What Jesus Actually Wants to Teach You
The life you have been searching for has been available to you all along, even if you did not know where to find it. A way of living exists that can withstand anything life throws at you, built on a foundation so solid that no storm can wash it away. Jesus says this life is real, and he wants to teach it to you.
Jesus' Invitation
Jesus states his invitation most clearly in Matthew 11:28-30: "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."
Jesus' "yoke" is his teachings and his way of life, which he invites us to take upon ourselves so we can learn how he would live our life if he was in our place. Jesus invites us to lay down our own heavy burdens and take up his easy and light yoke, because he wants to teach us with gentleness and humility rather than a heavy hand.
When we join our lives to Jesus, the Kingdom of God becomes both our future home and our present reality. The good news of Jesus is about how you can get into heaven, but it's also about how you can get heaven into your life right now. You might describe learning from Jesus as "training for reigning."
The Curriculum for Jesus' School of Life
So what does Jesus actually want to teach us? His teachings can be summed up in two bodies of work:
The Sermon on the Mount (Matthew, chapters 5-7)
The Parables (about 40 unique stories)
These two bodies of teaching form the foundation of everything Jesus wants to teach us. Together, they are the primary ways Jesus trains us to live in the reality of God's Kingdom in our lives today.
The Sermon on the Mount: From Behavior Modification to Heart Transformation
Jesus' Sermon on the Mount is a truly remarkable body of teaching. Jesus was often accused by the religious leaders of his day of teaching people to ignore the many laws of what we now call the Old Testament. But that's not what Jesus was doing.
In Matthew 5:17-20, Jesus directly addresses this: "Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them." He didn't lower the standard. In fact, Jesus raised the bar.
The religious leaders of his day, known as the Pharisees and teachers of the law, devoted their lives to perfectly obeying God's instruction, down to the last letter. That was how they believed they could be righteous. But Jesus came to transform our understanding of what righteousness really means.
Jesus knows that living up to God's standards is impossible for us sinful human beings, but he doesn't lower the standard. Instead, he wants to raise us up to meet it. There's only one person in history who perfectly obeyed God's Law down to the last letter, and that's Jesus himself. And Jesus offers to apply his righteousness to our lives so that we can be in right standing before God, not because of anything we've done, but because of what he has done for us.
Desire God's Kingdom First
Receiving the righteousness of Jesus requires a shift in our focus from whether we're doing enough to live up to God's standard (which none of us can do) to simply loving and obeying Jesus as a grateful response to all that he has done for us. As Jesus says in Matthew 6:33: "Instead, desire first and foremost God's kingdom and God's righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well."
In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus often takes a law and points to its greater purpose. He says things like, "You've heard that you should not murder, but I tell you, if you hate someone, you've already murdered them in your mind." In these teachings, Jesus points beyond the letter of the law to the heart-change God desires to bring about in us. The surpassing righteousness God desires is not just about what we do on the outside. It's about the person God is forming us to be on the inside.
Toward the end of the Sermon on the Mount, in Matthew 7:12, Jesus gives the basic principle toward which all his teachings are pointing: "So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets." You've probably heard these words even if you've never spent a minute in church before today, "the Golden Rule." Simple as that, right? On the one hand, yes it is simple, but not easy. We don't just need simple platitudes. We need training for reigning.
The Parables: A Vision of Life in God's Kingdom
Jesus taught about 40 parables, short stories that demonstrate what life in God's Kingdom is like so we can understand how to live in God's Kingdom today. The word "parable" means "placed beside," and in these stories, Jesus often places an ordinary life situation alongside the extraordinary reality of God's Kingdom and teaches what God's Kingdom is like through comparison and contrast.
Why did Jesus choose to teach this way? Three reasons stand out.
Parables are relatable. Jesus uses everyday examples to help us relate the current realities of our lives to the present reality of God's Kingdom. A father and his estranged son. Parents who want to give the world to their children. Workers trusted by their boss to make the most of the resources he gives them. Jesus uses the relational dynamics of our own lives to show us what life is like when it works the way God intends for it to work.
Parables are memorable. Human beings are hard-wired to engage with and remember stories. Stories are much easier for us to remember than lists of rules. The Old Testament contains 613 distinct laws. Jesus is essentially saying, "If you can learn these 40 stories, you'll have all the basic building blocks you need to learn how to live in my Kingdom."
Parables are meaning-full. These stories are not just important, they are full of meaning. Their meaning is expansive. Take the story of the Prodigal Son, found in Luke 15. A younger son demands his inheritance early, abandons his family, blows everything on wild living, and ends up feeding slop to pigs. He finally comes to his senses and heads home, planning to beg for a job as a hired hand. But his father has been watching for him the whole time, and runs out to meet him, throwing his arms around him, and throws a party to celebrate his return.
But then there's the older brother, who has stayed home and done everything right, and he's furious that his wayward brother gets a celebration. The father tries to get his older son to come to the party, but he's not interested… and that's where the story ends.
The meaning of this story grows depending on which character we relate to at any given point in our lives. Sometimes we're the wayward son who just needs to turn around and come home. Sometimes we're the unforgiving son who doesn't want to welcome his brother back. Sometimes we need to demonstrate the extravagant love of the father, or to remember how extravagantly loved we are by our Heavenly Father. The parables of Jesus are stories we find ourselves in.
The Choice Before Us
In Matthew 7:24-27, Jesus closes his Sermon on the Mount with a parable of his own: "Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash."
The teachings of Jesus set before us two ways of life. One way is to build our lives on the foundation of Jesus' teaching and wisdom, knowing that it is the only foundation that can withstand the storms of life. The other way is to hear Jesus' words, but not put them into practice. Jesus says that if we hear him but ignore him, the storms of life will surely wash away any foundation we have laid apart from him.
Putting It Into Practice
So how do we actually become diligent students of Jesus? Here are a few next steps to consider:
Read the Sermon on the Mount. Open your Bible to Matthew, chapters 5 through 7, and read Jesus' words for yourself. Ask him to show you where your heart needs transformation, not just behavior modification.
Spend time with the Parables. Pick one of Jesus' parables and sit with it this week. Ask yourself: which character do I relate to right now? What is Jesus trying to teach me through this story?
Seek Jesus' explanation. Mark 4:33-34 tells us that when Jesus was alone with his disciples, "he explained everything." Jesus' deepest desire is to reveal to us the way of life in God's Kingdom. Spend time in prayer, asking Jesus to open your eyes and ears to what he wants to teach you.
Learn together. We need to be together as students of Jesus, wrestling with his words together. Don't try to do this alone. Find a community of people who are committed to learning from Jesus and living out his Kingdom together.
Jesus taught not a new set of rules, but a new way of life that the rules have been pointing to all along. When we realize that new reality is available to us now, our lives can never be the same.
Reflection
Are you carrying a heavy burden right now, a standard you're trying to live up to on your own, a way you're trying to earn your standing before God or others? What would it look like to lay that burden down and take up Jesus' yoke instead?
When you think about living the Christian life, is your focus on what you're doing or on what Jesus has done for you? How might shifting that focus change the way you approach your day-to-day life?
Jesus says in Matthew 6:33 to "desire first and foremost God's kingdom and God's righteousness." Honestly, what do you find yourself desiring for first most days? What competes with God's Kingdom for first place in your heart?
Think about one of Jesus' parables, i.e. the Prodigal Son, the Sower, the Talents. Which character in that story do you most identify with right now, in this season of your life? What might Jesus be trying to teach you through that character today?
Remember: this is not about doing enough to earn something. It's about responding to everything Jesus has already done for you. We are not just learning rules. We are training for reigning, learning to live in the present reality of God's Kingdom, alongside Jesus, now and forever.
Prayer
God, my Teacher, Thank you for not leaving us to figure this out on our own. Thank you for sending Jesus, not just to die for our sins, but to teach us how to truly live. Forgive me for the times I've tried to carry burdens you never asked me to carry, and for the times I've heard your words and walked away unchanged. I want to be a student. I want to take your yoke upon me and learn from you. Transform my heart, not just my behavior. Help me to desire your Kingdom and your righteousness above everything else, so that my life can be built on the only foundation that will stand. In the name of Jesus, Amen
