There is a striking transparency, indeed a vulnerability, in the way he lived before them; and every moment of the years they spent with him was part of their training as he came under their constant scrutiny. Listening is Believing podcast Why did Jesus sit down to teach? [29] Schnabel, Early Christian Mission, 1:274. For it is in teaching his disciples, a small group he individually selected for training and to whom he devoted immense time and energy, that we may discern the earliest model of what we might term Christian theological education. Jesus taught verbally, and all four Gospels emphasise that and give significant space to his teaching. Nor was this confined to the twelve alone. [53] Yau-Man Siew, Theological Education in Asia: An Indigenous Agenda for Renewal, in With an Eye on the Future (ed. In The Nicene Creed, we confess, "He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father.". They needed physical help and Jesus was able to provide it. It is significant that in the epistles Jesus own life and ministry continue to be a focus of discipleship. All of these interactions demonstrate that Jesus teaching was repeatedly rooted in realityin the lives and questions of his own disciples and of their society. They were amazed at his teaching (e.g., Matt 7:28; 13:54; 22:22, 33) and delighted with it. He opened His mouth and . Learning through memorization was a basic pedagogical method in first-century Judaism . Highly unlikely. They were present when he healed the sick, raised the dead, and liberated the demonized. Thus, once they understood who Jesus was, the disciples needed to learn what he had come to do. Here is the Savior's answer: Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Whose son is he? (Matt 22:42); in answer to those scandalised when he declared the sins of a paralytic man forgiven, he said, Which is easier: to say to the paralytic, Your sins are forgiven, or to say, Get up and walk? (Mark 2:9); and in one of the many debates about his use of the Sabbath, he challenged his critics to say whether it was lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do evil, to save life or to destroy it? (Luke 6:9). [46] L. Cannell, Theological Education Matters: Leadership Education for the Church (Newburgh, IN: EDCOT, 2006), 55. Il saisit ou cre les occasions . (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1995). [6] Blocher (Jsus Educateur, 4) notes, en se proposant comme notre Modle [au cours dun pisode trs pdagogique, Jn 13,15], il na pas exclu cet aspect de son uvre (in offering himself as our model (during a very pedagogical episode, Jn 13:15), he did not exclude this aspect of his work [my translation]). [30] Ward, Servants, Leaders and Tyrants, 29. Indeed, professional research scholars may not always be the best equipped to train fishers of men. Elmer and McKinney), 99. Implicit in the whole process was making connexions between the mission to which Jesus had called them and the realities of their world. I mean that they are hypocrites. The synagogue required no priest to minister; this and the reading of the Old Testament prepared the way for the gospel. Scripture seems to indicate that Jesus and his disciples were reclined while eatig at the Last Supper. [9] R. E. Coleman, The Master Plan of Evangelism (2d ed. The Beatitudes ( Matthew 5:2-12) "And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying: "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. The individualism of Western education and its global offspringalong with the accompanying pedagogyis so often reflected even in the layout of the traditional classroom; these days it is even more evident as learners sit isolated and alone, each engrossed by an impersonal computer screen. [18] J. Nolland, Luke 1:19:20 (WBC; Dallas: Word, 2002), 452. Keith Ferdinando is lecturer and principal at the Facult de Thologie Evanglique au Rwanda, and theological education consultant with Africa Inland Mission International. 18:4 . . of being very deliberate and condensed formations.42 A central feature, however, is that they teased and tantalised. So at this point Jesus Christ is sitting on the right hand of God. He taught the twelve, and he taught the crowds. He summoned and then taught his disciples with a specific end in view, the nature of which emerges early in the narratives of the Synoptic Gospels. [61] The quotation comes from the brief but substantial document, ICETE Manifesto on the Renewal of Evangelical Theological Education, first adopted by the International Council for Evangelical Theological Education in 1983. . During his earthly ministry, Jesus gives us clear instructions on what it means to be a Disciple of God, as well as a Biblical model of what discipleship and mentorship look like. A logical entailment of the preceding point is that the place and measurement of the purely academic and cognitive in theological education should be reassessed, especially in relation to other necessary outcomes. Just as muscles improve with exercise, the brain seems to improve with use.43 In the course of Jesus teaching, he engaged his disciples actively and thus fostered profound and long-term learning including the capacity to reason biblically and theologically. They saw that the more they situated Jesus' teachings into their Judaic context, the more they could make sense of texts that have made translators scratch their heads for centuries. The theological education that Jesus engaged in was thus carried out both through and for community. There are advantages no doubt in such an approach but by no means unequivocally so. Several years ago, a group of Christian and Jewish scholars started studying Jesus from a different angle. Such a reorientation of teaching priorities as this might suggest, implies in turn a reevaluation of the criteria used for teacher selection. But if you insist, we'll go out again and let down our nets because of your word." . (Matthew 13:1-2 ESV) Moreover, Jesus explicitly pointed to his own values and priorities as the focus of that specific discipleship which he aimed to instil. Although they all abandoned him at the moment of his arrest, trial, and execution, they nevertheless stayed together rather than dispersing. Simply tinkering with isolated elements of the programme will not do since the problem lies frequently in the fundamental design or paradigm of learning in the institution,55 which too often reflects the dominantly cognitive approach characteristic of the tertiary education exported by the West.56. [44] Ward and Rowen, The Significance of the Extension Seminary, 1727. Jesus talks about hell more than he talks about heaven, and describes it more vividly. Does someone have the right to harm their own soul? 11, Paul and the Historical Jesus, 95112, and David Wenham, Paul: Follower of Jesus or Founder of Christianity? Jesus parables were deftly crafted and subtle stories to which he obviously gave careful attention.41 These were not blurted out ad hoc but show every indication . Christian theological education is about the creation of the people of God through an ever deepening appropriation of the great story of the gospelthe whole counsel of God; it is concerned with nurture into a distinct community52and not simply with the cognitive development of isolated individuals. They may have hidden themselves in a locked room, but they hid themselves together. It was an enriching experience and a preparation for the realities of their future ministries which would embrace men and women of every ethnicity and social class. All rights reserved worldwide. The teaching of future disciples in new situations and contexts still centred on following Jesus, although his presence was now mediated through the Spirit and his illumination of the oral and, later, literary traditions of Jesus life, death, and resurrection. "Sit at My right hand, Hebrews 1:3 Verse Concepts And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power. 164 views, 5 likes, 1 loves, 41 comments, 4 shares, Facebook Watch Videos from St. Paul's United Methodist Church, Oakland, MD: Welcome to our 8:15 a.m. service. [43] D. A. Sousa, How the Brain Learns (Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin, 2006), 78. [23] C. A. Evans, Mark 8:2716:20 (WBC; Dallas: Word, 2002), 61. We use these laws to design and build things as well as to help us understand what . Sometimes a wealthy Jew or a proselyte built the synagogue (Luke 7:5). In conclusion, we might consider whether the widespread university model of theological education with its predominantly cognitive and individualistic emphases is really adapted to the primary missional purpose for which Christian theological education should exist. Hays points out that in most such examples, Pauls exhortation focused particularly on Jesus death on the cross, an act of loving, self-sacrificial obedience that becomes paradigmatic for the obedience of all who are in Christ.25 In this Paul echoes Jesus teaching that following him would mean taking up the cross; and indeed, he seeks himself to imitate Christ by pursuing conformity to his death and encourages his readers to imitate him as he thus imitates Christ (e.g., Phil 3:17; 1 Thess 1:6).26. after He sat down, His disciples came to Him. 42 And when he was twelve years old, they went up according to custom. Jesus himself did not belong to the intellectual elite of his day; Paul perhaps did, but the visible priority of his life was to know and declare Christ crucified with all that that entailed (1 Cor 2:12; Phil 3:711). . Following meant suffering, for the Christ they followed was a suffering Christ: the call to be a disciple becomes a call to follow Jesus in the way of the cross . While not denying the importance of formal theological education, Gupta and Lingenfelter describe the way in which leadership of the Hindustan Bible Institute (HBI) in India acted decisively to draw that institution back to its original missional purpose by reversing the movement towards a university paradigm of education which they had embarked on. Instead of spending a number of free years searching for the value and meaning of our human existence with the help of others who expressed their own experiences in word or writing, most students are constantly trying to earn credits, degrees and awards, willing to sacrifice even their own growth.60. In rabbinic schools the primary task was to learn the Torah.15 For Jesus disciples the primary task was to learn him. And typically, having responded to the questions brought to him, Jesus then addressed his questioner with one of his own: Which of these three do you think was a neighbour to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?36 Similarly, Peters question, how many times shall I forgive . What then were the characteristics of his teaching, especially of the twelve? Each person would be lying on their left side and leaning on their left arm, with . According to John 8:2, why did Jesus sit down in the temple courts? He also enabled them to learn through the situations they encountered and participation in a constant flow of questions, debates, and challenges. . [my translation]). [cited 11 May 2012]. In consequence, there were occasional disputes and angry words, but that too gave Jesus opportunities for teaching and correction. What kind of boat did Jesus sit in when he spoke parables to the multitudes gathered around the cove of the sower? He did more, though, than just that. But . "Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. It is about being more than talking, as Paul expressed to Timothy: You, however, know all about my teaching, my way of life, my purpose, faith, patience, love, endurance, persecutions, sufferings . Indeed he called them in order that they should become members of a community with himself.47 He also structured them (and was clearly their leader) but without any repressive discipline or stifling rules.48 This communal dimension was an intentional and not just an incidental element of the disciples training as fishers of men: the discipling relationships that were formed between Jesus and others in the Gospels were rarely one-to-one encounters.49 The very teaching posture which Jesus adopted, seated with his disciples sitting around him as in the synagogue, suggests a community debating and learning together rather than a lecture hall of isolated and largely passive individuals.50 We see them [w]alking together, eating together, and sitting together, always accompanied by talking together in a dialogic manner.51.