The Wisdom of Jesus

HS #10  2016.5.3

The Wisdom of Jesus

Recently I was privy to a situation where a friend who was hurt by another took the initiative to write to the other to explain the hurt. This resulted in an apology that brought full healing.

When I heard of the outcome, I wrote, “This shows the value of Jesus's instructions - that it is the responsibility of the HURT person  (not the offender) to initiate the correspondence.  If everyone followed this advice, there would be more honest and wholesome relationships – and less needless introspection.”

That incident illustrates the wisdom in Jesus’s counterintuitive counsel for good living. I say “counterintuitive” because at first thought, we think the opposite is true. Jesus steered clear from teaching what “we think is true” or what “should be true.” He got to the heart of what IS true.  He effectively said – over and over again: “Hey folks, this is the way the world really is - you’ll do well to realize it and live accordingly.”

Here are some other examples - all counterintuitive at first blush, but upon reflection and practice, found to be true.

“Store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”  Normally don’t we tend to hear the converse? A typical lesson might go, “Get your heart in the right place, and then you will do the right things – your actions follow your heart.” Jesus is claiming just the opposite: Concentrate on your actions - something you have control of – and don’t sweat the heart  - it will follow. Liberating! And powerful! Jesus wasn’t unconcerned with the heart. He just understood human nature enough to realize that the heart follows actions as much as guides them.  Indeed, even the physical act of smiling can uplift your mood.

In a previous column I’ve addressed the counterintuitive nature of Jesus’s command to “turn the other cheek” not in order to submit to authority, but for precisely the opposite reason, in order to keep control and keep one’s dignity. Again, counterintuitive.

Another? Consider the parable of the lost coin and sheep. Logic would suggest that a shepherd with 99 safe sheep would stay with them and accept his losses of an errant lamb. Similarly, why would a person spend all day hunting for a rather insignificant object? Neither make sense, but, darn it!, that’s what I do all the time. If I’m missing a spoon or favorite sock, I keep looking until I find it.  Suspect you behave similarly. Jesus understood, and used that behavior to illustrate a point.

The gospel writer arranged the “lost” parables saving the best to last. Consider the lost son. Here is an ungrateful kid who deliberately turns his back on the good life that his father intended to share with him. After blowing all his money and totally messed up, he realizes that his father’s servants fare better. So he heads back home.

All of this is understandable. People blow it. They come to their senses. The young kid was looking out for himself from first to last. That’s natural. The father’s reaction, though, is the kicker.  He had many options:  His son had just rejected him, wasted his entire share of the inheritance, and was coming home only to put food in his belly.   A “Good riddance!”  would have been fully understandable.  But a second reaction is equally sensible: “Glad to have you back – we’ve been shorthanded with the animals since you left. Get out there - - you’ll have a meal awaiting you at dinner and a fair wage.” This is what the son expected and would have been fully satisfied with.

The father gives neither of those a thought. Instead, he calls for a feast, puts a robe on his son and leads him back home.  As others have noted, this is not a story about a wayward son, but about a loving father.  Powerful!  Jesus was calling attention to the very best in human nature.  

Recently I was invited to be a guest “devil’s advocate” in an apologetics class of a local college. My role (which comes rather naturally) was to challenge the students about the truth of Christian claims. When I asked why they believed Jesus was divine, they pointed to fulfilled prophecy, miracles, and the resurrection. Personally, none of that counts for much; human reporting even of current events is often unreliable. However, the power and wisdom of Jesus’s words - that gets me thinking.