Another post in the “Other Utter Rubbish” category. And this is one that has been talked about so much already, that I am astonished that people still use that line. So what’s up with that ? And I also know there has already been written much on this subject. So why add in my own two pennies ?
Well, for one, I know where you’re coming from. I used that line for many, many years. So this post comes from my own heart and I can empathize with you.
Second, just in the last 10 days I have read two articles, one in a comment on Facebook and one in a Washington Post column, that used this good old line: “I love Jesus, he was a good teacher. But I don’t believe in God”. And that statement, sorry to disappoint you, is completely and utter rubbish. So perhaps this little short post may entice you to do some research and reading before you use that statement again.
Considering that a quick Google of the phrase “Jesus was a good teacher” returned over 5 million hits, there’s already a ton of articles out there. But as I read a myriad of them, they all seem to start the argument with all the times Christ claimed he was God. With then the ensuing back and forth discussions about “That’s not what he really meant”.
I’d like to take a different approach here. I just want to look at the man’s life. Just plain and simple, look at what his actions and teachings were. Here’s a snippet of what Jesus said and did as well:
- Just looking at someone is as much as lust
- Hack off pieces of our bodies, lest they make us sin
- He told a man not to go bury his father, just follow to follow him
- He’s not here to bring peace but war (surprising this one isn’t it ? Matt 10:34-37)
- He told a rich guy to sell all his stuff.
- He’s walking on water, he was almost stoned, at least twice, and he kicked men out of the temple.
Are these things we would expect from a “good teacher”. I don’t know. If someone came up to me and said “Hack off your hand, sell your stuff, leave your parents, don’t even bury your father and come follow me”, I think I would consider him more a Charles Manson than the Messiah. If someone would tell me to “Go and sin no more”, I’d be discouraged, realizing that I can’t. If they would tell me that the only way into the Kingdom of Heaven was to go and sell everything I own, I’d walk away and be burdened that I can’t live up to that, more so than rejoice at what this teacher was telling me.
So why do we still call him a “good teacher” ? One can’t be taking his lessons seriously if you think he was a good teacher, yet you haven’t sold all your stuff, haven’t stopped sinning, haven’t hacked off limbs or gouged out your eyes. Because if he were a mere “good teacher”, one would follow his teachings.
Now if you balance those statements of course with everything else Christ said and did, we come to an entirely different conclusion all together. But you can’t take one without the other. You cannot read the “feel good Jesus” passages without the admonishing ones. You’re not reading Scripture anymore, you’re selectively picking quotes you like. And doing that is extremely dangerous. For those still adhering to the “good teacher” adagio, here’s three books I recommend you read:
- More than a Carpenter by Josh McDowell
- The Case for Christ by Lee Strobel
- Mere Christianity by C.S.Lewis
And from that last book, here’s a quote:
I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronising nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to. (1)
Ultimately, one has to come to the conclusion to either accept him or reject him. He hasn’t left us much wiggle room in the middle. Based on the entire picture we get from Scripture, Christ was a whole lot more than “ just a good teacher” or he was some quite scary or crazy person, who no-one should call a “good teacher”.
If you believe what you like in the Gospel, and reject what you don’t like, it is not the Gospel you believe, but yourself. – Augustine
So before you feel like saying “Jesus was just a good teacher”, read up, put it in context and perhaps, just perhaps, we’ll get rid of this “Other Utter Rubbish”.
REFERENCES:
(1) C.S.Lewis, Mere Christianity, pp 40-41