Living Under the Lordship of Christ in the Classroom

Many of you may have attended Vacation Bible School over the years. I did as a child. My Aunt Shirley led the music each year at Mentor Baptist Church. She taught us songs, many of them with hand motions. I still remember one particular song about the differences between the wise man, who built his house on a rock, and the foolish man, who built his house on the sand. And you know what happened. When the rains and floods came, the wise man’s house stood fast while the foolish one’s went SPLAT (imagine the hand motions here by lots of elementary school children!).[1]

This story of the wise and foolish builders is the last one told by Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount. What is in the story in Matthew 7:24-28, and not in the Sunday School song, is the reason why the one house fell and the other went SPLAT. “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man… And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not act on them will be like a foolish man…”[2] 

What precedes this story are Jesus’ somewhat chilling words in Matthew 7:21: “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven.” Unfortunately, the section titles in our Bibles break up the connections between the passages in 7:21-23 and 7:24-29. This means we, also, tend to break up the connections between these passages in Jesus’ Sermon.   

How do the connections between these passages help us to understand what it means to “live under the Lordship of Christ” in the classroom? What might it mean to say, “Lord, Lord,” in our classrooms? Perhaps we can think of the following connections:

The word, “Lord” is translated in English from the Greek word, kyrios. It can be used to describe earthly rulers as well as divine ones, as it is in the New Testament to identify Jesus as our, and THE, Lord with authority, who is to be listened to and obeyed. It is a term of reverence and seriousness: we should listen to what this one “Lord” says. 

Its parallel in the Old Testament is the word “Adonai” which is the substitute for YHWH, a name too holy and sacred to pronounce. We see this in the Shema in Deuteronomy 6:4-5: “Hear, O Israel: the LORD is our God, the LORD alone. You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might.” This call to prayer, the Shema, is the call to “hear” the LORD, or “Adonai.” “Adonai” can also refer to earthly rulers. But when capitalized in our English translations, it is the sacred name for God. The LORD is our only true God, the one with the power and authority over our lives. It is the one, true LORD, among all other gods and idols, to whom we are to be loyal and faithful.[3]

These two passages remind us of the important link between “hearing” and “response.” Those who say, “Lord, Lord,” are those who “Keep these words” (Deuteronomy 6:6), and “everyone who hears these words of mine” (Matthew 7:26) does the will of the Father. Hearing is more than an auditory act of sound vibrations in our ears. Hearing elicits response. It is a whole-hearted response of loving the Lord with our mind, heart, soul, and strength. Of loving the Lord with all of our lives in every aspect of our lives. 

How might this “hearing and responding” dynamic shape how we “live under the Lordship of Christ” in our relationships with students, in our classrooms, and in our pedagogical practices?

1. While the term “lord” is also used to describe earthly rulers, our confession of “Jesus as Lord” means that “Jesus is Lord like no other.” While all authority on heaven and earth belong to Jesus, Jesus is not an authoritarian. Jesus is not capricious, power-grabbing, demanding of obedience, or unjust. He does not put others down so he canlook better. As teachers, we do have authority in our classrooms. We have been given various degrees of power and responsibility for “setting the tone” and the learning environment for our students. We strive to do this as ones who “hear and respond” to the ways of Jesus as we lead and teach our students. This means we should not use our power to demean students, to manipulate ideas, to skew what we teach in our favor, or to make us look better. Like Jesus as Lord, we desire to use our power to serve students, helping them to “become all that God intends” in their lives.
2. The claim that “Jesus is Lord” means there is not one area of our lives that Jesus does not care about. We know this personally. We have made our personal choices to follow Jesus and have been met in profound ways by the love and grace of God as we have said, “Lord, Lord.” This claim carries with it significant commitments that go beyond our personal relationships with Christ. As we work with students in a variety of contexts and in a variety of subjects, how do we help them “hear and respond” to the command to love the Lord with heart, mind and strength? 

• • Since “hear and response” are so tied together in Scripture, it assumes we are hearing God’s voice to us in the Bible. What opportunities do we offer to students to read the Bible together, to spend time with it, and to think about the the claim of “Jesus as Lord” in their lives?
  • What difference does “Jesus as Lord…in the classroom” make for future career choices and courses of study of our students?
  • How can we help them understand the economic, political, and social challenges of our day and respond faithfully as those who claim that Jesus is Lord?  
  • How can we help students see and develop their gifts, talents, and interests in areas such as the arts, mathematics, physical education, and writing to reflect Jesus’ Lordship by expressing God’s love and serving the world which God still loves and works to redeem?

May our learning contexts be spaces and places where wise ones are developed, who “hear and respond” and say, “yes, Lord…” for all of their lives.

Wyndy Corbin Reuschling
Wyndy is the Director of Global Higher Education Services and has been involved with TeachBeyond since 2013, along with her husband, Mike. She is retired professor of Theology and Ethics from Ashland Theological Seminary and has taught and served in higher education contexts since 1996. Wyndy and Mike live in northeast Ohio near Cleveland.