Being Lifelong Students of Jesus: Chapel Reflection with Professor Dan Kroeze
Dr. Dan Kroeze asked the Kuyper College community two simple questions as faculty, staff and students gathered in the Vos Chapel on October 3 for a twice-weekly service.
“Who are you, and what are you doing here?” Kuyper’s longtime Professor of Biblical Studies said, smiling. “I don’t know if you can find two more important questions than those. They’re some of the most basic questions in human life.”
For Christians, he added, the answer to the first query can be found in the words of the New Testament.
Reading from the story of Jesus calling His disciples, found in Matthew 4, he reminded his listeners that we are all disciples of Jesus, committed to following and learning from Him.
“It means we aren’t just learning for 4 or 5 years, or however long it takes you to finish your degree,” he said with a chuckle. “All of us here are lifelong learners, me and the other faculty included. It defines who we are.”
The solution to the second question can also be found in the New Testament, in the very last thing Jesus told his disciples before leaving Earth, Kroeze pointed out.
“He told them to go and make more disciples, more students. He essentially said, ‘I want you to grow in the grace and knowledge of what I’ve taught you, and I want you to invite other people into your learning community so that you can all grow and develop together,’” he noted.
Kroeze then shared a bit of the historical context surrounding his chosen passage, as he often does in his Kuyper classes, to help illustrate his points. Just as it is at Kuyper today, God’s word was central to everything done in life during Jesus’ day, he said.
One of the most important things we learn from the educational system in Jesus’ day, he emphasized, is that the goal of education is not to learn correct answers and regurgitate them on exams. It is to ask good questions.
And the very best two we can ask were already posed at the beginning of his talk, Kroeze reiterated.
“So, let’s figure out who we are and what we’re doing here together. Let’s walk with Jesus, learn from Jesus, and be inspired to go out and serve Jesus together as we invite others into His community. It doesn’t get better than that,” he said.
