There are lessons that can only be experienced. Sure, books and classrooms open our hearts for when these lessons come, but reality only sets in when one has to live through the syibus of hard knocks. We never see Jesus come to the, weather beaten, fishermen of the Galilee and say follow me, I will make you schoolmasters of men. Rather, He professes, "I will make you fishers of men." (Mark 1:17) Common religion would dictate that life's realities exist in religious structures, yet Jesus chose people of the likes of, Deadliest Catches, Sig Hansen, to spread His Gospel. Startling within the power structures of the time. Startling now! So startling, the community responded with piety...
Acts 4:13 ESV — Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated, common men, they were astonished. And they recognized that they had been with Jesus.
They even looked down on Jesus.
Mark 6:3 Is not this the carpenter, (as if a Carpenter could never be sent of God) the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon? And are not his sisters here with us?” And they took offense at him.
The fact that the people were astonished at the notion that God could speak through "uneducated," shows the WorldThink of the time -- God can only be known within the institution of the Educational System. Jesus, uses Peter and John to obliterate that worldview. Jesus saw the value of lessons taught outside the mere concepts, and Ideas of reality, rather choosing reality itself, in the form of crushed fingers, angry storms, and fish slime. The Gospel comes from a personal, organic, reality that is not merely contained in systems of far off human concepts, but pours out from a human life that endures this gritty world. To say it another way, the Gospel was and is written on the narrative of His life and His people, not bullet points.
I don't write this destruct the institution of learning, Far from it, as I owe so much to my formal studies, but, I write this to edify, and empower those of you who think the Gospel and its proclamation is left to the scholars. Jesus, as a construction worker himself, expects you to know and share the News that we can be joined with God once again. That through His blood, you can again live in community with God. So connected that His Spirit creates a boldness in you. So astonishing that people will see the reality in your sweat drenched blue collar and recognize Jesus.
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