Why Jesus is NOT a good teacher

I come across a lot of people who will describe Jesus as a 'good teacher' meaning he is merely so and nothing else. I have started to ask these people 'how well do you know his teaching?' to which they give very vague answers. I would like to ask them 'if he is such a good teacher, why don't you follow his teaching or at least know it?'. If you look at Jesus' teaching you will see that he is not a good teacher at all. Here are three reasons why:

Firstly, Jesus spent a lot of his time preaching in parables. The reason for this is not to make things clear to people, but rather the opposite, to make things unclear to people.

“When he was alone, the Twelve and the others around him asked him about the parables. He told them, “The secret of the kingdom of God has been given to you. But to those on the outside everything is said in parables
so that, “ ‘they may be ever seeing but never perceiving, and ever hearing but never understanding; otherwise they might turn and be forgiven!’’”” (Mark 4:10-12 NIV)

One really needs to ask what sort of teacher makes things unclear to the general public, but selects a few people to give his 'secret teaching'. The answer is a biased teacher who has favorites! If Jesus is merely a teacher there are some moral questions he needs to answer and the good in the 'good teacher' should be questioned.

Secondly, we see that within this select group we see a complete failure of the students to understand what is going on:

• Peter is referred to as Satan for not understanding Jesus' mission of going to the cross (e.g. Mark 8:33). And the rest of the disciples are not much better (e.g. Luke 18:34)
  
• Despite the fact that Jesus repeated mentioned that he had to rise from the dead, the disciples are completely surprised when he does (e.g. John 20:9).
  
• They do not understand the significance of what Jesus is doing in his miracles and what they say about him (e.g. Matt 16:9)
• When he spends an extended amount of time with them the night before he is about die, they still don't get what is going on (e.g. John 16:18)

After spending several years with uni students I know that it is not always the teacher's fault if the students do not understand what is going on. But when all the students do not get it, there are some questions that need to be asked. If Jesus is a good teacher then he should be able to communicate what is going on to his students in a way they can understand.

Finally, there the interaction with the man who actually calls Jesus a 'good teacher'.

“As Jesus started on his way, a man ran up to him and fell on his knees before him. “Good teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
“Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good—except God alone.” (Mark 10:17-18 NIV)

Here is the logic of the 'good teacher':

1. No-one is good by God alone.
2. If I am a good teacher, I therefore must also be God incarnate
3. If I am not God incarnate, I therefore must be a bad or at least incompetent teacher, so why are you bothering me?

Hence if you follow the teaching of the 'good teacher' then you have a ego manic (not a good teacher) or at least a guy who thinks he is God and if he is wrong is delusional (also not a good teacher in case you missed that one).

The point I am making is simple. You can only think that Jesus is merely a good teacher if you have not actually read his teaching and probably have no idea what he is on about. If you have read his teaching you are confronted by a man who claims he is God and is focused on his work on the cross. I happen to think he is a very good teacher, which means I also think he is God who has saved me from my sin.