URC Daily Devotion Friday 12 December 2025

St Matthew 10: 24 – 25

Jesus said: “The student is not above the teacher, nor a servant above his master. It is enough for students to be like their teachers, and servants like their masters. If the head of the house has been called Beelzebul, how much more the members of his household!’

Reflection

Matthew 10 reads like an induction programme for new recruits, something with which many of us are familiar. We get the overall brief, the detailed instructions, warnings, guidance  and commentary. These particular verses are part of the warnings. The disciples can only expect the treatment which the leader – the teacher – will receive, including defamation and false accusation. These warnings will be borne out in the lives of the Apostles, saints and martyrs.

In the classical world, the well-to-do would hire a tutor for the household. Aristotle, for example,  was tutor to Alexander the Great.  Alternatively, young men would study with a tutor at a school or follow an itinerant teacher.

This pattern we see with Jesus and his followers, –  the inner circle of the twelve, the seventy, the women, and the crowds who came to hear him or be healed. The teacher’s message might not find favour with the authorities. It is striking that the two greatest teachers of the western world – Jesus of Nazareth and Socrates of Athens – were both executed by the state. However, there is a stark contrast. Socrates took poison and died in the company of his friends. Jesus died a brutal, public, humiliating, death; abandoned except by a few friends both men and women.

However you have experienced teaching and learning – as student or teacher or both – you will know it is a varied and complicated experience. In the Gospel narratives we find misunderstanding, resistance, incomprehension, then growing recognition and response amongst the disciples but outright rejection by Judas. 

Our contemporary experience at school and after will perhaps be less personally focussed than in the classical era but we will surely be able to identify a teacher who has made a profound impression on us and helped to shape our lives. This is most significant in the journey of faith. Reflect on those who have supported you on that journey by word and deed. 

Prayer

 Lord – thank you for teachers, for those who have helped us learn, grow and develop, especially in faith.

Thank you especially for Jesus, the best teacher of all. Help us to be worthy to be called his disciples.

Amen