Jesus, Teacher and Lord

By John R. W. Stott

July/September 1971

I have been helped by some words Jesus spoke in the upper room just after he had washed the apostles’ feet. When he had resumed his place, he said to them: “You call me Teacher and Lord; and you are right, for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet.”

‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord’ were polite  forms of address used in conversation with rabbis. And the apostles used them in addressing Jesus. What he was now saying is that in his case they were more than courtesy titles; they expressed a fundamental reality. As the New English Bible renders it: ‘You call me Teacher and Lord, and rightly so, for that is what I am.’ I am in fact, he declared, what you call me in title.

This verse tells us something of great importance both about Christ and about Christians.

What it tells us about Christ concerns his divine self-consciousness. Though but a peasant from Galilee, carpenter by trade and preacher by vocation, he claimed to be the Teacher and the Lord of men. He said he had authority over them to tell them what to believe and to do. It is evident (if indirect) claim to deity, for no mere man can ever exercise lordship over other men’s minds and wills. Moreover, in advancing his claim he showed no sign of mental unbalance. On the contrary, he had just risen from supper, girded himself with a towel, poured water into a basin, got on his hands and knees, and washed their feet. He who said he was their Teacher and Lord humbled himself to be their Servant. It is this paradoxical combination of lordship and service, authority and humility, lofty claims and lowly conduct, which constitutes the strongest evidence that (in John’s words in this passage) ‘he had come from God and was going to God’ (John 13:3).

Secondly, the same verse reveals the proper relationship of Christians to Christ. This is not only that of a sinner to his Savior, but also of a pupil to his Teacher and of a servant to his Lord. Indeed, these things belong indissolubly together. He is ‘our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.’ What, then, are the implications of acknowledging Jesus as Teacher and Lord?

Of course everybody agrees that Jesus of Nazareth was a great teacher, and many are prepared to go at least as far as Nicodemus and call Him ‘a Teacher come from God.’ Further, it is clear that one of the most striking characteristics of his teaching was the authority with which he gave it. He did not hem and haw and hesitate. Nor did he ever speak tentatively, diffidently, apologetically. No. He knew what he wanted to say, and he said it with quiet, simple dogmatism. It is this that impressed people so much. As they listened to him, we read, “they were astonished at his teaching, for his word was with authority.’’

There is only one logical deduction from these things. If the Jesus who thus taught with authority was the Son of God made flesh, we must bow to his authority and accept his teaching. We must allow our opinions to be molded by his opinions, our views to be conditioned by his views. And this includes His uncomfortable and unfashionable teaching … like his view of God as a supreme, spiritual, personal, powerful Being, the Creator, Controller, Father and King, and of man as a created being, made in the image of God but now fallen, with a heart so corrupt as to be the source of all the evil things he thinks, says and does …. He taught the divine origin, supreme authority and complete sufficiency of Scripture as God’s Word written, whose primary purpose is to direct the sinner to his Savior in order to find life. He also taught the fact of divine judgment as a process of sifting which begins in this life and is settled at death. He confirmed that the final destinies of men are the awful alternatives of Heaven and Hell, adding that these destinies are irrevocable, with a great gulf fixed between them.

These traditional Christian truths are being called in question today. The independent, personal, transcendent being of God, the radical sinfulness of man, the inspiration and authority of Scripture, the solemn, eternal realities of Heaven and Hell – all this (and more) is being not only questioned, but in many places actually abandoned. Our simple contention is that no man can jettison such plain Gospel truths as these and still call Jesus “Teacher.”

There have been other religious teachers, even if less authoritative than Jesus. But Jesus went further, claiming also to be Lord. A teacher will instruct his pupils. He may even plead with them to follow his teaching. He cannot command assent, however, still less obedience. Yet this prerogative was exercised by Jesus as Lord. “If you love me,” He said, “you will keep my commandments.’’ “He who loves father or mother … son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.’’ He asked from his disciples nothing less than their supreme love and loyalty.

So Christians look to Jesus Christ as both their Teacher and their Lord – their Teacher to instruct them and their Lord to command them. We are proud to be more than his pupils; we are his servants as well. We recognize his right to lay upon us duties and obligations: “If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet.’’ This ‘ought’ we accept from the authority of Jesus. We desire not only to submit our minds to his teaching but our wills to his obedience. And this is what he expected: “Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant [literally ‘slave’] is not greater than his master.’’ He therefore calls us to adopt his standards, which are totally at variance with the world’s, and to measure greatness in terms, not of success but of service; not of self-aggrandizement, but of self-sacrifice.

Because we are fallen and proud human beings, we find this part of Christian discipleship very difficult. We like to have our own opinions (especially if they are different from everybody else’s) and to air them rather pompously in conversation. We also like to live our own lives, set our own standards and go our own way. In brief, we like to be our own master, our own teacher and word.

People sometimes defend this position by saying that it would be impossible – and if it were possible it would be wrong – to surrender our independence of thought. Drummer Charlie Watts of the Rolling Stones expressed this view when he said: “I’m against any form of organized thought. I’m against … organized religion like the Church. I don’t see how you can organize 10,000,000 minds to believe one thing.” This is the mood of the day, both in the world and in the Church. It is a self-assertive and anti-authoritarian mood. It is not prepared either to believe or do anything simply because some “authority” requires it. But what if that authority is Christ’s? What if Christ’s authority is God’s? What then? The only Christian answer is that we submit, humbly, gladly, and with the full consent of our mind and will.

But do we? Is this, in fact, our regular practice?

It is quite easy to put ourselves to the test. What is our authority for believing what we believe and doing what we do? Is it, in reality, what we think and what we want? Or is it what Professor So-and-so has written, what Bishop Such-and-such has said? Or is it what Jesus Christ has made known, either himself directly or through his apostles?

We may not particularly like what he taught about God and man, Scripture and salvation, worship and morality, duty and destiny, Heaven and Hell. But are we daring to prefer our own opinions and standards to his, and still call ourselves Christian? Or are we presuming to say that he did not know what he was talking about; that he was a weak and fallible Teacher, or even accommodated himself to the views of his contemporaries although he knew them to be mistaken? Such suggestions are dreadfully derogatory to the honor of the Son of God.

Of course we have a responsibility to grapple with Christ’s teaching, its perplexities and problems, endeavoring to understand it and to relate it to our own situation. But ultimately the question before the Church can be simply stated: is Jesus Christ Lord, or not? And if he is Lord, is he Lord of all? The Lordship of Jesus must be allowed to extend over every part of those who have confessed that “Jesus is Lord,” including their minds and their wills. Why should these be exempt from his otherwise universal dominion? No one is truly converted who is not intellectually and morally converted. No one is intellectually converted if he has not submitted his mind to the mind of the Lord Christ, nor morally converted if he has not submitted his will to the will of the Lord Christ.

Further, such submission is not bondage but freedom. Or rather, it is that kind of willing Christian bondage which is perfect Christian freedom – freedom from the vagaries of self and from the fashions of the world (and of the Church), freedom from the shifting sands of subjectivity, freedom to exercise our minds and our wills as God intended them to be exercised, not in rebellion against him, but in submission to him.

I do not hesitate to say that Jesus Christ is looking for men and women in the Church of this kind and caliber today, who will take him seriously as their Teacher and Lord – not just paying lipservice to these titles (“Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I tell you?”), but actually taking his yoke upon them, in order to learn from him and to “take every thought captive to obey Christ.”

This will involve for us, first, a greater diligence in study. We can neither believe nor obey Jesus Christ if we do not know what he taught. One of the most urgent needs of the contemporary Church is a far closer acquaintance with Scripture among ordinary members. How lovingly the pupil should cherish the teaching of such a Master!

It will also involve a greater humility in subordination. By nature we hate authority and we love independence. We think it a great thing to have an independent judgment and manifest an independent spirit. And so it is, if by this we mean that we do not wish to be sheep who follow the crowd, or reeds shaken by the winds of public opinion. But independence from Jesus Christ is not a virtue; it is a sin, and indeed a grievous sin in one who professes to be a Christian. The Christian is not at liberty to disagree with Christ or to disobey Christ. On the contrary, his great concern is to conform both his mind and his life to Christ’s teaching.

And the reasonableness of this Christian subordination lies in the identity of the Teacher. If Jesus of Nazareth were a mere man, it would be ludicrous thus to submit our minds and our wills to him. But because He is the Son of God, it is ludicrous not to do so. Rather, submission to him is just Christian common sense and duty.

I believe that Jesus Christ is addressing the Church of our day with the same words: “You call me Teacher and Lord; and you are right, for so I am.” My prayer is that, having listened to his words, we shall not be content with the use of these courtesy titles, but give him due honor by our humble belief and wholehearted obedience.

 

By John R. Stott (1921-2011). In addition to being Rector of All Souls Church in London, Dr. Stott was considered one of the foremost evangelical thinkers and theologians in modern time. Condensed by permission of InterVarsity Press, from his book, “Christ, The Controversialist.”