Jesus, The Smartest Man Who Ever Lived



Years ago I was inspired by a favorite teacher of mine, Dallas Willard, to ask my students the question, “What is Jesus like?” It’s a great question. People may have a detailed picture in their minds, but often when they are asked to describe Jesus, it is an opportunity for deeper reflection. Generally, students respond with attributes like kind, loving, gentle, compassionate, sacrificial, powerful, miracle-working, sinless, etc. All of these are correct, of course, but even given a long time to come up with responses, audiences often miss a very important aspect of Jesus, just as Dr. Willard predicted they would (In fact, I am indebted to Dr. Willard for much of the content of this short article, and I would recommend his book “The Divine Conspiracy” if you are interested in exploring this topic in more detail).

The picture that emerges from this kind of question is a Jesus who is very nice, and very strong, but there is often not much more depth. If the Christian life is focused on actually becoming a disciple of Jesus, then this idea of Jesus is not sufficient. When we choose a teacher, we are not primarily interested in whether he or she is nice or powerful. We want someone who knows what they are talking about. When we choose a teacher, we should be looking for someone who is intelligent. Thankfully, that is what we have in Jesus. He is the smartest person who has ever lived. The disciples weren’t just awed by his miracles, they were drawn to his teaching (Matthew 7:28, Mark 1:22) They could sense its truth, and as they applied it to their lives they experienced its depth of wisdom. So, when Jesus sends the church to the nations he sends us to “...make disciples, teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you.” (Matthew 28:20) Does your idea of Jesus include his wisdom and intelligence? Do you trust that he knows what he is talking about?

Christians believe that Jesus is God. That means that Jesus is literally omniscient; he knows everything. Paul affirms that same truth in Colossians 2:3 when he writes that in Christ “are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” Jesus knows what he is talking about. There isn’t a mathematical theorem that Jesus doesn’t know about. He built the mathematical complexity into the universe. So, Jesus is the most brilliant physicist in the universe. He understands the structure of the universe from the sub-atomic level to the grandest scale. Jesus is the most knowledgeable astronomer, the best historian, and the greatest linguist who has ever lived. And Jesus’ wisdom and knowledge are not limited to dry facts. Jesus is the greatest poet who has ever lived, the greatest chef, the greatest painter and sculptor. These aren’t just empty compliments that we might feel obligated to pay to Jesus, they are the truth about him. When Jesus turns a vessel of water into wine, he isn’t exercising a mysterious power that he doesn’t understand. He knows the necessary chemical processes for a molecule of water to turn into a molecule of wine. And when he heals a crippled man, or brings a dead girl to life, Jesus knows the biological processes necessary for dead cells to turn into living cells. Jesus is brilliant. He deserves to be our teacher.

Of course, Jesus’ knowledge isn’t limited to these fields either. Jesus is an expert at living. In fact, he is the only expert at living who has ever existed. In a world full of amateurs, what we need is an authoritative expert to teach us how to live. That’s what Jesus does. He knows how to navigate life in this world. He knows how we should prioritize our time. He knows how we should spend our money. He knows how to deal with difficult relationships and how to respond to suffering and injustice. Jesus knows how to live, and he wants to teach us how to live. We can trust him as our teacher.

In fact, we can summarize the teaching of Jesus in the gospels this way: Jesus says, “If you live the way that I can show you, your lives will be better in ways that you cannot now understand.” Jesus invites us to live his way, to learn from him. He calls us into his understanding of life. This is one of the most misunderstood aspects of Christianity. Sometimes people think that they have to choose between a “good life” and the Christian life. As if Jesus calls us to a life which is unnecessarily difficult and uncomfortable, but if we want to go to heaven we have to endure it. That just isn’t true. There isn’t a difference between the good life and the Christian life. The life that Jesus demonstrates and proclaims is the very best kind of living. There isn’t a better way of living than the Christian life. The Christian life is truly the most soul-satisfying way of life, even though it includes difficulty. We can trust that Jesus knows what he is talking about when he invites us into his way of living, and that the way of life that he calls us to is deeply good.

Spiritual maturity is the process of growing into a genuine appreciation of the Jesus way of living. The Spirit transforms our longings as we become disciples of Jesus so that we begin to want what Jesus wants. We grow in our ability to taste the deep goodness of his example and teaching. At times we just have to trust that Jesus’ way genuinely is the best way of living, because we can’t yet taste it’s deep goodness. But gradually we grow in our appreciation, so that we stop wanting things that seem good to us in our immaturity, and we start wanting things that we couldn’t imagine wanting before.
This is a different understanding of the gospel than is sometimes presented today. I have met many Christians who think of the gospel as information about Jesus that we have to keep in our heads so that we can go to heaven when we die. But this just isn’t the good news that Jesus came to bring us. The goal of the Christian life is not to die and go to heaven. The goal of the Christian life is to be transformed toward Christlikeness.

So, the job of the Christian is to trust your life to Jesus, believing that Jesus knows how you should live. You should actually become a student of Jesus and learn how to live from him. We let the example and teaching of Jesus influence our priorities, our understanding of our moral obligations and restrictions, our individual decisions, and even our attitude and emotions. As we mature in the Christian life, Jesus’ way of life gradually becomes our way of life. We trust that his way is best, even when we don’t recognize its goodness. And gradually our hearts are being changed so that we see the goodness of his way of life more and more deeply, and our souls experience the kind of satisfaction that is only possible when we are living the way that Jesus wants us to live.
That’s the way that God has designed us to live. And he knows what he’s talking about, because Jesus is the smartest man who ever lived.

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