Jesus Was A Psychologist

Jesus Was A Psychologistby David Hinesthe Jesus Jigsawwhen The Thought First Occurred To Me That Jesus Was A Psychologist I Was Excited Because It Was Like Seeing A Pattern In A Jigsaw Puzzle That Had Baffled Me For Most Of My Life.I Had Always Been Interested In The Parables Of Jesus. I Gathered Them Together Noticed Similarities; I Read Books About Them; A Couple Of The Parables Became The Guiding Principles Of My Life. But No Matter How Much I Looked There Were Still Some That Didn’T Make Sense And Readers Who Have Been Bible Students Will Have Hit The Same Problem.For Instance What Would You Make Of An Employer Who Throws His Staff In Jail Or Another Employer Who Gives Some Of His Workers 12 Hours’ Pay For One Hour’S Work Or A Father Who Throws A Party For A Son Who Has Just Blown The Family Fortune Or A King Who Has His Managers Tortured. If These Are Pictures Of God As We Were Taught In Sunday School Then This Is A Pretty Disorganized He Doesn’T Know Whether To Love People Or Hate Them.These Pieces Don’T Fit. But If You Love The Parables As I Do You Come Back To Them From Time To Time.That’S What I Was A Doing A Few Years Ago. I Was Preparing To Go Back Into The Methodist Ministry After A Long Break And Part Of My Preparation Was Having Another Look At The Parables.Another Part Was Updating My Study Of Psychology. I Had Studied It As Part Of My Original Ministry Training But I Wanted To Study The Main New Version Today Called Cognitive Therapy. With This Approach If A Client Looks Worried; The Therapist “What Are Are You Feeling Right Now?” And The Client Says “I Feel Tense And Stressed.” And The Therapist Says “What Were You Thinking About Just Before You Started Feeling Stressed?And After A Couple Of Sessions A Pattern Emerges Of The Kind Of Things That Get This Client Into Trouble. These Patterns Are Called “Schemas”.The Penny Dropswell I Was Doing These Two Kinds Of Research When It Occurred To Me That There Were Characters In The Parables Who Had Bad Schemas. And Within Seconds About Four Of My Problem Parables Made Sense!The People In These Parables Needed Therapy. And In Fact That’S Why Jesus Was Telling He Wanted To Help People Recognize Their Bad Schemas And Do Something About Them.The Parables Are Not About Godand When I Started “Psychoanalyzing” The Characters In The Parables I Realized I Had Sometimes Been Looking At The Wrong Characters. I Had Been Looking At The Judges And Employers And Fathers Thinking They Represented God In Some Way.But The People In The Parables Who Had The Emotional Problems Were The Little The Employees The Older Brother And The Manager Who Got Tortured; They All Had Problems. All Of Them Got Angry!And When You Asked Why They Got Angry (As A Therapist Would Do) They All Give Very Clear Answers. They All Felt Entitled To Get Special Treatment And When The Special Treatment Was Denied They Got Angry. That Was Their Schema! And In Several Cases I Would Have Got Angry Too. Wouldn’T You Get Angry If You’D Worked 12 Hours And Somebody Else Got The Same Pay After Only Working For One Hour? Most Of Us Would.So By Telling These Stories Jesus Had Hit A Raw Nerve For Many People Us Included And That Was His Intention. He Was Trying To Expose Our Schemas.Let’S Not Exaggeratenow I Think I’M Onto Something And I Hope You Will Agree. But It’S Important Not To Overstate The Case. These Parallels Between Jesus And Psychology Don’T Apply To Everything He They Mainly Apply To His Parables. He Did Other Stuff As Well.And I Shouldn’T Exaggerate How Good A Psychologist He Was. I Wouldn’T Agree With Tele-Evangelist Joyce Meyer Who Reckoned A Few Stories From The Bible Would Save Her Audience Having To Go To Therapy. For The Most Part The Parables Of Jesus Just Dip Their Toes Into Therapy. They’Re A Bit Like The First Couple Of Sessions A Client Might Have With A Therapist Where They Figure Out What