I think that what most people can absolutely accept about Jesus is that he had some wise teaching to pass on. If we actually followed his teaching, the world would be a much happier and more equitable place. I think most people can accept that.
A couple of years ago I had an interesting discussion with my Year 11 students about why we should take Jesus’ teaching seriously, because, a couple of them had asked, “Couldn’t Jesus just be a myth, a fairy tale, whom the writers of the Bible made up?” It was a fair enough question. Fortunately, there are three other historical writers, apart from the authors of the New Testament, who also refer to Jesus. These sources, the Roman historian Tacitus, the Roman Governor Pliny, and the Jewish historian Josephus, assure us that Jesus was a real person.
So, that allows us, at the very least, to say, “Jesus was a real person who tried to teach us something.” A key thing he tried to teach us, of course, was, “Love God and love your neighbour as yourself.” Another key thing was “Serve other people.” He taught this in his parables too, for example the parable about the wise slave who does the master’s work and looks after the other slaves (Matthew chapter 24, verses 44 – 47). It is a parable about doing God’s work and serving other people.
Of course, we don’t serve other people in order to get a reward. For most people, that’s not the motivation for serving others. Rather, we sense that there is something noble, something honourable, in serving other people because it’s the right thing to do. If we can spread that message more widely, we will have made a difference in the world and, God knows, the world needs to hear this message.
The Reverend Dr Theo McCall
School Chaplain
