When Jesus wanted to teach his disciples and help them
feel important about the work they were doing and the work they were called to
do, He took them on the road, not into the classroom. They went into the
community.
Jesus' mission was not education. He was not here to
motivate or inspire. His mission was always to rescue. To His core, He knew
exactly what this meant. As a result, He was very good at what he did and He
never gave up in His pursuit. Every word, every move, every step was a planned move
to free men from the prison of their minds, untangle the knots of the knowledge
of good and evil and lead them back to God as the center of the universe. Right
about now I’m feeling pretty important to God.
Clearly Jesus defined freedom in a particular way, and
watching what He did can help us understand how Jesus, the Author of freedom,
thinks about freedom and shows just how important we are in God’s eyes.
He took a group of men and traveled across the
countryside teaching them how to change everything they encountered and
touched. Think of it this way: He was showing twelve guys and a crew of
persistent women what it looked like and how to practice God-given authority.
“Fever go away,” He would say, and then he would make
sure that His followers caught what had happened.
“Peace, be still,” He would say to a storm, and then he
would turn and be sure their eyes had been on Him.
Encountering a crowd of religious know-it-alls? He peered
inside their hearts and told stories. “Once upon a time there was a man who
owed a little bit of money…” and then He would steal a glance at His disciples.
“Get it?” the gleam in His eye would say.
A scared insecure tax collector? A shame-filled
near-death prostitute? A self-confident Pharisee? All of these fell under the
sway of Jesus restoring God’s blueprint to the universe He so perfectly
created.
Two things stand out about Jesus' strategy.
First, He spent the bulk of His time teaching them
how to be and what to do, not on rules and restrictions.
Second, He taught them on the move in the
community, not in a church or classroom.
Jesus was restoring God’s intended design. He was showing
men and women how Adam and Eve might have taken authority over the creation,
authority which God gave them. This is different from how our “religious” minds
want to think.
Jesus was not spending His time trying to get them to
behave well. He was not showing them what not to do. He was showing them who to
be. His approach to this was to go and do, and teach on the way.
Jesus was showing them how to step into the role for
which they were created. We were created to have God-given authority over
the planet; over the kingdom of darkness; over sickness; over hopelessness; and
over fear and insecurity. All of these things and more were designed to be
subject to us. Jesus took His team on the road and showed them how to do this.
Young athletes are taught on the playing field and not in
a classroom. Classrooms without experience teach information and that’s pretty
much it. If someone wants to grow and learn, take them right out in the
middle of reality and then begin to show them how to be.
Jesus did not come to teach about how to avoid bad
behavior or better ways to study the Bible.
Jesus did not come to motivate people to get up off their
chairs and try harder.
Jesus came to because you and I are so important that He
came to earth and gave his life so we could be rescued from the prison of the
world that has been wrapped around our minds.
I’d say He thinks we are worth it. I’d think you and me
are pretty important to God.
