You may first want to know that I’m talking about senile seniors (65+) rather than sinister seniors (~18), those who are about to graduate high school and make a lot of stupid decisions in college. My seniors are the precious elderly saints who live at a local independent-living senior apartment complex. About last year this time one resident came into the restaurant where I was then working and told me that there were several believers at the senior home but no regular Bible study. She eagerly desired that someone come and teach the Scriptures and share the gospel with the residents. Any seminarian would be a fool be approached in such a manner and decline to spend time with elderly saints opening the Scriptures with them. There was only one response: I’ll do it.

Sounds good but what does one teach? Where should I start? I started off alternating between Old Testament, Gospel and epistle, after reading about a similar teaching pattern in the ministry of John Calvin, although he taught at least three times a week, teaching OT, NT and epistle every week. I just meet with my elderly saints once a week. Because it felt like we were jumping around every week and it was three weeks before we returned to where we left off in a given book, I decided to singularly adopt the Gospel of Matthew as the curriculum. This past Sunday we covered Matthew 6:25-34.

Anyone that has a grandmother and takes a quick glance at the content of Matthew 6:25-34 will think what a great set of verses to cover with senior saints. Grandmothers are well-known worriers and prayer warriors. Jesus speaks right to worry in this passage and says, Don’t do it, child! Look at the flowers, look at the animals! God’s got it under control. In fact, if you were asked to be a guest speaker at a senior home, you may in fact choose this passage as your text, if you indeed do such antiquated things as preach from a text!

You would be asked to speak. You’d think about it, pray about it, and flip through your Bible wondering which passage these saints need to hear. Matthew 6:25-34 would be such an obvious choice. But why limit yourself to “obvious choices”?

Throughout the course of working our way through the Gospel of Matthew my senior saints have been the most appreciative and engaged with the less obvious choice of passages. Next week we’ll cover Matthew 7:1-6 which will bring us near the end of the Sermon on the Mount. (I love the German “Bergpredigt” for some reason.) This means that over the last year or so we’ve covered less obvious topics for seniors such as anger, lust, retaliation, divorce, and especially oaths. I dare say no one would when asked to speak at a senior home choose any of these sections from die Bergpredigt. Why in the world would I talk to seniors about oaths and truth-telling? Why would I even mention sexuality to people quadruple my age? Because Jesus talked about it.

My seniors have been the most appreciative, responsive and engaged in the teaching when we covered these lesser discussed areas. They attend the Bible study because they are genuinely concerned about hearing what Jesus had to say. If Jesus talked about it, they want to hear about it. Don’t give us psycho-babble, give us the Scriptures, they tell me. Occasional preaching and teaching is important, but well-rounded total preaching and teaching is more so. Teaching through books of the Bible accomplishes this.

We therefore sell short those whom God has entrusted to our oversight when we pick the menu. His people are hungry for everything that’s in the garden, not just what’s well-known and easily prepared.