Title: Teacher's Day - Teacher and Disciple
Teacher's Day - Teacher and Disciple
1 Kings 2:1-18
1. Introduction
“A teacher's grace is like heaven, and the more I look up, the higher it rises. The teacher who taught me to be true and to be right is the parent of my heart. Ah, thank you, Master's love, Ah, I will repay you, Master's grace.” May 15th is the day of teachers (Master - Master - Master - Rabbi - Sufi - Father of the Desert - Guru - Abbas - Rinpoche, etc.). On Teacher's Day, we would like to share our grace while meditating on the relationship between teacher and disciple.
2. Beautiful 師弟 (priest) - Elijah and Elisha
Elijah from Tishep was a prophet who served Jehovah God in the wild wilderness with hair, leather clothing, and strong physical strength (2 Kings 1:8, 1 Kings 17:1-7, 1 Kings 18:46 - Elijah is a model for John the Baptist - Luke 1:17, John 1:21). The prophet Elijah said that when King Ahab of northern Israel and Jezebel, daughter of Ethbaal king of Sidon, persecuted and killed the prophets of the Lord (1 Kings 18:4), and promoted the idolatry of Baal and Asherah in the heathen, when the faith of the Lord was in crisis. He is Israel's greatest religious-ethnic-ideological prophet and teacher who saved the faith of Jehovah from idolatry by winning the 1:850 faith battle with the prophets of Baal and Asherah on the famous Mount Carmel (1 Kings 18:19-40).
After the confrontation on Mount Carmel, the prophet Elijah escaped the danger of Jezebel's counterattack, persecution, and death, and secretly nurtured disciples who would continue the tradition of the prophet while hiding in the wilderness with Mount Horeb across the Jordan River (1 Kings 19:1-) 18). Today's text is a secret, fantastic, and dramatic vision that Elijah announces to the students of the Prophets School that Elijah is raising in Gilgal, Bethel, and Jericho, and that Elisha is the successor who has been passed down to Elijah. We can find in this text the most ideal and healthy archetype of priesthood.
According to the text, the teacher Elijah has a foreboding of death and decides to inspect the students of the prophets he is secretly training in Gilgal, Bethel, and Jericho. On this journey, the teacher Elijah accompanies the disciple Elisha. I think this served two purposes as a teacher. One is whether Elisha is recognized by all the prophets in each province as the next leader after him? Another is, is Elisha herself prepared to carry out this weighty mission spiritually, intellectually, and humanly? What you want to check is what you are doing.
The text shows that the teacher Elijah passed the disciple Elisha in the above two aspects.
3. What is a desirable, healthy and ideal priestly relationship?
first. A teacher is not knowledge but wisdom, not skill but art, and not a fisher but a person who teaches how to fish. Every time Elijah left Gilgal and came to the places where the disciples of the prophets were (Gilgal, Bethel, Jericho, west of the Jordan), he said to his disciple Elisha, “Stay here! I say. Each time the disciple Elisha said, “I will not leave you!” It is said.
What does it mean? “You are satisfied with this!” It is the teacher’s challenge to the disciple who says, “No. You can't back down until you learn everything from your master!" It is the response of the disciple who does. Therefore, each time, the teacher Elijah did not reject Elisha, who was following him, but silently accepted it, and passed on every step from Gilgal-Bethel-Jerigo-west of the Jordan, giving him a greater and more mysterious wisdom-art-fishing method ( Every time I change places, I walk that distant wilderness road!).
second. A teacher risks his or her life to teach, and a disciple is someone who risks their life to learn. The record that the teacher Elijah struck the Jordan River with his cloak and the two men crossed over to the east side of the Jordan speaks of this. This is because “river” in ancient texts symbolizes the boundary between this world and the underworld. In ancient mythology, it was thought that a river like Acheron flows at the boundary between this world and the underworld, and there is a sailor from the other world like Charon (because of this influence, we say, “We will meet across the Jordan River” at the funeral!).
third. A teacher is a person who wants to do the afterlife, and a disciple is a person who wants to reciprocate with 靑出於藍. In other words, a teacher is a person who wants the disciple whom I have taught to grow further and higher and more beautiful than me, and the disciple is obliged to broaden, deepen and enrich the teacher's teaching just as the blue light comes from indigo, but the light is bluer and more beautiful It means a person with
According to 2 Kings 2:7-14, the teacher Elijah passed on everything about himself and, on his deathbed, asked his disciple Elisha, “What is the last thing I want before I die?” I ask. The disciple Elisha said, “I ask for double your inspiration!” It is said. The teacher Elijah said, “It is not what I can give, but what Jehovah God can give. But if you see God taking me from you, your wish will come true, otherwise it will not come true.”
While the teacher and the disciple were having such a conversation, a chariot of fire and a horse of fire suddenly separated the two, and Elijah ascended to heaven in a whirlwind. Elisha saw it. Elisha's wish came true. So Elisha grabbed his clothes and tore them in two, and holding the cloak that had fallen from Elijah's body together, he struck the Jordan River, just as Elijah used to, the Jordan River divided to and fro. ) is crossed over. Seeing this, the disciples of the prophets recognized that the inspiration of Elijah had been passed on to Elisha and took Elisha as their leader. Elijah and Elisha are the epitome of a priestly relationship.