Teachers and Fathers

This Sunday morning we continue our series on some of the teaching or sayings of Jesus which are harder for us to understand. In Matthew 23, Jesus is in Jerusalem and begins speaking out against the practices of the religious leaders there. In contrast to the way they are living, Jesus tells his disciples that none of them are to be called, 'teacher,' and that they shouldn't call anyone on earth, 'father.' What does Jesus mean by this? Are we in error by referring to our earthly fathers with that title? It seems that Jesus doesn't have this in mind as much as he wants us to be clear in our relationship to him that he is our one Lord, and in our relationship to each other that we are not to Lord it over one another.