This week my third year Life and Teachings of Jesus students turned in their third set of journals. Recently, we have been studying the Words and Deeds of Jesus.
We began this unit by exploring different miracles and healing stories in the Gospels. For a warm-up, I asked the students to brainstorm a definition of a miracle. The students through out phrases like "an unusual event," "something that defies nature's laws," "something that cannot be explained." I wrote their comments on the board, and then I said to them, "Alright ziaci, I like your definitions, but I have one question for you to consider: Keeping these defintions in mind, would you consider a woman giving birth to a baby a miracle?" In both of my third year classes, our discussion was lively. I have some students who completely altered their definition of miracle. Others kept their original definition of miracle. One student commented, "People have babies every day. Even cats have babies."
For their journal that week, I asked them to reflect on the following questions:
What is a miracle? Can a miracle prove the existence of God? Give an example of a miracle. Here are their responses:
"In my opinion, a miracle can prove the existence of God. And why? Because the miracle is something unpredictable, and something a human is unable to do themselves."
"Maybe I look like a Gentile now, but I don't believe in miracles. I think every miracle can be explained by modern science. I think someone who believes in God does not need any miracles to assure that God exists."
"A miracle is something breath-taking."
"There are places in the world where people are dying because of hunger and thirst, and God could help, but no... If God helped these people, it would be a miracle."
"Life is a miracle."
"Miracle, we often use this word for something that happened and we really didn't expect it."
"The problem is that the modern people are hard to persuade. We want at least a mountin moving across the sea. We forget all about every day miracles like surise, singing birds, blowing wind, and meeting new frends."
"As an example (of a miracle), I can say this: We are going to take Ms. Large's test. None of us is prepared and all of us think it will be a horrible grade. But suddenly something happens during the test and whole class knows the right answers and gets 100 percent. That's what I call a miracle."
"What is a miracle for me? I lived many miracles, for example, when my youngest brother born, he born before 2 years, so I was fifteen, and I don't believe that I will have more brothers than one. Miracle is that I am at EGT because when I wasn't here, I can't meet my friends. The miracle is that I have a family who I love, I have friends who I can believe. In my future, miracles will happen. There are a lot of miracles, but we must see it. Or better is, we must want to see it."
In the following week, the students worked in pairs (or as I like to call it - "with someone who loves them") to dissect and study one of Jesus' parables. Each pair was responsible for teaching the class everything they need to know about this particular parable - the social, historical, Biblical, and theological contexts. Taking all of this into account, they were asked to summarize the message of the parable in their own words. I was very impressed with the research the students did, and the way in which they applied these contexts to the greater message Jesus was sharing with us. For this week, this was the students' journal prompt and their responses:
What is a parable? What is your favorite parable and why? Why do you think Jesus chose to teach in parables, and do you consider parables an effective teaching method?
"Parable is a kind of story that Jesus used to explain the hard things connected with God and with his plan on the earth by using a much more simple story."
"Parables are very nice and interesting. We can study them for months or years and we still cannot get enough."
"Parables are told in such a way that we have to think about it and find out what does the particular parable mean. Jesus wanted people to think about the meaning of the stories."
"Jesus tells it (a message) in a really interesting way, which people acknowledge and they accepted more than something what is really boring."
"Jesus used parables, thus making people think."
"There are a lot of hidden meanings in it (a parable). Some people can find a lot of things on the surface, but some people go to the deepness of the story and find something special that the surface pepole wouldn't see if they would read it one hundred times."
"Parables are easier to remember. In every story is some idea which is very important but we could forget it. But if it is soemthing different or more interesting you will remember it for a longer time than something that is awful and boring."
"I think it's a very good teaching method. Because sometimes it's hard to explain some important things as they are. And if you use a parable, you can easily show all the bad things, all the relationships. And because it's easier to look at someone else then to look at myself and say "Yes, I was wrong."
"Parables are a really effective teaching method. Jesus was very clever that he was using them. This is much better than telling people what they should do, how they should behave outright - it is better when they understand by listening and thinking about the parables that tell us so much."
"I think Jesus had a reason why to teach the parables so it can be an effective method. But in my own opinion, it can be an effective method but only when we know the right meaning which is often hard to comprehend without someone else's help."
"Maybe God wanted to show us that we need each other, because everyone has different minds and if one understands sense of the parable, he could help others understand too."
The last set of journals for this unit stemmed from Jesus' Sermon on the Mount in Matthew. We spent a week discussing Jesus' teaching on the mount and asking the questions: "So what?" "What does this mean?" "How does Jesus say we are supposed to live?"
In their journals, I asked them:
How does the world define success? How do you define success? Do you consider yourself successful?
"The world say makes a person successful, when they have a lot of money and they belong among wealthy family. People, who have high position in the work, have the best model of car. But the world is failed because the secret of success is something different."
"I don't think the world is successful."
"Successful is the person who is nice, pretty, wealthy, has perfect job, is rich, is always smiling on your tv screen or on newspapers or is a celebrity. but this person isn't successful inside the heart."
"I think today's picture of a successful person is: good-looking, wealthy with a summer villa and a luxury apartment, three cars in garage and fantastic jobs, expensive holidays and one women for every day."
"The world says that a person is successful if he/she has a lot of money, a lot of work, a huge house, a nice husband and polite children..."
"I think that money and fame do not make anyone successful. Person who is successful is someone who is honest, hard-working and willing to help others."
"I think that only one thing can be you successful. It is your belief in God and your belief in your ambitions."
"So, a person could be successful, if he does not have much money, does not have any close friends, but puts up with that and helps those who need care."
"Am I successful? I don't know. I'm still searching for something that makes me satisfied with my life."
"In my opinion, my father is successful person because he stopped swearing and has strong faith. My mother is also successful. She is teacher and she has lots of problems, but she suffers them and has really strong faith."
"I want to have a really big family, live where I want and have everything I need for life. Health is also very important because without health, we haven't got sense. For now, I think I am successful. I have what I need, I study in school. I have a lot of friends, big family, not girlfriend - but probably soon, I hope.
"Am I successful? I have to confess that I am sometimes lazy and I don't do my best. I know that sometimes I could do more, but I just don't do it. I feel sorry for it later."
"If I take the definition of the world I wouldn't be successful at all. I would be one of the poorest people in the world."
"A successful person has a really strong faith."
And this concludes, my friends in the United States, what I consider to be a very powerful, open and honest sermon from my third year students. I hope you have enjoyed reading their thoughts - I know they have enjoyed sharing them.
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