Mentored by Jesus

 
I have always been interested in the influence that certain people seem to have on others. As a high school student, I remember a young pastor just out of Bible School who came to our little church in Minot, ND. It was summer and I was working on a farm north of town. I would come home Saturday evening in order to go to church the next morning. Then on Sunday afternoon this pastor would, from time to time, ask me if I’d like him to drive me back out to the farm. The very fact that he would do this impressed me. I can still remember different things he said along the way. He was a good role model for a young man. Whether or not at that time either of us knew the word “mentor,” I haven’t the faintest idea.
       Some time ago I spent two years in Guatemala helping set up a Christian radio station (TGNA). Then a couple of years ago a distinguished man contacted me and said, “When I was a 12 year old boy I admired you because you not only had a motorcycle but a convertible as well.” What? He was the son of a fellow missionary and usually off to school in another town. In the 64 years leading up to 2014 we had no contact with each other, but now we are “good friends.” You never know, do you!
       The point I’d like to make is that in those three years when Jesus was teaching throughout Galilee, the disciples not only heard what he was saying, but undoubtedly were impressed by how he lived – what he did in various situations. In contemporary jargon, he “mentored” them. So, for the past year or so I have been working my way through my book, Jesus, in His Own Words, taking note of everything that he did. We have been looking at what his life, rather than his teaching, “taught” about living the Christian life.
       How would I summarize what Jesus taught by the way his lived? It is certainly true that he was the “gentle Jesus” so often portrayed in pictures. He stopped when someone touched his cloak (Mark 5:30). He looked on the crowd with compassion (Matt 9:36). All that is true, but at the same time, according to John 2:14-17, this same Jesus cleansed the temple, turning over the merchants tables and opening the cages so the doves could go free. He referred more than once to the religious leaders as a “brood of vipers” (Matt. 23:33). While it’s true that Jesus described himself as “gentle and humble of heart” (Matt 11:29), it is helpful to remember that in context he was reaching out to those who were “weary and burdened,” inviting them to come to him for rest.
     Jesus is mentor to all who have taken his name, to those who have invited him to walk with them through life. What he did is as important as what he said. To watch him with care during those three years is a transforming experience. And the remarkable thing is that he is not simply a figure of the past, but a real and present companion who continues to show us the way to live as we walk along on the road to heaven.