Be a student in ‘Christianity 101’

To Whom it May Concern: It’s time to go back to school.

If this news does concern you, then perhaps you know how suddenly, and how subtly, summer morphs into shopping sprees in search of pencils, PeeChees, and plain-pocket jeans (or whatever the current style is). Are you ready to go back?

Of course, going back assumes that you’ve been to school. Maybe you were there three months ago, and now it is time to return. Or maybe you finished years ago and are wondering whether you should go back — yet again. Or maybe you are the kind who has learned that schooling never truly ends.

I find that I am constantly going back to school.

While some of my schools may be recognized as big brick buildings with professors inside, honestly, most of my instruction has taken place outside of those formal walls. To this day, a steady stream of teachers educate me when gathered around dinner tables, and during long car-ride conversations, and through books — and certainly as I pastor and parent. Daily I am learning, gleaning, processing, churning, listening, discovering, reviewing, revisiting, remembering. From seemingly simple sights to glimpses of glory, schooling is a way of life.

In Mark’s gospel, this back-to-school lifestyle can be seen as we follow the followers of Jesus, his “learners,” aka his disciples. Throughout Mark’s narrative it is clear that these select students find many teachings to be not so clear. Evidently, even the basics required teacherly repetition. On at least three separate occasions, Jesus finds it necessary to tell his students about God’s plan: “The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him. And when he is killed, after three days he will rise” (Mark 9:31; cf. 8:31; 10:33-34).

Not only is this teaching prophetic, precise, and plain talk, it is practically “Christianity 101” in its content, essential to the Lesson Plan that leads to new life. And while at the time these students struggled to craft a category for a Messiah who is killed, they are called upon nevertheless to believe the Teacher who himself turns out to be the very topic of the instruction, the substance of the subject matter, its truth.

Notably — and graciously — along the pilgrim way, the Good Teacher deliberately repeats this significant message to his students. Soon it actually happens in history, finding fulfillment, and filling up his followers with joy, as they repeat the same news throughout the ages. A lesson taught. A lesson learned. A lesson continued.

Ultimately, it is not intellect that makes this teaching clear; it is illumination. This schooling comes as the Spirit of God applies the message to whom it concerns, creating new life, and lifetime learners.

May this message concern you — (and comfort you!) — as you, too, make your way back to school.

This story was originally published August 30, 2015 at 5:58 PM with the headline "Be a student in ‘Christianity 101’."