We learn not only by paying attention to Jesus’ words but also the way he lived his life. Following Jesus as our rabbi means three things:
- You spend time with Jesus
- You seek to become like Jesus
- You do as he did. [I]
What were Jesus’ most common classrooms as rabbi?
Have you ever noticed how Jesus’ journey took him from seashore to desert, from urban centers (Jerusalem) to rural Nazareth, and to any place people gathered to listen? He taught in vivo—life as it is lived in real-time. And don’t miss this: along the way, Jesus ate meals with his students and with others, including marginalized people, social outcasts, and those unwelcomed by many. The road and the table formed a paradigm for how Jesus practiced his service to others.
You might say, “Of course, he sat at a table: he had to eat sometime!” True enough, but in the Middle East, a table was a place of hospitality. It was, in fact, often a sanctuary of safety and solidarity with others.
Offering hospitality was a sacred practice, which we see in Psalm 23.
David tells us how God forms us: “You prepare a table before me….” God is seen setting the table with implements of nourishment, cups of wine and water, and bread. The act of preparing a table is what we do with others when we, too, are people of hospitality. We welcome and honor the other by our invitation to come, by our preparation, and by the way we receive another as a guest. But David understood God even more deeply: “God poured the oil of healing and restoration on the guest. God gives freely, even lavishing welcome, grace, and love on us.” But there is a curious movement from verse 3 to the final image. Take note: As we grow in our relationship with God, we are no longer guests or travelers on the way. Because of God’s love for us, we “dwell in the house of the Lord forever.”
Spiritual formation has a lectionary of its own words: follow, show hospitality, welcome, abide, receive grace, be with Jesus, learn from him, and practice all we have learned. “An apprentice of Jesus is one who learns from Jesus how to live my life as he would live if he were them.” [ii]
Too much we take for granted the most simple acts Jesus did—walking as a way of teaching, sitting at the table as a way of hospitality, and finally, we learn to abide in the house of the Lord all of our days and beyond. We spend time with Jesus. When paying attention to Jesus, we learn from him in all the ways he teaches. In time, we, too, become hosts for others as we abide in his presence.
How might you see your kitchen table as a classroom with our teacher, Jesus?
[i]John Mark Comer, Practicing The Way: Be with Jesus, Become like him, Do as he did.
[ii]Dallas Willard, The Divine Conspiracy, pp 282-283.