John 3:16a. The most radical thing about Jesus was His love. He loved everyone, even those who hated Him and betrayed Him. His love was never dependent on what someone did for Him. He loved and still loves because that is who He is. In Jewish and Roman culture, certain types of people were shunned and rejected from society.
Summary. Jesus was known for his teachings because of the methods that he used and the message that he preached. Throughout his teaching ministry, Jesus used a variety of methods that made his teachings both striking and memorable, understandable and provoking.
Throughout his teaching ministry, Jesus used a variety of methods that made his teachings both striking and memorable, understandable and provoking. These methods included many well-known methods of his day, as well as qualities that we are still familiar with—poetry, proverbs, exaggeration, parables, similes, riddles, and paradoxes.
Jesus’s teachings were striking and memorable, not only because he used a variety of teachings methods but more so because of what he taught, that he was the incarnate, divine Lord who had brought his heavenly kingdom to earth and that the rules of this kingdom were much different from the rules of the kingdoms of earth.
3 Not only was it radical, it also was central to his lifestyle, his teaching about the Kingdom of God, and his mission as the Messiah.
When Christians begin to learn more about Jesus’ Jewishness, it comes as a surprise that many of his teachings have parallels in those of other rabbis of his time. For instance, his command to forgive others so that one’s sins will be forgiven (Mt 18:21-35) is found in earlier Jewish writings. 1 Even when Jesus disagreed with others, he was not casting aside all of Judaism, but was usually affirming one rabbinic position over another in an area of debate. For example, when asked about divorce, he disagreed with the teachings Hillel, but agreed with those of Shammai. 2 Rather than being entirely at odds with his countrymen, his ministry built on the teachings of his day and brought them to a new level.
Fascinatingly, Jesus uses the title, “Son of Man” to show his authority to forgive sins as well.
Jesus’ understanding of God’s mercy toward his enemies was central to his teaching about the Kingdom, and part of his radical challenge to the common belief about the Messiah . Most believed that the Messiah would be a warrior king who would liberate God’s people from his enemies. 7 In ancient times, kings acted as the supreme judge of their land, and the Messianic King would do so as well. He would be the judge that would bring the Kingdom of God to earth by destroying the evil of the world.
When the paralyzed man was lowered into the room by his friends, Jesus said, “But, so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins,” He said to the paralytic, “I say to you, get up, and pick up your stretcher and go home ” (Lk 5:24).
But yet when he repented, Jesus used his authority as the Son of Man to proclaim salvation to him from his sins. Jesus, as the King and Judge, was expanding his Kingdom through mercy, as he forgave God’s enemies instead of condemning them. 8.
Perhaps the reason that the Gospel was so difficult for many to accept was that Jesus’ listeners saw themselves as already “on God’s side,” as righteous victims of suffering at the hands of the Romans, and felt justified in wanting God to destroy them. They were happy to read about God’s coming judgment in the Scriptures. It was the prostitutes and tax collectors who could see themselves as “enemies” that wanted to take up this offer of forgiveness. Only when we see that we are saved by God’s amazing love do we realize our obligation to show the same kind of love to others as well.
Yes, Jesus really meant all of this stuff. Everyone loves Jesus – until they read what he really taught. Jesus’s life and teachings are just as radical today as they were 2000 years ago. It’s easy to call ourselves Christians.
If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.
The Method of Jesus’s Teaching. Jesus used a variety of teaching techniques to impress his teaching on his hearers. Such techniques were used to clarify his meaning, motivate (or sometimes shock) the listeners, or reveal the true intent of God’s Word—all the while making his teaching memorable.
However, what set his teachings apart from others was the message that they contained. Jesus taught that the kingdom of God had come, and that he, as the incarnate and divine Lord, was its ruler. This kingdom challenged the standards of the kingdoms of men and called its citizens to live in radically different ways.
Perhaps Jesus’s most well-known method of teaching is the parable, which accounts for about one-third of all his teaching. In the Gospels, Jesus tells at least fifty different parables. Unfortunately, the parables are not only some of Jesus’s most cherished teachings, they also constitute some of his most misunderstood teachings.
In antithetical parallelism, the second line contrasts with the first line. This is the most common form of parallelism in Jesus’s teaching, with nearly 140 instances. For example, “every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit” ( Matt. 7:17 ). The terms “healthy” contrasts with “diseased” and “good fruit” contrasts ...
There are four main types of parallelism: synonymous, antithetical, step (or climactic), and chiastic. In synonymous parallelism, a subsequent line (or lines) expresses a similar (synonymous) ...
Jesus was known for his teachings because of the methods that he used and the message that he preached. Throughout his teaching ministry, Jesus used a variety of methods that made his teachings both striking and memorable, understandable and provoking. These methods included many well-known methods of his day, as well as qualities ...
Jesus was the consummate teacher, not only because of how he taught but because of what he taught. The following section will explain three prominent topics in Jesus’s teachings: (1) the reality of the kingdom of God, (2) living in the kingdom of God, and (3) the Lord of the kingdom of God.