Jesus, Rabbinic Judaism & Personality-Driven Ministry Today

This is the concluding section of a research paper on “Rabbi Jesus & the Embodiment of Torah” exploring the Rabbi-Pupil relationships and dynamics in the ancient world — especially the role of charisma and personality in church teaching.

At First Church, Pastor Stern had the difficult task of succeeding the long-tenured and beloved Pastor Slick who had a very dynamic personality and was an especially gifted teacher. Pastor Stern, whether out of envy or different philosophy of teaching, fears that his predecessor’s personal authority and charisma was a hindrance or distraction to true gospel ministry. He fears Pastor Slick’s teaching and presence may have eclipsed Jesus’ presence and teaching. Pastor Stern believes the solution is to somehow bypass human teachers/pastors of the church altogether (with their various levels of gifting, authority, personality) and go directly back to Jesus’ unmediated teachings through a particular kind of Bible study and make sure Jesus is the only Teacher of the church. He gladly cites Matt 23 to argue his case: “You are not to be called ‘Rabbi,’ for you have one Teacher”, and that teacher should be Jesus at First Church.

Meanwhile, down the road at Fourth Church Elder Bill, who shares Pastor Stern’s aversion to “personality-driven” churches, is nervously watching a young, dynamic Pastor Smooth breathe new life into a dying church through his winsome personality and gifted teaching ministry. His question for his elder board is the question behind our study of Jesus’s view of discipleship:

“Are we being faithful to Christ if we are building churches around the personality and charisma of its leader?”

This question is alive and well in church leadership circles today. “Seeker-sensitive” church-growth advocates and high-profile megachurch pastors find themselves with Pastor Slick and Pastor Smooth, while more traditional and self-described “Bible-centered” and so-called “God-centered” churches sympathize with Pastor Stern and Elder Bill. The latter cast a suspicious eye at all “celebrity pastors” sometimes accusing them of preaching a “man-centered” gospel (whatever that means).

Yet, it is not only the “other side” that warns against the downsides of personality-driven churches and the dangers that popularity can bring upon gifted teachers. Francis Chan, for example, found himself leading a megachurch drawing thousands of faithful followers each Sunday due to his gifted preaching (as well as best-selling books). He spoke recently to Facebook employees about his journey, and according to one observer:

“In the midst of speaking in front of thousands of people, having his face featured on magazine covers, and being invited to speak all over the world, Chan realized he was straying from Jesus’s instruction to “humble yourselves like little children.”

Chan decided to walk away from his large church and huge following of ‘disciples’ to lead a network of house-churches while trying to keep a lower profile.

On the other hand, heart-breaking stories abound telling of churches devastated by power-hungry, ego-driven, manipulative leaders who let their fame and power go to their heads. Void of the humble spirit of the likes of Francis Chan, these leaders rarely walk away from their churches but only leave when the scandal is revealed and their platform is forcibly removed.

While admitting the dangers, temptations and abuses that come with all forms of celebrity and influence, must we conclude therefore that charisma, personality and gifting is somehow a liability rather than a God-given asset for building up the church and advancing of the Kingdom? Moreover, even if one wanted to bypass the human teacher to avoid a “person-centered” teaching ministry and in hopes of retrieving Jesus’ unmediated words, is this even possible?

From this study of the teacher-student relationships of Jesus in light of the broader Jewish world [of which this blog post is merely a small portion], some basic conclusions emerge:

1) The myth of a unmediated, teacher-less teaching is completely foreign to the Jewish world of masters and their pupils. Jewish instruction celebrated the passing down of Torah-Wisdom from fathers to sons, and rabbis to pupils. From the OT all the way to post-70 Rabbinic Judaism there was this basic teacher-pupil structure operative.

2) Mathetes (or “discipleship”) in the time of Jesus was more about adherence to the teacher than to a particular teaching, creed or curriculum. This adherence was coupled with an appropriate reverence for the teacher often lost in today’s world.

3) We highlighted the widespread phenomenon of charismatic leaders exercising their gift to rally enthusiastic followers to their various causes. Jesus didn’t shrink from using his own personal magnetism to enlist followers in his unique Kingdom mission. The character of the leader, not the crowds she can draw, is what matters most.

4) Significantly, Jesus broke with the other rabbis in precisely what he passed down to his disciples. Instead of handing down his interpretation of oral Law, he offered his students his very life as the true embodiment of the Torah to be received and then embodied by his own disciples as they follow his Kingdom-centered cruciform ethic.

5) Thus, if Jesus left his church with an ethic or Torah-Wisdom that is inherently “embodied” then teachers (and all believers for that matter) of each subsequent generation are called to “re-embody” Jesus’ teachings for their own students and in their own contexts.

Scot McKnight argues similarly, and then ties the passing down of an embodied Torah-Wisdom to a new and revised Chain of Wisdom based on the classical Chain found in m. Abot 1:1:

Wisdom is established in a culture by personal embodiment. Wisdom is not established by attending a seminary, though that may help. Wisdom is not established by going through a course on spiritual formation…though that too will help. Wisdom is not established by reading the Bible or by praying or by fasting, though again these will help. Wisdom is established by reverent reception of wisdom in this Chain of Wisdom

God

(Father, Son, Spirit)

Apostles, Prophets

The Deposit of Wisdom of the Church’s History

Wise Leaders in a Local Church

The sacred calling of the church and its leaders to teach and lead by embodying the Torah-Wisdom of Jesus necessarily means offering our whole selves in this ministry—that includes our personalities, various degrees of gifting, temperament, charm and, yes, our lack thereof. The Pastor Sterns and Elder Bills among us in the church are (unknowingly) seeking a “pure”, disembodied mode of teaching that skirts the central hallmark of Christian faith—the incarnation of the Word. In the memorable words of N. T. Wright:

“The word became flesh, said St. John, and the Church has turned the flesh back into words: words of good advice, words of comfort, words of wisdom and encouragement, yes, but what changes the world is flesh, words with skin on them, words that hug you and cry with you and play with you and love you and rebuke you and build houses with you and teach your children in school.”

In our digital age, many (if not most) the messages we receive throughout the week come stark naked — i.e., disembodied. We get sprinkled with text messages throughout the day, but what we really long for is a hug. We read someone’s Facebook rant and make false assumptions regarding the mood and emotions behind it. We shoot off a rushed email that leaves the recipient questioning our heart and motives. We make phone calls on our drive home from work each day to catch up with friends, but we haven’t seen them face to face for far too long.

For many Christians today, spiritual growth and nourishment is often coming through disembodied the voices of celebrity pastors into our earbuds via podcasts and online sermons. Many of our own beloved “teachers” we’ve never even met face to face. Some of our beloved teachers live in another part of the country, and while they mean the world to us and have changed our entire lives, in reality they have no clue we even exist.

Even God Himself, after centuries of trying to get his Word across through the writings of Moses, the prophets and wisdom literature, decided there was a better way. An Embodied Way. The Word became flesh and lived out God’s Wisdom in a human body with the full array of emotions, with eyes that searched our souls, with tears that wept over our broken world, with whiskers that rubbed against our cheek in a bear hug embrace.

The disciples “beheld his glory” in person; they didn’t just read a book about it or download a podcast discussing it. In 1 John, you can almost see the apostles running up and down the streets sharing about their relational encounter with the Embodied Word with anyone willing to listen.

“That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life— the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life”…that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us…And we are writing these things so that our/your joy may be complete” (1 John).

Why are they writing these things? Because they want others to experience, or “have fellowship” with, this Word-in-Person themselves and to share their joy. But sadly we have often missed the significance of “embodied words” and settled for raw information, naked facts and stripped down soundbites.

Let church leaders, teachers and lay people alike all recommit to surrounding ourselves with friends and teachers whose words come with a personality attached to it, with a “lived-quality” to our messages that says, “Hey, I’m not just spouting ideas here, but really trying to live this stuff out and embody these ideas with my very life — Would you like to join me?”

We all need to become ’embodied words’ to those around us who a need some encouragement wrapped in a compassionate embrace. When we offer words of advice to a young, fatherless child in the church, that word needs to come with a firm arm around their shoulder that says, “Hey, and I’ll walk with you through it all.” When we offer words of marital wisdom in pre-marital counseling, let them be cloaked in a lifestyle that proves our wisdom can stand the test of time and the challenges of marriage.

Finally, to those upfront leaders endowed with exceptional gifts that can mobilize the masses and draw the crowds and inspire those formerly indifferent to Christ and his Kingdom, we must encourage them in their influential role. They have the same call as the church custodian and secretary—to make their unique ‘body’ or unique person a dance floor on which the Dance of embodied Torah-Wisdom and Jesus’ cruciform life can commence in all its irresistible beauty. If they happen to be the kind of person in the kind of role that draws more people onto the dance floor, so be it!

My apologies to Elder Bill and Pastor Stern: Jesus is not the only teacher for the church. Ephesians 4 clearly states otherwise. He has given the church other teachers, leaders, apostles, evangelists and shepherds who now re-embody (however imperfectly) that perfect Way of Jesus for those under our influence. Certainly, “He must increase, and I must decrease” (John 3:30)—but we dare not disappear altogether!

Like Paul, church leaders must put to death their ego-driven attempts to embody their own visions of grandeur. But we can confidently mount the pulpit in front of dozens or thousands each Sunday so long as we can echo Paul in saying,

“My ego has been crucified with Christ and my teaching ministry no longer lives, but Christ’s Torah-Wisdom now lives (or is embodied) in me. “The life (and teaching) I now try live out in the body, I live by giving myself entirely to the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Gal. 2:20).

As Jesus brought his most famous sermon to a close, Matthew records the crowd’s response to his embodied teaching:

“The crowd burst into applause. They had never heard teaching like this. It was apparent that he was living everything he was saying—quite a contrast to their religion teachers! This was the best teaching they had ever heard” (Matt 7:28-29 The Message).

Now its our turn to live out—to embody!—our Master’s teaching, and to pass it along to all who are ready to receive it and enter into the Dance with us.