The Amazing Teacher

Jan 29 2012

THE AMAZING TEACHER

Who was the best teacher you had? Why did that person impact your life differently from anyone else or from any other teacher? Was it because the person really cared about you and the subject that was being taught? Did the teacher make the subject matter easy to understand? Did this teacher really believe that you could do it and wouldn’t let up until you did? Or was it because that teacher taught you lessons about life that you will never forget?

Did you ever have a teacher like that? If not, what a pity!. But if you did, you received a great gift. Most teachers strive to teach subjects; the good teachers know that in order to teach the subject, they have to teach the students first. The good teachers use the subjects in class and those crazy things that always seem to happen and convert them into life lessons – teachable moments we call them. 

But there is something else about a good teacher – a good teacher never stops learning. A good teacher keys off his/her students and attempts to meet their needs in a learning environment. A good teacher likes his/her students and wants them to succeed. A good teacher does not talk about how much s/he knows, but talks about how much that teacher wants the students to know.

On the other hand, there are those teachers who I guess we have all had at one time or another. We remember them only because of how bad they were. They didn’t strive to make the lessons interesting. They were mean. They didn’t really know what they were talking about. There was no enthusiasm. Half the time or more they weren’t really prepared. And they really didn’t care if you got it because it wasn’t their fault - It was your fault. You didn’t work hard enough or in their eyes you were just plain too dumb to get it.

In this morning’s Gospel lesson, Jesus is in the temple teaching and we read these words, “They were astounded at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.”

These were the religious leaders of the day. Yes, their primary job was to copy Scripture, but in the process, they had to think about what they were doing and remember what they had copied. Yet they were astounded at the teachings of Jesus! Why? Did he talk about things that they had thought about but never bothered to question? Did they listen because he was authoritative and enthused? If they didn’t like him, why did they even bother to listen? Why did they think he was an amazing teacher?

Perhaps for some people, the healings caught their fancy. For some, maybe it was the cleansing of unclean spirits – the story that follows my quote. They were astounded at his authoritative teachings and then they were astounded that he drew out the evil spirits. For some, perhaps it was the genuine recognition that in Jesus was a man who possessed spiritual wisdom and who was genuinely trying to get the people to understand what a true relationship with God should be like – for some, they recognized him as a true teacher. But I believe that for most of the people, it was simply the aura around the man. It’s that feeling we get when some people walk into the room. We just know that they know who they are and what they are talking about. They knew thatJesus knew what he was talking about and his life and his works spoke for him. Today we would say, “He walked the talk.”

As far as the Gospels are concerned, Jesus spent most of his time teaching. But through his life and his teachings, a picture emerged of a man who truly had a special relationship with God and who understood and modeled what that relationship should be.

On the one hand, we have a picture of the Pharisees who wanted to trump Jesus at every turn, who tried to get him caught in an argument, who tried to make him look bad to the people. On the other hand we have Jesus who simply listened to them and then made a retort to cut them off every time. The Pharisees wanted others to know how good they were. Jesus wanted the people to know how good God was. The Pharisees wanted power and position so others would look up to them. Jesus wanted only that the people would look to God. Jesus was the teacher who cared that his pupils learned everything they could learn. The Pharisees taught only because they wanted the people to fear them.

But Jesus was not intimidated into doing the politically expedient thing. Jesus did not spend his time in ensuring that all of the Hebrew laws were followed. He had a respect for them, but also an ability to put them into perspective. If the laws forbade a particular act on the Sabbath, and that particular act was needed to feed a person, to rescue an animal, to heal an illness, the needs of the person were more important than the law. Ultimately, it was through his actions that most of his teaching was done. He showed how one who is in relationship with God should act. He showed what love meant. He showed what compassion meant. He showed what forgiveness meant.

In a sense, we are all teachers. We teach ourselves; we teach our children; we teach other adults. And we do not have to be in the classroom to do it. We do it in almost every setting in which we find ourselves because we want to improve, and we do it because we want others who are around us to be the best that they can be.

We are all called to be amazing teachers. We are all called to share the love that God has for us with other people. We are all called in our daily lives to reflect that love in our actions.

We are living in a society that is becoming more and more uncivil. While we may not be aware of the burdens out of which some of those uncivil behaviors grow, the fact that it is becoming increasingly more acceptable to be rude, insensitive and violent to our fellow human beings is simply not acceptable behavior in a civil society.

Day after day as I sit in expulsion hearings, I hear story after story of students who batter other students, batter teachers, bring weapons into schools, and use unacceptable and improper language on a regular basis. Unfortunately, most show no remorse for their actions, are sorry they got caught, think they have a right to mistreat others, and are totally disrespectful when they hear the discipline for their uncivil actions. What is their rationale for this abominable behavior? "He said something to me that I didn’t like. She talked to my boyfriend. She looked at me the wrong way. I just wanted to hit her. 

God calls us to love and care enough about others to be amazing teachers in the best ways that we can. God calls us to be amazing teachers for those who need God’s love. Will we always succeed? Probably not. But that doesn’t mean we should stop trying. It doesn’t mean that we should forget the lessons of Jesus. It means that as Jesus forgave others, God will forgive us for our mistakes. The biggest error lies in not trying at all. The biggest error lies in being afraid to love. Amen.