The Master Teacher

Why did Jesus need apostles?

He's God. Why did he need help?

My first thought was so that he could practice teaching the apostles first, and then, once he got his talk down, he could use it on the multitudes.

But that would mean he taught imperfectly at first, and needed improvement. That doesn't sound right.

Yet there were definitely times when the apostles didn't understand what he was saying, and he had to explain it again in plainer language.

It occurs to me, though, that that is how we learn.

First before we can learn, we have to be made open to receiving new knowledge. When Jesus taught the apostles and they didn't understand, their minds opened as they puzzled and searched and wanted to know the answer. When that wanting led them to say "what do you mean, master?" THEN they were ready to be taught. And then that plain and simple answer could enter them and become part of them. Remembered and integrated into the whole of them.

Had Jesus started with the easy answer without opening the apostles up to receive it first, it would have bounced off them and immediately been forgotten.

You can't teach someone unless they want to know the answer.

He can't teach me unless I want to know the answer.