Teacher's manual for The teachings of Jesus

Front matter

Class _Jl iAl5

Book H"i>S

GcpigttW- —

Contents

CHAPTER PAGE

General Suggestions to the Teacher 7

I. Jesus the Teacher 11

Chapter I Jesus The Teacher

This course gives a wonderful opportunity. We are to take up the most interesting questions that can concern a man, and we are to study in each case the answer that has been given by the Master Teacher. Quicken your class with your own enthusiasm in the prospect of such a study.

I. Consider first Jesus' own estimate of this work of teaching. That estimate is seen (1) in the place which this work takes in his life; (2) in his own faith as a teacher. The former point gives us a welcome opportunity to look back over our study of the life. The second brings before us the parable of the sower. To most members of the class it will be a fresh and suggestive study to consider this parable as a confession of Jesus' own faith. Show how the church in her greatest days and her greatest leaders has shown her faith in the teaching and preaching of the truth. Think of Paul and Luther and Wesley, and the work of evangelism and missions to-day. With lesser men and lesser days there usually appears more reliance upon rules and creeds and forms maintained by ecclesiastical authority.

II. In the second half of the lesson we consider Jesus as the one who founded by his word (as well as by his life and death) the new world-faith.

(1) This appears in his entire independence of the authorities of his day and of the traditions which were held quite as sacred as Moses. But the special question here is his relation to the Old Testament. Leave time for this important matter. The practical result of the discussion should be twofold: to stir the class to a renewed study of that Bible (the Old Testament) which meant so much to Jesus, and the clear realization that the final authority for the Christian must be the mind of Christ.

(2) In discussing the "Ground of Jesus' Authority," we are considering this same question of authority as it lay in Jesus' consciousness. Here we face the interesting question as to what was new in Jesus, and what made him the founder of a new faith.

"The Teacher Is the Life-Shareb. The educational process at bottom is the sharing of life." Such was Jesus' teaching and such all teaching should be. It is not merely giving information or training the intellect. It is the giving of self and the training of the spirit. People sometimes contrast education and regeneration; they insist that we should rely less upon culture and more upon the Holy Spirit. Back of this lies a mistaken conception of teaching. True education demands the Spirit of God as much as any Christian work or Christian experience. If the teacher is to share life, then the Spirit of God must be in the teacher. If the truth is to bring forth life in the pupil, then the Holy Spirit must use that truth. "Truth through personality" was Phillips Brooks's definition of preaching, and that is what true teaching is. It is not a substitute for the Holy Spirit, but an instrument. Indeed, Christian history from Jesus and Paul onward shows that this is the great instrument.

Jesus' Use of the Old Testament Is Most Suggestive fob the Christian. — We should live in our Bible as Jesus did. We should find those portions which are of special value and make them our own by thought and study. We shall thus build up a Bible within the Bible, composed of books and chapters and verses that really belong to us. We shall go back to them again and again as to tried friends. They will rise in our minds in hours of special trial, a word for our comfort, a psalm for the time of thanksgiving, a portion for any need. To this end we may well make Ruskin's word our own: "Make it the first morning business of your life to understand some part of the Bible clearly, and make it your daily business to obey it in all that you understand."

Chapter II Jesus' Method As Teacher

Here is a lesson unusually rich in material. Not all that is in it can be used, nor is that intended with any lesson. The wise selection of material is an important part of the planning for each Sunday's teaching. Plan, therefore, to bring out the three main points: the character of Jesus' teaching as personal and vital, its picture form as seen in likeness and parable, and the right and wrong way of interpreting his teaching.

The purpose of the lesson is to give a vivid picture of the Master's teaching, as well as guidance in its use. The interest and the profit of the lesson hour will largely depend upon the way in which the points are illustrated from Jesus' own words. Select examples carefully and give the class opportunity to furnish others.

It will be a profitable plan to ask the class to give from memory as many pictures or objects as they can from Jesus' teaching. Group under different heads: inanimate nature, plants and trees, birds and other animals, pictures of home and childhood, pictures from men's work, other figures. Another plan might be to call for a list of parables. Still another would be to read what is said about Jesus as poet, and then call for expressions as to the most beautiful passage in his teaching in respect to form.

Another interesting study is to make a list of some of the pictures of Paul and compare them with those of Jesus. Note that they are far fewer, less clear, more from the world of law and business and war.

Do not omit the last section, for here at the beginning of our study it is important to learn the right and the wrong way of handling the words of Jesus. This lesson is one which we as teachers need especially to keep in mind, and to which we must turn again and again the thought of our classes. We need to give it especial study also in order that we maylearn lessons for our own teaching. Four points at least we may learn from Jesus in this lesson.

(1) Let us make our teaching vital, considering those truths which mean something for the life of men.

(2) Let us secure "the point of contact," linking up our teaching with the interests and needs of those whom we lead.

(3) Let us make our teaching clear and simple.

(4) Let us learn how to use concrete material, the picture and the story.

The Illustrative Material Used By Jesus. — It is a study of deep interest and profit to gather together the pictures of Jesus, and it is a matter of astonishment to see how the whole of his Galilaean world is reflected in the brief gospel accounts of his words. Here is the world of nature, the sun that rises upon the evil and the good, the falling rain, the glowing sunset that betokens fair weather, the red of morning that presages the storm, the lightning's flash that runs from end to end of the heavens, the scorching heat that burns grass and flowers, the sudden tempest that fills the dry river bed and carries away the house that rested on the sands. He shows us the growing things, the fair flowers and quick-fading grass, the growing corn, first the blade, and then the ear, and then the full corn in the ear; the field where wheat and tares are mingled together, the trodden path where the seed cannot spring up, the corner of the field where thorns and weeds crowd it out, and the bending heads of wheat tha't promise their hundredfold of harvest. There are the tiny mustard seed growing into a tree that can shelter the birds, and the reed that trembles in the wind, and the common weeds that are only for burning. We see the orchard, the fig tree putting forth its first leaves, and the unfruitful tree that must be digged about and fertilized. And there is the vineyard with its hedge and pit and watchtower and its fruit in season. Here are the living creatures too, the birds, carefree and yet cared for, the carrion birds drawn by the carcass,

JESUS' METHOD AS TEACHER

the hungry flock swooping down to pick up the scattered grain, and the little sparrow whose dead body lies unnoticed by men, but whose fall is known to God. The birds come first in Jesus' sayings, but there are other creatures: the fox with his hole, the harmless dove, the serpent as symbol of wisdom, the dogs and swine who have no sense for pearls, the sheep who know their shepherd albeit sometimes straying foolishly, the wolf that attacks the sheep, the hen that gathers her brood.

Reflection of Actual Life. — How vividly the pictures of Jesus bring before us the busy human life of his day! There are the objects of the common life: the salt and the leaven, the lamp and its oil, the dung-hill for refuse, the wine and the wineskins, the cloth and the patches. We see men at their pleasure, sitting at the great supper, joining in the wedding feast with its special garment. We watch them at their daily duties: the farmer caring for his vineyard, sowing his grain, watching the growing crop and noting the weeds, separating the good from the bad in harvest. Here are the merchantman traveling in search of fine pearls, the fisherman sorting his catch, the shepherd looking after his sheep, the man who is so eager to buy the field because of the treasure he has found in it, the landowner giving special commissions to trusted servants. The servants appear just as we know them to-day, the faithful and honest, the faithless and incompetent, the shrewd and dishonest.

The Shadows. — There are shadows in the picture too. There are the men in the market place waiting to be hired. The master himself does not come, but simply sends a servant or slave; and some wait in vain for the chance to work. We note the long day with its heat and burden, and then watch the laborer at night, tired and hungry, first serving his master before he can take his own morsel. They sleep at night crowded together on the same bed, and the master has power to beat them with many stripes or even to cut his slaves asunder. There are poor men in debt: some being hurried off to prison, some sold as slaves. It is the picture of a cruel day. There is feasting at the table of the rich, with purple and fine linen, while out at the gate the beggar waits in vain surrounded by prowling dogs. The blind and crippled and leprous meet us on the way. There are thieves in the city and robbers on the street and wretched prisoners bearing their cross to the place of terrible punishment.

Othee Figukes. — There are other figures: the rich farmer who is such a success in his own sight and such a failure before God, the men so busy with farm and wife and oxen that they have no time for higher things, and the unrighteous judge. Especially interesting are the pictures of the home and the children. We see the woman kneading her dough, the dark windowless house in which you must search long for your lost coin, the household perplexity over the unexpected guest. There is the meal time when the children gather about the table for their bread, while the dogs wait for the crumbs that may fall. There is the evening hour when the lamp on its stand gives light to all, and the night time when the door is bolted and the children are gathered safely in bed with the father. There are times of rejoicing when friends and neighbors are bidden, and days of sorrowful waiting for the one that is gone, and the hour of rejoicing with feast and dance when the lost son comes back. And the children! We see them coming in hungry from play or school, and receiving, not serpent or stone, but fish and bread. We watch them at their sport, playing funeral and wedding just as they might to-day. And then they stand before us once more to preach their lesson, that in the kingdom of God not the wise nor the rich nor the mighty stand first, but those who have the child's open heart and the child's trust and love.

Chapter III The Father

By way of introduction it might be shown how a man's thought of God shapes all the rest of his thinking, his thought of life, of duty, of religion, his hope for the future. That is one reason why we begin with this doctrine in the teaching of Jesus. But the main reason is that this was Jesus' greatest word to men, as it was the all-controlling reality of his life, God the Father.

Here, as elsewhere, it is helpful to compare Jesus' teaching with what went before, noting how he continues what went before and, on the other hand, how he surpasses it. In estimating the thought of the Old Testament about God we must not consider single passages here and there, but the dominant idea. Looking thus, we see tha t in the Old Testament God was King , i n the New Testament he is Fathe r. And yet foiT Jesus he is King as well as Father.

We have here another lesson in which we must simplify and select. The best plan will be to group the teaching around the two phrases used as headings: The King is Father; the Father is King. The purpose of the lesson is to bring out clearly this great conception of Jesus, and so lay the foundation for all the later study.

I. The King is Father. Note how simple this idea is as compared with other conceptions of God; a child can understand this. Show how rich it is and how much it involves. Then consider the tremendous faith of Jesus; he believed that love really sat on the throne of the world. Do we really believe that? That rather belongs to the second part:

II. The Father is King. This part of the lesson will need special emphasis and development. The old theologians emphasized God's sovereignty, modern thought emphasizes his Fatherhood; but Jesus includes both. We need a revival of this idea of sovereignty. Here are rich practical lessons.

(1) For the personal life, such a thought of the Father as King brings needed strength and confidence and peace. How wonderfully it brought this with Jesus!

(2) For our social life this idea of God's kingship is needed to bring reverence and a deeper sense of right and obligation.

God the Fatheb. — So accustomed are we to think of God as Father that it is hard to realize that men have not always used this name. It is a mark of the spiritual ascendency of Jesus that this name, his name, is the one used everywhere in the world to-day. There were other names in his day for the relation of man and God, as there are still: King and subject, Lord and servant, Creator and works; but this is the truest and richest name. The mark of highest genius is simpli city. When Jesus said, "Father, son, brother," all men "could know what he meant. And yet all these years have not exhausted the meaning of these words or enabled us to live up to their standard. To trust God as Father, to live with him as children, to live with men in a true brotherhood — this is still for the world its glorious and unachieved goal.

One of Our Deepest Needs to-Day Is Reverence. — We have not a real enough sense of God's power and his right to command. The attitude of children to parents, the common man's disregard of law when it does not agree with his ideas or his convenience, the use of intimidation and violence in some places by labor, the more subtle and dangerous anarchy sometimes employed by big business when they defeat the law by means of the law: all this has its root in a common lack of reverence. The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom for nation as well as individual . The revival that does not make a city more law-abiding is not a real revival. The adult Bible class that does not help to make towns dry and decent is not a success, whether it enrolls ten or ten hundred.

Chapter IV The Higher Righteousness

A good introduction to this lesson may be found by taking Matthew 5. 20. Jesus had been criticized for his laxness in associating with sinners and in respect to the keeping of the law by his disciples and himself. Here he says: "I stand for a higher demand than do you. If men are not better than you require, they cannot enter the Kingdom." Our subject, therefore, is this higher righteousness. Our purpose is to show what it is that Jesus asks of men.

The theme, "Righteousness with the Jews," gives the teacher an excellent opportunity to look back upon our previous course in the life of Jesus. We should welcome every such chance at review when it can be made vital and pertinent. It helps to tie up what has been gained and to make the student feel the progress made. What place did this idea of righteousness have in the life of the day? What did the scribes mean by this?

After this little review, take up the theme proper by a study of Matthew 5. 17-48. Refer here to our study of Jesus' method of teaching and note how it is illustrated here: Jesus' discussion is almost all by means of concrete example and pictur e. But how it must have gone home! No question with these folks what he meant. Note, however, that back of these special examples lie the great principles: righteousness must be inner and spiritual, and it must be social.

The heart of the lesson is in the paragraph on "Righteousness as Sonship." This lesson might well be called "Sonship as Man's Task," and the next lesson "Sonship as God's Gift."

These years of war give added interest to the discussion of "Prinr.irtl .es. and Not Rules." M en quote the words of Jesus on both sides, trying to make rules just as the scribes did with Moses. Wp m^st. look to the inner spirit . We might make our heading, "Spirit, and Not Rules." It is significant that Jesus, when struck by an officer of the Sanhedrin, did not turn the other cheek, but made a quiet protest. It was his duty just then to bear witness to the truth, but the incident shows the mistake of trying to make mechanical rules.

The end of this lesson should be an earnest questioning as to our own hearts and lives. Can we stand the test of Jesus? When we think of our righteousness, is it outward respectability and propriety and position that we have in mind, or is it the inmost spirit and thought and motive made like Christ?

Sex Obligations. — In his word about the impure glance, Jesus put his finger upon a great problem. More and more we are recognizing to-day the obligation that rests particularly upon fathers and mothers to teach their children the simple facts connected with the sexual life. We are realizing that it is their right to get these facts from us as parents, rather than through the chance channel of filthy companions, and to get them in time to save them from terrible errors. But Jesus points out the deeper task. The pure spirit must come before the pure body, and such purity means more than innocence. We must teach our boys to hate impurity as something selfish and cowardly. We must teach them reverence for all womanhood everywhere. And we must teach our young men and women a high reverence for themselves, and for all that is connected with that divine calling of parenthood by which men and women pass on to other generations the life that God has given to them.

Letter Versus Spirit. — Matthew 5. 18, 19 seems to be in direct contradiction to what has been said as to Jesus' fulfillment of the law and his emphasis upon the spirit as against the letter. Some hold that the first, or both of these verses, are a later addition. This might easily have occurred, for we know that the early church in large part did not understand Jesus' position with regard to the law; if they had done so, Paul would not have had his memorable conflict with certain Jewish Christians (read Galatians). Taken as a whole, Jesus' teaching and practice are perfectly clear: he does not

THE HIGHER RIGHTEOUSNESS

stand for obedience to every letter of the law as verse 18 states. It may be, however, that some such word was spoken by Jesus with this thought: "You have accused me of overturning the law. I am the one who is really establishing it. Not one bit of God's truth or God's will so far as it appears in the law is to pass away, but all is to be fulfilled by me."

Reverence. — Profanity is a sin that is fortunately growing less. The man who bolsters up his speech with oaths confesses by so doing that his ordinary speech has no weight with men. But ordinary profanity is not the only form of irreverence. There is a use of God's name in prayer that sometimes borders upon the irreverent. There is a style of sacred song which, to say the least, does not make for reverence. The same is true of the manner in which these songs are sometimes sung, with no thought of their meaning and apparently simply the effort to stir up cheap enthusiasm or other emotion. And there is a not infrequent slovenliness in public worship which looks the same way. Is our Sunday school worship, including its music, calculated to train our young people in reverence?

Chapter V Sonship As A Gift

The last lesson gives us in a nutshell the ethics of Jesus. Ethics treats of character and duty; it considers the question, What.- must I do? Jesus' answer is: "You must be a son of your Father; you must have his spirit of mercy and act according to it." Religion answers the question, What may I hope for? That is what we consider in this lesson, and we note that Jesus replies with the same word, sonship. Only, in this case the sonship is a gift; it is the fellowship, with all its privileges, into which the Father of mercy receives us.

The lesson is best opened up for the class by referring to the last lesson. Compare Jesus' standard with all the rules that others have ever laid down, and see how much more searching it is. It is, in fact, impossible for us. If that were all of Jesus' teaching there would be no "good news." This lesson shows how the impossible becomes possible.

First, we must turn back to Jesus' teaching about God; upon that we must always rest back. If God were only the Judge, then he would say, "You must be like me before you can associate with me"; and we should be forever shut out. But he is the Father who gives himself to his sons that they may become sons, whose rule of life is mercy. The gift of sonship is the gift of this fellowship, and this fellowship is the power of a new life in us.

There is a fine opportunity in this lesson to make fresh and clear and beautiful some of the great doctrines which have been too much disputed over in the past, and which are too much neglected to-day. In the past we have used the words of theologians, or perhaps the forms of Paul. We have failed to see these great truths in the teaching of Jesus just because he did not use these phrases. But the great truths are there in his simple speech, and all the better because the speech is simple.

SONSHIP AS A GIFT

Take a careful look at some of them. Forgiveness means the Father receiving his sons. Regeneration means his giving to us the spirit of sons. Sanctification means our helonging to him as sons, and our being made over into his spirit, just as sons become like their fathers when they have true fellow- v ship together. Holiness is simply the character of those sons who have become like their Father in his spirit of love. And all this spirit of the true son, the spirit by which we call God Father, the spirit by which we love like our Father, is God's Spirit in us and God's gift to us; that is the Holy Spirit.

Holiness in Jesus' Terms. — In many ways it would mark a great gain if we could turn to the simpler words of Jesus in speaking about the Christian life. Men have disputed about the meaning of holiness. It is more an Old Testament phrase and carries something of the negative over with it. But there is no doubt what Jesus means when he puts love and good will in its place, or when he tells what he means by righteousness. It is so with words like regeneration and sanctification, which we have taken from Paul. Especially with young people, or when there is danger of misunderstanding, it is better to use Jesus' manner of speaking of the life with God.

A Mutual Relationship. — As far as God's Fatherhood is concerned, it must be remembered that while he sends his rain on the just and the unjust, his highest gifts come only to those who love and trust in return. Fatherhood and sonship form a mutual relation that can exist in the full sense only when man's love and devotion answer to God's love and mercy. Only between the Father and the Son is that relation perfectly realized. Jesus' greatest gift lay in this, that he lived the true life of a Son with the Father and so showed us the way.

Chapter VI Sin, Repentance, And Faith

We have seen that the teaching of Jesus is not systematic. That appears in this lesson. In studying Jesus as teacher we must not yield to the temptation to turn our Gospels into textbooks on theology. But this lesson also illustrates another most important point for us as teachers: Jesus' teaching forms a whole, and what he has to say on any theme grows out of a great central faith. That center of his life and faith is his thought of God.

Begin this lesson, therefore, with a brief summing up of what we gained from the last three lessons about God and the life of man, the life that God asks, and the life that he gives. As each of the three points of our present lesson is taken up, relate it to this previous teaching.

A good statement of the general theme of the lesson might be: Jesus' teaching about the gate to life. What does Jesus ask of men who wish to begin the Christian life? Show how simple Jesus' demand was. The poorest and most ignorant sinner could meet it, as well as the little child. On the other hand, note how severe and searching that same simple demand is.

A good plan for teaching is to take up the three topics of the lesson as shown in the discussion. "Sin" is a word that means many things, usually to us the wrong thing that the other man does. What did it mean to the Pharisees? What does it mean to us? Ask the men of the class what idea comes to their mind when you say sin. Now, what did it mean to Jesus? What was the heart of sin with Jesus? How has Christianity deepened the sense of sin? Here note how Jesus' idea of righteousness makes plain what sin is — not so much this act or that, as a wrong inner spirit. So his idea of God reveals the darkness of sin.

SIN, REPENTANCE, AND FAITH

Repentance is another word that we must rescue from narrow and false conceptions. What does it mean to most men? Something merely emotional and rather weak? Or do they think of it as a particular stage to he gone through with in a process of conversion? Some modern applications will help the class to realize how vital and necessary repentance is. Take the problem of war. How can we overcome this curse until there is a change of mind and a great hatred of war, of the whole theory of militarism with its doctrines that might makes right? So there must be a deep and real repentance before we shall overcome the great evils of state and of industry in our land.

In the same way in speaking of faith, bring out the common conception; then show the simple and vital meaning with Jesus, and how his thought of God as loving Father makes necessary this idea of faith (obedient and loving trust) as supreme in the Christian life.

How to Waken Repentance. — In an early day men were wont to say, "We must first preach the law and its terrors to waken in men a sense of sin and the impulse to repentance." There is some truth in this. There is no strong Christian living that has not first of all a high ideal of righteousness and of its supreme demand upon us. We must first see "the Lord high and lifted up." The question is, Where shall we see this Lord, and how shall we hold up this righteousness? Not by going to Sinai! The highest righteousness for us is not the ancient law, but the spirit and life of our Lord. It is that with which we must shame the impurity of modern life, and condemn its hardness and greed. Not till we see God's love in Christ do we realize what it is against which we have sinned, and how mean our selfishness is as against the life of such love. And it is the cross of Christ that supremely reveals alike the loving holiness of God, the loyal spirit of Christ, and the darkness of our sin.