The Laws of Teaching and Inner-Textuality

Being Frustrated With Biblical Authors

Have you ever been reading one of the Gospels and found yourself frustrated when Jesus makes a really important sounding declaration of some critically significant fact about what it means to enter the Kingdom, or what the Kingdom of Heaven is like, or what the end of time will be like?  The frustration comes because you realize that what Jesus is saying here makes all the difference, but it's not very clear what he means by it.  I think this is exactly what you have in Luke 18:16-17 when Jesus tells us that we won't be able to enter the Kingdom of God (KOG) unless we receive it like a child.  Two big questions pique our interest.  What does it mean to enter the KOG? and what does it mean to receive it like a child?  Here we all want Jesus to go on to say, "Now this is what it means to enter the KOG, and this is what it means to receive it as a child.  I think He doesn't do that because no good teacher would do that.

The Laws of Teaching

John Milton Gregory has left us with my favorite book so far on the principles involved in all good teaching.  As I was reading Luke 18 recently with my children, I noticed how skillfully Luke employs Gregory's fifth law concerning the teaching process.  Rather I should say that Luke 18 provides a fine example of the kind of teaching principles Gregory learned from the biblical writers from whom he intentionally gathered many of his insights.  In his fifth law, Gregory argues that teaching is arousing, i.e. it stimulates the child's mind to grasp the desired thought, or master the desired art.  Teaching never tells the student anything that the child can discover himself because true teaching comes by thinking, not by being told.  After Luke has inspired us to seek an answer, he makes use of inner-textuality to guide us into his answer.

Inner-Textuality in Luke 18:15-19:10

In Luke 18:16-17, Luke displays his mastery of the teaching process.  In these verses, Jesus makes a statement concerning who can enter the Kingdom of God which is a bit obscure and hard to grasp.  The reader's mind is aroused to wonder just what it means to receive the Kingdom of God like a child.  Luke then arranges the following material in such a way through the use of inner-textuality to invite the reader to discover the answer to that question without outright telling the reader the answer.  You'll remember that inner-textuality is the intentional use of similar or the same words and phrases to link passages together within a single book of the Bible in an effort to get the reader to understand those passages in light of one another.

The Rich Ruler, The Blind Man, and Zacchaeus Pericopes

Here I am tempted to just tell you how Luke links these passages together to answer our two questions, but if I did, I would be betraying Gregory's fifth law and short-circuiting your own journey.  I'll just have you read through 19:10 and ask you some questions which should guide you to your own discovery.  Then real learning can take place.

Luke 18:18--What is the rich man's question?
Luke 18:24--But how does Jesus describe the nature of his question, i.e. Jesus says his question is really about what?  How does the phrase Jesus uses connect with 18:17 inner-textually?

Fill in the blank: Entering the KOG is about inheriting ___________ ___________.

Luke 18:38-39--How does the crowd respond to the blind man's cry for mercy?  How is this similar to 18:15 when the children were coming to Jesus, i.e. are there similar words or phrases in both verses?  What does that tell us about what it means to receive the kingdom like a child?

Fill in the blank: Receiving the KOG like a child is about crying out for ______________ to ___________.

Luke 19:1-10: In verse 2 we're told that Zach was rich.  Who does this remind you of from the previous chapter?  In verse 6 how does Zach receive Jesus?  How is Zach's response to Jesus in verse 8 different from the rich ruler's response in 18:23?  Is Luke using key words to contrast two different passages and characters in his book?  This is called inner-______________.

Fill in the Blank:  Entering the KOG is about receiving _____________ with ____.

What to Do When These Authors Frustrate You

So what shall we do when we read something in a biblical text that we don't understand?  The simple answer is to just keep reading while paying close attention to the very words the author uses to link his text together and guide the reader into his meaning.  After all, it's likely the author knows you're frustrated because he did it on purpose.  He wants to arouse your mind to seek an answer by reading further as he shows you the answer in a more powerfully memorable way than he ever could by just telling you.  This is often more subtle than we would like, but lasting learning takes place that way as the answer becomes our own discovery.