Daily Journal: 15 December

Teacher and Lord

As people, we follow certain people. We have people we admire. We like to watch the way they live and hear what they have to say. We allow these people to speak into our lives. These people can be friends but they can also be people we might not know personally.

People are naturally inclined to look for a certain influence from others that helps direct their own course. For this reason, we must be careful and considered about the people we allow to teach us, and those we choose to follow.

Mark 10:17-19 (NIV)

As Jesus started on his way, a man ran up to him and fell on his knees before him. “Good teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” “Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good—except God alone. You know the commandments: ‘You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, you shall not defraud, honour your father and mother.’”

Jesus took a moment’s opportunity to point something out. The man was addressing Him as a good teacher, but Jesus inferenced that He was so much more. In calling Jesus a good teacher, and having been told that only God is good, would the man recognise who He was actually addressing?

The man didn’t stop and pause.

He had run up to Jesus. He had knelt in front of Him. He had shown Him respect and positioned himself directly in front of Jesus to make sure he had His attention because he wanted to know something that was really important to him. But he didn’t hear Jesus’ intentional words.

Shouldn’t his next address be as Lord?

Mark 10:20-21 (NIV)

“Teacher,” he declared, “all these I have kept since I was a boy.” Jesus looked at him and loved him. “One thing you lack,” he said. “Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”

Jesus continued to show He was more than a good teacher by demonstrating He knew the man’s heart. He knew that the man strove to live righteously, but He knew the man’s greatest weakness. And He loved him anyway.

Jesus called him to recognise who, or what, was Lord in his life. Even though the man thought he had his life neatly sewn up, he was lacking in the most important way. Jesus called him to recognise that although he said he had followed the commandments, he wasn’t prepared to follow Jesus Himself.

The cost of following the first commandment of having no other gods before Him was to give up what really held his heart. It was to follow the way Jesus lived and in so doing, be transformed by what held his heart and be able to call Jesus Lord.

Do I know Jesus as a good teacher? Or do I also know Him as Lord?