoned its sense of moral values and has repudiated its spiritual goal of attainment. [132:1:1,3]
During the six months’ sojourn in Rome Jesus personally came into affectionate and uplifting contact with upward of five hundred mortals. He sought out and made the acquaintance of five of the leading Stoics, eleven of the Cynics, and sixteen of the mystery cult leaders. He set about in the most amazing manner to prepare the way for the better and more certain reception of the messengers that he knew would presently be coming to Rome to proclaim the kingdom of heaven. This was his method of instruction: Never once did he attack their errors or even mention the flaws in their teachings. In each case he would select the truth in what they taught and then proceed so to embellish and illuminate this truth in their minds that in a very short time this enhancement of the truth effectively crowded out the associated error; and thus were these Jesus-taught men and women prepared for the subsequent recognition of additional and similar truths in the teachings of the early Christian missionaries. It was this early acceptance of the teachings of the gospel preachers which gave that powerful impetus to the rapid spread of Christianity in Rome and from there throughout the empire. Only two of the religious leaders were unfruitful. Jesus’ work in behalf of the original thirty-two was entirely personal. He could do this great work of religious training because these men and women were not tradition bound; they were not victims of a settled preconception as to all future religious developments. [132:0:4-6]
Jesus’ usual technique of social contact was to draw people out and into talking with him by asking them questions and end by their asking him questions. In this way he elicited interest, appealed to the better things in human nature. He was equally adept in teaching by either asking or answering questions. [132:4:2]
Jesus was a calm and happy laborer; only a few times in his entire life was he ever in a hurry. He had time to comfort his fellow men as he passed by. He always made his friends feel at ease. He was a charming listener. He was a comforting consolation to the world and somewhat of an example. He spread good cheer everywhere he went. He was full of grace and truth. His associates never ceased to wonder at the gracious words that proceeded out of his mouth. [136:0:1] [171:7:1]
The Apostles became used to the idea of living with this God-man. Though they called him Master, they learned not to be afraid of him. Jesus possessed that matchless grace of personality which enabled him so to live among them that they were not dismayed by his divinity. They found it really easy to be "friends with God," God incarnate in the likeness of mortal flesh. Andrew never grew weary of contemplating how one who could live so near God the Father could be so friendly and considerate of men. [137:7:2,3]
The Apostles so much enjoyed Jesus! He was a good fisherman, a cheerful companion, and an inspiring friend; the more they worked with him, the more they loved him. Each Apostle came to regard him as the best friend he had in all the world. Said Matthew: "The more you understand some people, the less you admire them, but of this man, even the less I comprehend him, the more I love him." It was this human sentiment, and not his superb teachings or marvelous doings that held them together until after the resurrection and the renewal of the proclamation of the gospel of the kingdom. It is an eloquent testimony to the charm and righteousness of Jesus’ earth life that, although he repeatedly dashed to pieces the hopes of his Apostles and tore to shreds their every ambition for personal exaltation, only one deserted him. [138:7:6] [139:0:1]
Jesus displayed great wisdom and manifested perfect fairness in all of his dealings with his fellow man. He was truly a master of men; he exercised great influence over his fellow men because of the combined charm and force of his personality. There was a subtle commanding influence in his rugged, nomadic, and homeless life. There was intellectual attractiveness and spiritual drawing power in his authoritative manner of teaching, in his lucid logic, his strength of reasoning, his sagacious insight, his alertness of mind, his matchless poise, and his sublime tolerance. He was simple, manly, honest, and fearless. With all of this physical and intellectual influence manifest in the Master’s presence, there were also all those spiritual charms of his being which have become associated with his personality--tenderness, patience, meekness, gentleness, and humility. [141:3:4]
Jesus was a strong and forceful personality; he was an intellectual power and a spiritual stronghold. His personality not only appealed to the spiritually minded among his followers, but also to the educated and intellectual Nicodemus and to the captain stationed on guard at the cross. And red-blooded, rugged Galilean fishermen called him Master. [141:3:5]
Shortly before his death, Jesus attended a meeting at the home of Nicodemus where were gathered some twenty-five distinguished Jewish leaders who believed Jesus’ teaching. Some of this group were then, or had been, members of the Sanhedrin. They were all learned men, and they were amazed at the breadth and depth of the remarks which Jesus made to them. Jesus did not speak like a prophet, one who comes to declare the word of God. He talked as one having supreme authority. Not since the times when he had taught in Alexandria, Rome, and in the islands of the Mediterranean, had he exhibited such learning and shown such a grasp of the affairs of men, both secular and religious. When the meeting broke up, all went away mystified by the Master’s personality, charmed by his gracious manner, and in love with the man. [164:2:2,3]
Jesus received the obedience of his followers without exacting it. Only three men who received his personal call refused to accept the invitation to discipleship. He exercised a peculiar drawing power over men, but he was not dictatorial. He commanded confidence, and no man ever resented his giving a command. He assumed absolute authority over his disciples, but no one ever objected. He permitted his followers to call him Master. [149:2:12]
As Jesus mingled with the people, they found him entirely free from the superstitions of that day. He was free from religious prejudices; he was never intolerant. He had nothing in his heart resembling social antagonism. Though fearless, Jesus did not give vent to destructive criticism or manifest an utter disregard of the religious, social, economic, and political usages of his day. He was not a militant revolutionist; he was a progressive evolutionist. [149:2:10,11]
The
Master was a perfected specimen of human self-control. When he was reviled, he
reviled not; when he suffered, he uttered no threats against his tormentors;
when his enemies denounced him, he simply committed himself to the righteous
judgment of his Father in heaven. He lived in the midst of stress and storm, but
he never wavered. His enemies continually laid snares for him, but they never
entrapped him. The wise and learned endeavored to trip him, but he did not
stumble. They sought to embroil him in debate, but his answers were always
enlightening, dignified, and final. When he was interrupted in his discourses
with multitudinous questions, his answers were always significant and
conclusive. Never did he resort to ignoble tactics in meeting the continuous
pressure of his enemies who did not hesitate to employ every sort of false,
unfair, and unrighteous mode of attack upon him. Jesus was never disposed to
take unfair advantage of even his enemies. But it was the genius of Jesus for
dealing with his adversaries that made them so afraid of him. He was always wise
in his dealings with those who sought to harass and destroy him.
[143:2:1]
[149:4:5] [173:2:7,8]
Men were astonished at the originality and authoritativeness of his teachings. They marveled at his patience in dealing with backward and troublesome inquirers. He inspired hope and confidence in the hearts of all who came under his ministry. The Master was admired by all who met him except by those who entertained deep-seated religious prejudices or those who thought they discerned political dangers in his teachings. Only those who had not met him feared him, and he was hated only by those who regarded him as the champion of that truth which was destined to overthrow the evil and error which they had determined to hold in their hearts at all cost. Multitudes would follow him for weeks just to hear his gracious words and behold his simple life. Devoted men and women loved Jesus with a well-nigh superhuman affection. And the better they knew him the more they loved him. [149:2:13,14]
Source: The Urantia Book,
Uversa Press Edition 2003, a subsidiary of Urantia Book Fellowship.
http://www.urantiabook.org .
fellowship@urantiabook.org .
Note: Many statements in this paper were quoted verbatim from The Urantia Book.
Revised June 3 2005