Important teachers usually have no interest in the institutionalization of what they taught. Socrates never wrote anything. Neither did Jesus. Everyone knows that the teaching solidifying into an institution dilutes and even pollutes the teaching. Intentionally or unintentionally, it reins the radical thought under control and makes it very difficult for another person to break away from the pressuring crowd to do it again.
(This cartoon first appeared on the friendly atheist’s site last week.)
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Interesting…. One should then ask, if this is true of the educators would it not also be so for the educates. For if the educators of the institution are diluted and/or polluted then so in turn will the educates be also. There is something to be cautious about when looking to “higher” education?
Love the cartoon.
Cheers!
Jesus quoted that which was written about Him. Among other things, He used it as a weapon against the enemy who spoke against Him. Apparently what was written about Him was important enough for Jesus to use in combat, not to institutionalize anything but rather to address the spiritual realities of His day…. and our day.
A brief ‘word study’ of the passages where Jesus actually used the phrase ‘it is written’ would argue that Jesus highly valued what was written about His coming and what He came to do. He first used what was written about Him when tempted in the desert.
Matthew 4:4
Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’ ”
Matthew 4:6
“If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down. For it is written: “‘He will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’ ”
Matthew 4:7
Jesus answered him, “It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’ ”
Matthew 4:10
Jesus said to him, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’ ”
Matthew 21:13
“It is written,” he said to them, “‘My house will be called a house of prayer,’ but you are making it ‘a den of robbers.’ ”
These are only the beginning of the ‘it is written passages’ stated by Jesus Himself.
Jesus became the living word of everything written about Him. If we didn’t have a record of the words about Him, written words of real story’s about Him and real words He exchanged with people we wouldn’t have any kind of objectivity to understand Him. These are not the only ‘words’ He speaks but they are clearly reference points to begin.
Surely as someone who teaches English as a second language, you understand the value of writing down words, turning them upside down for your students to understand, studying their very nuances and the many meanings they can be interpreted? Do you not give them some kind of guides, handbooks, resources to understand ‘what is written’? You don’t institutionalize the language of English, you use the words to help your students comprehend, so they can communicate and understand.
I would challenge you to reconsider your statement that Jesus never wrote anything down?
Read John 8 1-11, where Jesus was ‘teaching’ a group of Pharisee’s who brought in a woman caught in adultery. They were trying to trap Jesus. Vs. 6 says that Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. The story of grace prevailed through the writings of Jesus finger in the sand. A beautiful metaphor of the earth becoming the blackboard to expose the sin of the Pharisees or perhaps a ‘whiteboard’ for the love of Jesus to be communicated to this woman. We don’t know what He wrote but we do know that what He wrote changed the fate of that one desperate woman. Or how about Matthew 24 vs.35 Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away. What words? Written words? If not written then where are they? How do we know what those words were if they were never written down?
At what point does anything become institutionalized? When we don’t like it? When someone hurts us with words? Who of us hasn’t been hurt by words and hurt others with words. That has nothing to do with institutionalizing anything.
David, I totally agree that Jesus didn’t come to establish an institution, but His words are life and His words are a far cry from an institution, written or spoken.