Jesus at parent teacher interview

February 23, 2013 By 8 Comments
jesus at parent teacher interview by nakedpastor david hayward

“Jesus at Parent Teacher Interview” by nakedpastor David Hayward

I love the few childhood stories of Jesus in the canonical scriptures. The ones from the gnostic gospels are fascinating as well.

He was just a kid. Finding his way. Trying to grow up.

Like us.

Filed Under: cartoons Tagged With: , , , , 8 Comments
About David Hayward

David Hayward runs the blog nakedpastor as a graffiti artist on the walls of religion where he critiques religion… specifically Christianity and the church. He also runs the online community The Lasting Supper where people can help themselves discover, explore and live in spiritual freedom.

  • Kris

    LOL! That would be a lot of pressure for a little kid.

  • http://thewoundedbird.blogspot.com Grandmère Mimi

    I try to think of new ways to express my appreciation of your cartoons, David, but I fail, so I’ll just say that the cartoon is wonderful and LOL funny.

  • http://nakedpastor.com David Hayward

    aw thanks grandmere!

  • http://www.gloriousadventure.com/ Michelle

    Hi David,

    We follow a parenting/educational philosophy called radical unschooling which is very much based on gentle parenting and allowing your children the freedom to work out what their interests are and giving them freedom to learn in a connection partnership with their parents. This cartoon not only gave me a laugh but also made me thankful our children don’t have these pressures from teachers or us and they know right now that they are enough just the way God made them!

    Anyway keep the giggle coming, they are great!

    Michelle

  • Carol

    Well, like us in all things, but sin.

    Of course, *sin* requires knowingly and willfully (cognition and volition) choosing to do evil. So Jesus probably made mistakes out of ignorance and childish weaknesses just as we all do as he lived and learned his way into mature adulthood.

    I believe that the mystery of the Incarnation is as much of a Revelation of who we truly are as it is a Revelation of God as Unconditional Love.

    If Jesus is fully human and also sinless, then *sin* cannot be intrinsic to our humanity. It is rather an aberration, a disorder, that must be healed to restore us our initial health, not something that can be solved by a change in our legal status. The Law is a means of coping with the affects/symptoms of our broken relationship with God [broken on the human, not the Divine side] and not the cure of mankind’s individual and social ills.

    Unlike Anselm’s legalistic theory of the Atonement, the writings of the Early Church Fathers teach theosis or deification, the realization of our human potential for godlikeness through a relational participation in the Divine Life, as the source of our redemption in Christ:

    http://www.johnsanidopoulos.com/2012/06/redemption-or-deification-1-of-3.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+johnsanidopoulos%2FAOGe+%28MYSTAGOGY%29

  • Brigitte

    Schooling was in the synagogue and in worship and scripture. He knew them well and he used it in the temptation by the devil ( last week’s lectionary), the very thing we are trying to throw out these days, to our own danger and confusion.

  • Carol

    Well, not quite. The Jews interpret their Scripture much differently than we do. If I want the sort of interpretation of the OT that Jesus would have had, I check out a Jewish source. The Rabbis have a much different hermeneutic than our Western scholastic theologians, frem lived experience rather than philosophical categories; so it is more practical and addresses heart as well as head.

    “There’s a lovely Hasidic story of a rabbi who always told his people that if they studied the Torah, it would put Scripture on their hearts. One of them asked, “Why on our hearts, and not in them?” The rabbi answered, “Only God can put Scripture inside. But reading sacred text can put it on your heart, and then when your hearts break, the holy words will fall inside.”
    — Anne Lamott (Plan B: Further Thoughts on Faith)

    Four Walls Separating Us from the New Testament
    Four crises separate Western Christians on the one hand from the New Testament writers and Eastern Christians on the other. If we understand these crises and the effects they had, we can attempt to “roll them back” in our minds and understand the New Testament more clearly.

    The New Testament is in Greek, which has a large philosophical vocabulary that Latin lacks. Ecumenical councils used Greek as the working language; then they made an official translation into Latin for use in the West. Many of the most heated debates were about which Latin words best conveyed the meaning of the Greek resolution they had already agreed on. Because Greek philosophical concepts had to be translated into Latin legal concepts, theology in the West took on the character of codified law after the West lost Greek. To this day, Orthodox theologians reason like rabbis, while western theologians reason like lawyers.

  • Carol

    There is no such thing as a “perfect church”; but the Eastern Church has remained much closer to the foundational beliefs and practices of biblical and patristic beliefs and practices than the Latin/Western Church(es):

    Four Walls Separating Us from the New Testament
    Four crises separate Western Christians on the one hand from the New Testament writers and Eastern Christians on the other. If we understand these crises and the effects they had, we can attempt to “roll them back” in our minds and understand the New Testament more clearly.
    The New Testament is in Greek, which has a large philosophical vocabulary that Latin lacks. Ecumenical councils used Greek as the working language; then they made an official translation into Latin for use in the West. Many of the most heated debates were about which Latin words best conveyed the meaning of the Greek resolution they had already agreed on. Because Greek philosophical concepts had to be translated into Latin legal concepts, theology in the West took on the character of codified law after the West lost Greek. To this day, Orthodox theologians reason like rabbis, while western theologians reason like lawyers.
    Pelagianism
    Augustine accused Pelagius of teaching salvation by works
    Western Christians are obsessed with not being saved by works
    Western Christians deemphasize ascetic disciplines and exercises
    Spirituality becomes a set of mental acts
    Salvation is rescue from hell, rather than transformation into glory
    Determinism enters some parts of western theology from Manichaeism through Augustine

    Scholasticism
    Theology moved from the monastery to the university
    Western theology is an intellectual discipline rather than a mystical pursuit
    Western theology is over-systematized
    Western Theology is systematized, based on a legal model rather than a philosophical model
    Western theologians debate like lawyers, not like rabbis
    Reformation
    Catholic reformers were excommunicated and formed Protestant churches
    Western churches become guarantors of theological schools of thought
    Western church membership is often contingent on fine points of doctrine
    Some western Christians believe that definite beliefs are incompatible with tolerance
    The atmosphere arose in which anyone could start a church
    The legal model for western theology intensifies despite the rediscovery of the East

    Enlightenment
    Philosophers founded empirical sciences
    Western theologians attempt to apply empiricism to theology
    Western theologians agonize over the existence of God
    Western theologians lose, deemphasize, neglect, marginalize, or explain away the supernatural
    Western theologians no longer have coherent answers for many practical religious questions
    Western churches outsource the treatment of religious problems to secular therapists

    East and West

    West
    Western Christians are obsessed with not being saved by works
    Western Christians deemphasize ascetic disciplines and exercises
    Spirituality becomes a set of mental acts
    Salvation is rescue from hell
    The emphasis is on the cross
    Determinism enters some parts of western Christian theology

    East
    Works express faith, faith gives birth to works
    Eastern Christians engage in fasting and other spiritual disciplines
    Spirituality involves both mind and body
    Salvation is transformation into glory
    The emphasis is on resurrection and transformation
    Determinism never entered Christian theology

    West
    Western theology is primarily an intellectual discipline by professors
    Western theology is over-systematized
    Western theology is based on a legal model
    Western theologians debate like lawyers

    East
    Eastern theology is primarily a mystical pursuit by monastics
    Eastern theology is not as strictly systematized; for example, the number of sacraments is not set and is not controversial
    Eastern theology is based on a philosophical model
    Eastern theologians debate like rabbis

    West
    Western churches became guarantors of theological schools of thought
    Western church membership is often contingent on fine points of doctrine
    Some western Christians believe that definite beliefs are incompatible with tolerance
    The atmosphere arose in which anyone could start a church

    East
    Eastern theology, while holding more strictly than western theology on basic dogmas, is tolerant of differences of opinions on finer points
    Eastern church membership is contingent on commitment and behavior
    Eastern Christians have no difficulty maintaining definite beliefs while remaining tolerant.
    There was nothing corresponding to the Protestant Reformation and there is no proliferation of sects within the mainstream

    West
    Western Christians see a dichotomy of spirit and matter
    Western theologians attempt to apply empiricism to theology
    Western theologians agonize over the existence of God
    Western theologians have lost, deemphasized, neglected, marginalized, or explained away the supernatural and miraculous
    Western theologians no longer have coherent answers for many practical religious questions (such as during bereavement)
    Western churches outsource the treatment of religious problems, such as bereavement, to secular therapists

    East
    Eastern Christians see a dichotomy of God and creation
    Eastern theologians are largely unaffected by modernism
    Eastern theologians do not agonize over the existence of God
    Eastern theologians systematize the transcendent, the miraculous, and the mystical into their theology, without a concept of ‘supernatural’
    Eastern theologians have coherent and helpful answers for most practical spiritual problems (such as during bereavement)
    Eastern clergy, monastics, and lay experts have resources for spiritual direction, moral direction, and Eastern clergy, monastics, and lay experts have resources for spiritual direction, moral direction, and bereavement counseling; thus they do not outsource religious problems to secular experts.