TO EACH THEIR OWN

Thought Adjuster: “Accomplished teachers thoroughly evaluate their students' proficiency level to devise curriculums that will challenge them without overwhelming them.

They also strive to expand the understanding of those who lag in bringing them up to par with their more gifted and talented classmates without hampering their progress. Such was Jesus’ judicious approach while imparting the ‘good news.’ His outdoor classrooms attracted all types of people—from ordinary folks whose sincerity was the greatest asset to individuals with sharper critical thinking. It was a stroke of genius on Jesus’ part to teach with nutrient-rich parables from which everyone could extract spiritual lessons.

Another one of his favorite teaching modalities consisted of holding Q&A sessions with his inner circle. His disciples’ frivolous or sensible inquiries divulged their most urgent needs for enlightenment. An earnest question was a good primer for an in-depth examination of the raised topic—always with the underlying intention to promote his audience's spiritual acuity.

His objective was to groom his twelve apostles to appoint them as his teaching assistants, hoping that they would take up his teaching baton after he departed from this world. Their ordainment “was the Master’s personal commission to those who were to go on preaching the gospel and aspiring to represent him in the world of men even as he was so eloquently and perfectly representative of his Father.” [UB 140:4:1] It was their official send-off as itinerant teachers.

The Alpheus twins were the least educated among the twelve. These simple-minded but big-hearted fishermen “understood very little about the philosophical discussions or the theological debates of their fellow apostles. [UB 139:10:2] Because they lacked the skills to be 'fishermen of men,' Jesus sent them back to their fishing nets without crushing their spirit. He lovingly told them: “Do not allow the things which you cannot understand to crush you.” [UB 174:0:2] “ [Go]back to your former labors with the new enlightenment of the experience of sonship with God and with the exalted realization that, to him who is God-knowing, there is no such thing as common labor or secular toil.” [UB 181:2:19]

It is not a competition, but a collaboration. You each have a particular calling based on the components of your unique personality. You will know that you have found it by the joyful and gratifying sense of accomplishment it brings into your life.”