Somewhere, a church is looking to hire a new preacher. They are after a married man (preferably with children) with at least a Bible bachelor’s degree and five years of experience. Sounds reasonable, right? The problem is that neither Jesus Christ nor most of His apostles would meet our “minimum qualifications”. How does that happen, where our expectations of who a preacher is and what he is supposed to do becomes so far removed from Jesus? We need to ask ourselves, “W.W.J.P.”: What Would Jesus Preach?
Matthew summarized Jesus’ message at the start of His ministry as, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand”, urging great crowds in public places to change their lives to experience God’s reign (cf. Matt. 4:17, 23-25; Luke 4:14-32). Yet, He often did this by telling them “many things in parables” (Matt. 13:2). Jesus deliberately concealed “the secrets of the kingdom of heaven” in odd little stories that only those truly seeking God’s reign would see, hear, and understand (Matt.13:10-17). When people demanded things of Him that were not for God’s glory, He said no (cf. Luke 12:13-21). He refused to throw His pearls before pigs, sidestepping those who only wanted to argue – no matter how influential they were (cf. Matt. 7:6, 21:23-27).
Yet for those who would ask, seek, and knock, Jesus opened (cf. Matt. 7:7-11). He preached the Sermon on the Mount – a message about living life right with God that is so powerful the world still feels its impact – specifically to His disciples gathered around Him (cf. Matt. 5-7). When His disciples had questions about a parable after the crowds left, He explained it to them (cf. Matt. 13:36-43). He spent a great deal of His time privately instructing the twelve apostles, equipping them to proclaim God’s reign themselves (cf. Matt. 10:1-11:1).
Jesus just doesn’t fit “popular wisdom” about preaching, with its emphasis on inoffensive, broadly appealing, and easy to understand messages. How frustrated might we get with Jesus’ evasive responses to controversial debates? Would a church bear with a preacher who directly said “no” to unspiritual requests or who spent most of his time training just a handful of people? A lot of things about Jesus are not what we usually expect when it comes to preachers. Maybe we need to rethink what preaching is all about.
Jesus didn’t just preach the most famous sermon of all time: He practiced it every day of His life. That is what He wants for us, too. Learn to Practice What You Preach with us.