When Jesus started out on his second career, as a religious leader, he chose to be a teacher. He wasn’t a priest; he didn’t lead people in prayer or in worship; and he didn’t present himself as the object of their prayer or worship. He was a teacher.
This was the role he chose.
When Jesus taught people, he didn’t teach about religion, or scriptures, or morality, or law; he taught about God. His teaching focussed on the loving, forgiving nature of God, and the need for us to be loving and forgiving in return.
The other religious teachers of Jesus’ day centred their teaching around the study of scripture, interpretation of religious law, and implementation God-given morality. Jesus did not. When teaching in public, all Jesus did was to tell entertaining stories, rooted in every day life, which inspired and challenged peoples hearts with a fresh understanding of God.
If we follow Jesus’ lead, our task is not to persuade people to adopt our religion, or our morality. Our task is to use every day images to reassure people of God’s love and mercy.