27. Chapter 27: Summary: Jesus—The Master Teacher

Chapter 27 Summary: Jesus—The Master Teacher What are the advantages of a summary?

What are the difficulties in reading a summary without having first read the pages summarized?

What is a summary?

How would you summarize the essential points in the preceding pages? The teaching situation is complex, though it may easily be resolved into its essential elements—namely, teacher, pupil, lesson, of teacher, method of teaching, and environment. The conversation of Jesus with the woman of Samaria is an object lesson in teaching in all these respects.

Jesus began by winning attention through interest, then he established some point of contact with his hearer(s) on the physical or spiritual plane. As a teacher he was not only a tactician with methods, but a strategist with objectives. His greatest objective was to share with men that sense of union with the Father which he enjoyed.

Jesus based his teaching on the vital problems in the lives of his pupils.

Though not a Greek, he was as ready to converse in a profitable way as was Socrates, and he led a more public life, though shorter, than did Socrates, because he traveled more.

He asked and answered questions to stimulate self-expression, desiring conviction rather than persuasion on the part of his followers. His questions are better than those of Socrates, from whom “the Socratic art” is named, because they are not “leading.”

He used the discourse at many different times before many different groups on many different themes, but always in a more or less informal way.

He told stories with a point, the parables, which his auditors did not always understand, but which always made them think, and led the spiritually minded to inquire of him their meaning.

He both knew and used the old scriptures, for the nutriment of his own soul and as a common meeting-ground with the religious minds of his day.

He never let the occasion slip, but utilized it as it arose to clarify thought and to guide life. The principle of apperception is recognized in his words: “He that hath ears to hear, let him hear,” and all his parables present the less familiar in terms of the more familiar. Even so, he was often misunderstood.

He used the principle of contrast to vivify the portrayal of truth, concrete examples to bring the abstract near, symbols to make, if possible, difficult meanings plain, and wonderful imagery to enhance the appeal to the imagination and so to the powers of conviction.

He cared more for individuals than for crowds, though he would often minister to crowds, perhaps with a view to reaching individuals. His disciples he trained as witnesses of his mainly by the processes of personal association, individualizing them, and meeting the needs of each, especially Peter. The work accomplished by Jesus and also under his tutelage was highly motivated, through the awakening of spiritual and altruistic impulses rather than those of personal advancement, though not to the exclusion of the latter. In a way most interesting to uncover, Jesus probed the depths of human nature, and secured most of the native reactions of man, though some, like rivalry, he did not consciously appeal to, and some, like sex, he sublimated.

All the methods of impression he used were but as means to expression as an end. Jesus was far more pragmatic than either idealistic or mystic.

Jesus appreciated childhood and made its characteristics identical with those of membership in the Kingdom. In a way not surprising but confirmatory of our previous impressions, Jesus embodies those qualities of the Teacher commonly set up as ideal.

Though, surprising to relate, many of our best histories of education do not refer to Jesus, by common consent he is regarded as the Great Teacher of the human race. A comparison of his characteristics with those of other world teachers does not alter this conclusion. As the Appendix indicates, one who was a master of the subject could duplicate the length of this volume on other phases of the teaching ministry of Jesus. As we have followed these discussions we have doubtless repeatedly gotten the impression that the problems of teaching which we ourselves face are similar to those of Jesus, and that the solutions he found may aid us.

Jesus is the Master Teacher. Have we made him ours?