The Road to Redemption – Jesus as Wisdom Teacher

    We begin this week a series of articles in which we will try to gain a more in-depth look at Jesus as he is shown to us through the Gospels. As we noted several weeks ago there is no exact consensus on how we are to see Jesus (messiah, Son of God, Son of Man, rabbi, etc.). The gift of each of these descriptors is that they give us the opportunity to see a much more well-rounded Jesus than if we only had one or two of them. They allow us to examine his ministry and his person. Today we will look at the picture of Jesus as teacher…and more specifically as wisdom teacher.

    Within the Jewish tradition there was a distinction between knowledge and wisdom. Knowledge concerned the basics of reading and writing; of how to plant and harvest; of how to build a house or restore a roof. Wisdom on the other hand was what one discovered at that sacred intersection of God given insight and the living of a Godly life. This means that wisdom was more than ethics and more than practical advice. Wisdom allowed one to live fully into being a child of God such that one reflected the very wisdom of God into the world. In a sense it allowed one to be the light of the world and the salt of the earth. Without wisdom one was literally walking in darkness and because of that one would make foolish decisions; decisions that did not honor the fullness of life one might have in God. Jesus spent much of his ministry offering this kind of wisdom to those around him.

    Jesus went about his wisdom teachings in two very distinct ways. The first was the use of aphorisms. Aphorisms are short, pithy sayings that cause people to see the world in a new way. Examples are: "Let the dead bury their own dead." "No one who puts their hand to the plow looks back." "There is nothing outside of a man that can defile a man. It is the things that come out of a man that defiles him." "Salt is good, but if salt has lost its flavor who will season it?" "For if you love those who love you what reward do you have?" Some of these aphorisms are contextual (the one about the dead burying their own dead) while others can stand alone (the one about loving those who love you). Regardless they allow us to see below the surface of specific moments and actions as they invite us to see life in a new way. These aphorisms are also not supposed to be easily understood. They are supposed to engage our minds, hearts and spirits in a complex process of discernment.

    The second way in which Jesus went about his wisdom teaching was through parables. The parables are far more familiar to us than much of Jesus' other teaching and work. Parables such as the Prodigal Son or the Good Samaritan have been taught to us since childhood. While the parables are often seen as stand-alone stories, more often than not they are Jesus' way of either answering specific questions or dealing with specific issues. This is what set Jesus apart from other rabbis or teachers. When asked a specific question most rabbis would quote other rabbis and give a history of interpretation. Jesus often went directly into the parables. The parable of the Good Samaritan was in response to a question about who is my neighbor. The parable of the Prodigal Son was in response to the Pharisees critiquing Jesus about eating with sinners. The gift of parables was that they invited persons into a story through which they could see the world differently. This meant that there was no point or counterpoint in which one person could win an argument or score points. Instead it allowed persons to be transformed by participating in a new reality created by the parable.

    The gift of Jesus' wisdom teachings is that they are not bound to a particular place and time. Though some of them may be difficult to understand in our non-agricultural, 21^st Century society, the truths that are contained within them remain eternal. Our task is to continue to allow them to invite us into their world, in order that we too might discover some of Jesus' wisdom for our lives.