How To Teach Like JesusSample

"The Power of Exaggeration"

In first-century Palestine, hyperbole (an exaggerated statement) was a regular rhetorical device. If you wanted to drive home an idea’s importance, you used strong, un-nuanced language. 

For instance, in Matthew 5:29–30, Jesus is driving home the importance of purity in the strongest language possible. Is it his intention that people would take these words literally and cut off their hands or put out their eyes? No—but he does want his listeners to prioritize their spiritual health above every other consideration. 

He does the same thing in Luke 14:26 when he tells his followers, “If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even their own life—such a person cannot be my disciple.” Obviously he doesn’t want our faith to be marked by hating our families. He wants us to rightly prioritize our allegiance to him above every other relationship.

Using this kind of exaggeration can be tricky in our culture because we tend to focus on more exacting language. Telling a child they should hate every other toy in comparison to their Bibles would likely give the wrong message. But there are probably times when hyperbole can be used to good effect in your teaching—especially when you’re trying to help kids understand what life was like in the first century.