By Melanie Mar Chow

Diana Butler Bass opened my eyes to many new ways to think about Jesus in her book, Freeing Jesus: Rediscovering Jesus as Friend, Teacher, Savior, Lord, Way, and Presence.  To me, the tone of her book represented the teacher she was from a time in the years following college graduation. The following quote is from chapter 2 entitled, “Teacher”:

“Indeed, the best teachers I have ever known – as well as the teacher I aspired to be – nurtured a way of being in the world, a way that treasured questions and logic, research and study, critical thinking, and a love of words. I heard it said of one such master teacher, a professor whose dinners with students were legendary at his memorial service, “He gave us instructions and he set us free” (p. 59-60).

Jesus engaged people often over a meal for teachable moments.  One fond moment was how a meal of two fish and five small barley loaves, lovingly made by a mom for her son, became a lesson. Jesus employed the meal to feed “the five thousand,” and offered several teaching moments – “being observant is resourceful”, “if people come to you, care for them”, “if you don’t know how to do something, ask others,” to name a few.

Jesus often dined with tax collectors and others who would not readily approach him and he was able to converse with them.  Other teachable meal moments are as follows:

• Invitation to be an audience: Jesus invited the poor to a large banquet and also invited himself to Zacchaeus’ home for a meal.
• Last Supper: Jesus shared a meal with his disciples with an intimate teaching.
• Breakfast with disciples: Jesus cooked breakfast for his disciples after his resurrection to share with them important insights.

As quoted above, Diana Butler Bass recounts what was said about the master teacher: “He gave us instructions and he set us free” (p. 60).

So did Jesus. I wish I could sit at the table like the disciples with Jesus in their short time with him.  Jesus had a way of helping His followers, then and today, to instill the ability to know what it was like to live. He framed his teaching times with the disciples to encourage them to ask questions for better understanding. He sometimes taught in ways that veiled to others the truths He intended to expand later for his disciples. That is why Jesus reminded all His followers to teach in His style, to liberate others, and to know the teacher is never far from us.

“Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”  Matthew 19:28-29

We don’t have to be trained professional professors. Jesus told us to teach.  This is the lesson we need to continue sharing. Why not over a meal with friends?  I can and still do… will you? 

Rev. Melanie Mar Chow serves God through Asian American Christian Fellowship, the campus ministry division of the Japanese Evangelical Missionary Society (JEMS). She has been an ordained American Baptist minister since 2004. A Pacific Northwest native, she currently lives with her husband and daughter in Southern California.