A person’s eternal destiny is not predetermined.
The Teacher
He is referred to as the Teacher or Rabbi. Come to think of it, I left school but I take lessons from life on a daily basis. Different encounters with different experiences and enormous lessons. In any learning, the teacher strikes the learners attention.
It is the Easter period and I revisit an account of one of the greatest and striking teachers of a lifetime. Read across the gospels. The striking and memorable teachings on the divinity of the Lord and the Kingdom of God and the variety of teaching methods that Jesus used perfectly portray a savior.
Imagine having to prove yourself kwa mbogi that you are worth their time and that they should abandon whatever they had going on and follow you. A hard task if you practically tried it but too easy if you read of it. At a time when a rabbi had to be formally trained, seeds of doubt where meant to thrive. Remember Thomas? However, before his death, people had recognized that Jesus was indeed a teacher sent from God. Like other teachers who rolled the streets in the cities and the countryside during His day, Jesus had disciples; buttressed his teaching with scripture, announced divine commands, used different teaching methods to make his teachings memorable and got into trouble with the government of the time on legal disputes. So this gets a thought across my mind. The government has always been around looking for trouble. Taxation is as equally controversial. (sic)
Parables and Memes
It’s all to impress. If He came back today and tried to use parables on us, the people of this generation, the impression would be dead before the revelation. Today, trap me with a meme and you will impress my agility. In case he came back today, 30sec stories and short undercut jabs on reality would make an instant impression on us the listeners of this generation. What if evil figured this out and decided to corrupt the souls of a generation? Remember, evil doesn’t take rest just as Jesus doesn’t take rest in trying to save.
‘Every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruits.’ With simple parallelism the Teacher would provide a massive lesson that is still applicable in our lives today. Nothing is hidden and the nature of the tree is made manifest in the fruits that are produced. The diseased nature of the tree might be hidden to the gardener but upon the coming of the light, which eventually happens, the secret comes out. I hope you read this as the parable I intend it to be or you can check the gospel of Mark to clear your doubts on my sense.
The Kingdom
‘The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field.’ We spend our entire days and lifelines on the fields. The purpose? We are looking for a treasure that we give different terms as we try to give meaning to life. For some; ni kuomoka bila apologies, kumake it no matter what, making it at the end, looking back and feeling proud and other “normalized” words that make it a daily effort worth our time and endeavors.
The kingdom of God is central in the teaching of Jesus. Beyond the physical realm that we hope to kuomoka and build our own kingdoms, Jesus taught of another kingdom that is a present reality and a future hope that His followers ought to invest in.
Jesus said, “ My kingdom is not of this world.” When darkness fell on that city that afternoon, the intern Roman soldier who was faithfully following the orders from above witnessed the presence of that kingdom. In this world you ought to ask yourself, “people need salvation. Will they save you?” No guarantees.
I had the Best Easter Weekend yet! Happy Easter Too.
By Calpas
