Flipping Expectations — A Different Kind of Rabbi

This week, we welcomed our new Chaplain, Chappy James, who will work alongside Chappy Linda and the Wellbeing Team. He will also coordinate our Secondary Creative Team. It was great to hear him share a little about his testimony and how Jesus flipped the way people viewed God. He compared the rabbis of the Old Testament with Jesus.

The Old Testament had a strong emphasis on following the rules and proving you were good enough. In fact, the rabbis of Jesus’ day continued that tradition. If a family wanted their son to follow a rabbi, the boy would have to prove himself through adhering to strict religious training and scriptural memorisation. Only the best of the best were chosen. The rest were told to return to their family trade like fishing, carpentry or farming. 

But Jesus wasn’t the usual rabbi.

Jesus turned this whole system on its head. Rather than waiting for the spiritually qualified to come to Him, Jesus went out and called the unqualified. He walked along the shores of Galilee and called fishermen, ordinary, overlooked men, and simply said, 'Come, follow me' (Matthew 4:19). No entrance exam. No pedigree required. Just a heart willing to follow.

Jesus flipped the script. He didn’t demand perfection. He extended grace. He didn’t wait for people to clean themselves up. He stepped into their mess and walked with them. And in doing so, He revealed a radical truth: that God’s love is not something we earn, but something we receive.

The Apostle Paul puts it this way in Ephesians 2:8–10:
'For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.'

Jesus doesn’t just forgive us, he restores us. He takes us as we are and shapes us into who we were always meant to be. At CalCC, this is the message we want every student to encounter. Not a call to be religious, but an invitation to be known, loved and transformed by the living God.

I love that our amazing staff, like Chappy Linda and Chappy James, support our students to know that they don’t need to be 'good enough' for Jesus to call them. He already has. And when we walk with Him, He does more in us than we could ever do on our own.

Vince Wakefield

Principal