WHO IS THIS MAN

                                                               WHO IS THIS MAN

He was a rabbi, like other rabbis, yet not like other rabbis. This is affirmed at the end of the Sermon on the Mount: "When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching, because he taught as one who had authority, and not as their teachers of the law."

Jesus was called "Rabbi" some eleven times in the Gospels. So we have to understand rabbis to understand Jesus.

There are no rabbis in the Hebrew Scriptures. The word does not occur. There is an important reason for this. When a nation dreams of national greatness, her heroes are often kings and soldiers. As Israel's dreams withered in exile, kings and soldiers were replaced by a new kind of hero.

A teacher. An educator.

Israelites had no army, no wealth, no power. What did they have?

They had a book. Nobody else had a book like this one. It spoke to the great questions of human existence and guidance for life. It kept them together when they lost everything else. Rome had armies; Greece had culture; Egypt had wealth; Phoenicia had ships. Israel was the people of the book.

Rabbis knew the book. When they taught it, they would cite great rabbis for the correct interpretation of the Scriptures. "Rabbi Shammai says... but Rabbi Hillel says...." That wasn't a sign of bad teaching. It is very much like in our day when a judge is going to make a ruling. We expect a good judge to cite precedents.

Jesus was a rabbi like other rabbis but not like

any other rabbi. He didn't cite others; he said, "Truly, I say to you.... the gospel of John, he doubled down and said it twice: "Truly, truly, l say to you..!" These words appear seventy-five times in the Gospels.

What Jesus was saying is, "1 know how things are. I know. I know about money. I know all about economics. I know it is more blessed to give than to receive? I have watched both options play out. I have thought it through. I will spare you the heartache of the wrong path if you will keep your elbow in. I know how resentment festers. I know the human heart. I know forgiveness is superior."

Jesus did not cite anybody. He was very different from other rab-bis. He was very different from other great teachers. G. K. Chesterton wrote about how normally the greatest teachers often emphasize what they don't know: "Socrates, the wisest man, knows that he knows noth-ing." Socrates said that what marked him as wise is that he knew better than other people that he didn't know that. Jesus never said anything like that; he never said, "I don't know." Not because Jesus was arrogant.

Rather, Jesus was supremely humble in his relationships yet supremely confident in his convictions.

People often picture Jesus as a well-meaning but naive guru who wandered around tossing off catchy sayings of simple folk wisdom and happened to spark a movement he could never have predicted.

But no one who knew him thought that.