14 Not until halfway through the Feast did Jesus go up to the temple courts and begin to teach. 15 The Jews were amazed and asked, "How did this man get such learning without having studied?"
Jesus was constantly blowing the crowds away with the depth of His insight, authority, wisdom and understanding. His Words, not to mention His demonstrations of the miraculous, often left His audiences scratching their heads with mouths and eyes wide open – surprise, surprise to that! There was something definitely different in His instruction and His miraculous powers that caught their attention and powerfully cut to the quick their souls. Again, this comes as no surprise. We find the following in Scripture regarding the crowd’s reactions to His teachings. After the Sermon on the Mount Matthew records:
28 When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching, 29 because he taught as one who had authority, and not as their teachers of the law. Matt 7:28-29 (NIV)
Matthew also gives us this additional insight:
54 Coming to his hometown, he began teaching the people in their synagogue, and they were amazed. "Where did this man get this wisdom and these miraculous powers?" they asked. Matt 13:54 (NIV)
Unfortunately, rather than being desirous of following our Lord, many of the Jewish leaders of the day were annoyed and disgruntled and even perhaps a bit jealous over Jesus’ abilities and wisdom. How could He have achieved such insight without sitting at the feet of a Rabbi they highly esteemed? His teaching was learned and spiritually penetrating yet He had never been a disciple in a Rabbinical school. They did not like taking God out of their box by going against their favored tradition in education of the day. Basically, He was not respected because He carried with Him no grandiose academic credentials. Unlike Paul who sat at the feet of the famous Gamaliel – a rabbi highly honored and regarded by all the people - to them, Jesus was a simple carpenter who they wrongly assumed was unlearned and ordinary. Jesus was anything but that. Having received the Spirit without limit, Jesus had no need to learn from mere man. Our Lord, being fully God and fully Man, was Himself the fullness of all wisdom and knowledge. Paul gives us the following Truth regarding Jesus in Colossians:
2 My purpose is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love, so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely, Christ, 3 in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Col 2:2-3 (NIV)
Christ being the fullness of the Godhead in bodily form came to reveal God to man being the image of the invisible God. All wisdom and knowledge are found in our Jesus – knowledge being the apprehension of Truth and wisdom being the application of that knowledge – knowledge governing judgment and wisdom governing actions. Christ had learning without formally being taught certainly making Him truly the “One and Only”. While it is necessary for His followers to take great pains in learning - since we cannot expect it through inspiration or some sort of osmosis, we must learn through ordinary ways. That is why Christ stood out as being so wonderful and truly great. Some took notice of Jesus to His honor while sadly others held Him in contempt. Not being able to understand His abilities and His ways some even believed He practiced magic arts. Oftentimes, what we humans perhaps do not understand - because we see so poorly - we can easily be deluded into believing something false. This is why it is of great importance for His followers to know Truth. This comes from studying God’s Word and applying the Truth’s learned - always praying for the Holy Spirit to open our eyes that are blind – granting us wisdom - to the understanding of its pure treasure. Paul tells us in his famous Doxology in Romans:
33 Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out! 34 "Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor?" Romans 11:33-34 (NIV)
God’s ways are incapable of being tracked by footprints. He is, totally Other. In His mercy, He has given us His revealed will through the Scriptures and while we cannot know all things on this side of heaven, we can certainly know some. His Word gives us knowledge and our obedience to His Truth revealed is our steps to wisdom. We do ourselves a great disservice and harm by our neglect and ignorance of it.
“Do not be misled by the moral and spiritual relativity of our age. God has revealed His truth to us – in His written Word, the Bible, and in the Loving Word, Jesus Christ.” Billy Graham
15 Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth. 2 Tim 2:15 (NIV)