What Did Jesus Teach?
The moment we seek to discover the emphasis of the Lord’s teaching, as the Synoptists record it, the truth becomes evident. It was specifically and above all a teaching about God.
Jesus ‘came preaching the good news of God.’ That he spoke also of the kingdom of God makes no difference to this fact: for if anything is certain as the result of modern research, it is that the kingdom, in Jesus’ thought, whether it means ‘realm’ or ‘kingship’, is wholly bound up with the character of God. It is something in which he is to come - not a state of things prepared for his coming by human effort. It is true, of course, that Jesus also spoke, and that constantly, of the character and behavior necessary for those who would ‘inherit’, ‘enter into’, of ‘possess’ the kingdom; and that in doing so he purified, simplified, and breathed new life into the ethical code of Judaism. This is no more than to say that, like all great teachers, he spoke both of God and of man, or preached both doctrine and ethics. But whereas contemporary Judaism laid all the stress on man - that is to say on ethics, on what man has to do to fulfill the will of God - it is surely true to say that by contrast the emphasis of Jesus’ teaching is upon God, rather than upon man - upon what God has done, is doing, and shall do for his people.
So he tells of the divine Fatherhood which watches over the lilies, the ravens, and the sparrows; which sends rain upon the just and unjust alike; which understands our needs and gives to us liberally; which is patient and long-suffering. He tells of a God always ready to welcome the prodigal, to search for the lost sheep, to give in his pleasure the kingdom to his flock; and of a heaven where there is infinite joy over the sinner that repents. God sees in secret and shall reward openly; God sows his seed far and wide with a lavish hand, and reveals his innermost thoughts to babes and sucklings. There is another side to the picture of God, though it represents him - whenever the time shall come that there is no more space for repentance - as a judge before whom there is no excuse.
For all the ethical teaching in the gospel, it seems impossible to deny that Jesus’ primary thought and message was about God, and that human conduct in his mind came in a second and derivative place.
From Kenneth Kirk’s The Vision of God