Which Choice?
A student is not above his teacher, but everyone who is fully trained will be like his teacher Luke 6:40
Jesus’ statement is usually taken out of its context. The principle most preachers take from the text is: we become like our teacher. This gives it a positive spin and if Jesus is our teacher, so much the better. We can become like Him.
While this is true (and decidedly wonderful) Jesus gives the statement a negative spin. In the verse before he says ‘Can a blind man lead a blind man? Will they not both fall into a pit?’ The veiled reference is pretty clearly aimed at the Pharisees and other teachers of the law. They are the blind and their disciples end up like them – blind. They are the blind leading the blind.
In the verses immediately following (Luke 6:41,42), Jesus speaks of the man with a plank in his eye insisting on taking the speck out of another’s eye. Again His listeners would immediately think of the Pharisees and other teachers of the law. They continually judged others for failing to keep the law while themselves missed the heart of the law, missed what it aimed at producing – someone who walked with God. The Pharisees had an outward shell of obedience but inside had no living relationship with their God.
A student is not above his teacher, but everyone who is fully trained will be like his teacher (Luke 6:40). Jesus did not want His listeners to finish up like the Pharisees. A Pharisee can only ever produce a Pharisee.
This is the last section of Jesus’ monumental message often called the “sermon on the plain” (Luke 6:20-49). Jesus had presented the principles of the Kingdom of God. Following those principles would create someone who inwardly and outwardly acted like God.
Jesus was giving his listeners a choice: you can follow religion and end up religious; or you can follow Him and end up looking like the one true God. We have the same choice today.
To listen to this message, download in MP3 here.