PROPHET

There are generally two goals in teaching. The first is to expose the learners to as wide an educational experience as possible. The first purpose of this goal is to allow the learners to find that niche in life where their true heartfelt interests lie. The second purpose of this first goal is to allow all of the learners to have as wide an experience as possible so that they will at least appreciate those areas of knowledge where they have no personal expertise.

The second goal of teaching is to lead the sincerely interested learners to a competent mastery of the subject where their best skills and abilities will allow them to be reasonably proficient at a craft or in a specific subject.

Unfortunately, not everyone is able to participate in the specialization of this second goal because of a lack of interest or real ability. It is for this reason that the word idiot is defined as a person who will not or cannot learn. Please be assured that the second type of idiot is very much in the minority and those helpless humans who are so mentally deficient that they cannot care for themselves are fully deserving of community support.

I remember the story of a local village idiot, who came from a family of the same sort. Now, the community took them into their heart and looked out for them. The young man of very limited ability was taught at an early age to use a lawn mower and a snow shovel. The churches and the village as well as homeowners made certain that there was plenty of work to be done. And whenever the young man appeared on the street, very many people would compliment him on how well the memorial park or the church yard looked. No one ever waded through snow to get into church. And the gentleman who watched over him helped him out in a pinch. One of the local churches, unbeknownst to even the deacons, had a roof that would leak if snow gathered in the valley of the roof. This was kept shoveled out for fifty years or more because the overseer would rather shovel the snow than repair the roof, since he was the village handyman. Well, both gentlemen are now gone on to their reward. To his dying day, the "village idiot" never quite understood how limited his abilities really were. The friendly grocer even had a special fund when the lawn and snow money fell short. The old house where the family lived had belonged to an ancestor who had left it for the family use and somehow or another the taxes were always paid and food was always on the table.

Now I say all of this to put into perspective the prophetic work of our Lord Jesus Christ. Thomas Watson well understands the prophetic role underscored in our catechism today. As he notes, Christ teaches us externally by his word and then goes on to teach the sacred mysteries, inwardly, by the Spirit. Some of you may not appreciate the model here, but may I submit, that in our own rebellious way, we are all very much like the village idiot of my opening story? Were it not for our benefactor in Christ, we would be left on our ownsome, unwilling to learn and unable to make our own way into the spiritual kingdom of our Lord and our Christ.

Yes, we have all heard the gospel claims of the Scriptures, some have even studied them to some claim of worldly knowledge. However, unless these sacred mysteries be taught inwardly by the Spirit, we would be lost forever and ever. We have only to look at the colossal calamity of the Genesis project on the worldly channels of PBS to see the total lack of spiritual understanding of mere biblical knowledge. The people involved in that misguided project and another recent secular project on the book of Job couldn't find their way into Christ's Kingdom in a million years even if they had a thousand lifetimes! Our only hope is, in their secular understanding of what minimal knowledge they parse out of the language, that they learn to be less violent and are able to hold in check any tendencies towards persecuting another generation of Able's whom the Lord has indeed blessed with knowledge of Himself! Village idiot is probably too kind of a word to use for such misguided philosophers.

Paul is absolutely correct in his assessment in 1 Corinthians 2: 14 where we read: "The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned." Now, that observation may be well and good, but how are we to know that we have the mind of Christ in these spiritual matters. Thomas Watson gives us three lessons so that we may appreciate the spiritual knowledge that we truly have.

First, through the Scriptures and the Spirit, Christ as our prophet teaches us to see into our own hearts. And there we are enabled to see the base corruption, the lusting after sin and vain thoughts that prove the true lost nature of our souls. Compare that attitude with the worldly crowd with the insistence that the best way to deal with guilt is to legalize every sin possible.

Second, we may learn from Christ the vanity of vanities as David's earthy son well learned. By this I mean that as we come more and more into Christ's Kingdom the more we realize the passing fancies of this temporary worldly home we live in. Is it age, experience or the growing presence of the Spirit that prompts us like Paul to desire the next life where we can know Christ even as we are known by Him. What does it take to make you happy, make a list and count the items carefully and consider their source. If your pleasant little list will fit under a Christmas tree rather nicely, perhaps you need to consider the babe whose birthday is the real focus of the upcoming holiday season. Compare this learned dissatisfaction with the worldly content and delight in the passing fancies of this gilded age. A hundred years ago a top tune celebrated that the singer was only a bird in a gilded cage. How many would be put off by just such a thought in our time. Institutions are spending more and more time and money to remind their workers how wonderful they already have it and with just a little sacrifice and hard work, things will be just peachy keen!

Third, we may learn from Christ the excellent nature of those things yet unseen. He it is who will set our hopes on heavenly things to prepare us for eternity with Him. This is the flip side of our second lesson. If the second lesson of comprehending the false vanities of this life were all we knew, how could we continue unless we also learned like the Patriarchs of old who saw a better county, a heavenly country where all will in fact be sweetness and life only in the blessed light of Christ.

Compare this heavenly hope with the earthly crowd who only want to create a paradise on earth. Some of the worldly are having their bodies frozen so that they can be thawed and cured of their ailments when that earthly paradise is finally achieved. Don't they know that frozen meat cooks just as quickly in the fires of hell as rotten meat?

The spiritual teachings of our Lord and our Christ is indeed different from the passing fancies of this world. He teaches the heart and so teaches us to love the truth. Once we face the truth of our sinful condition, he lifts us out of the swamp and brings us into a spacious place to spend eternity with Him. Again, another difference is that Christ gives us a taste of the word. Well does the Psalmist encourage us to "Taste and see that the Lord is good" (Psalm 34: 8) In 2 Corinthians 2: 14, Paul calls it the "fragrance of the knowledge of him". If you do indeed know Him, you have tasted the word prepared by the Spirit.

A third difference in the teaching of Christ, is that we learn to obey Him. And by obeying Him, we give Him the credit and the glory for what He has accomplished through us. A fourth, fifth and sixth differences in the teaching of Christ, are all related. His teaching is easy, he makes us willing to learn and when He teaches, he not only illuminates but also animates. His teaching is effective, because as He teaches, he quickens us and gives us the light of life.