Adults make difficult students. They come to the classroom with busy schedules, conflicting obligations, and a great wealth of experience—sometimes of the subject being taught. Instructors have much working against them. Desire to learn isn’t always the motivation with adult students, so the last thing teachers need is a method that sabotages the learning process. Five strategies to avoid include:
1) Have minimal personal contact
2) Establish and maintain a passive mood in the classroom
3) Assume the class will apply what is taught. Don’t bother with examples.
4) Criticize
5) Make the students feel stupid for asking questions in class.
The many titles of Jesus include “Master,” “Rabbi,” and “Teacher.” Jesus came to teach about God’s Kingdom and to prepare the people for its coming. His primary audience was the working class of Israel—people hardened by life under foreign occupation and jaded by the religious leaders’ rhetoric. Ruling Pharisees had corrupted God’s Law by adding rules that they themselves could not keep. When Jesus came to the Israelites with the Good News of God’s Kingdom, the people were no doubt cynical.
Cynicism was counter to His message of hope, so Jesus got personal with them. He was face-to-face with His students, touching them, eating with them, crying over them. He encouraged questions and did not ridicule nor criticize.
Stories from the pages of their daily lives peppered Jesus’ lessons. Often in teaching the concepts of the Kingdom, Jesus provided a living example. In the synagogue, He freed a man of a demon. As the exorcism demonstrated, evil would be thrown out of God’s Kingdom. The end of sickness and death was shown when Jesus healed Simon’s mother-in-law from a raging fever. Later Jesus gave an object lesson on the benefits of cleansing.
While preaching in the province of Galilee, a leper found Jesus. The man fell to his knees and begged, “If You are willing, You can make me clean.” Oh, the faith. The leper believed in the Jesus’ Kingdom work. He had faith enough to believe that Jesus was able to cure his devastating disease.
The physical ruin was readily apparent, but Jesus also saw the desperation of the man at His feet. Compassion overcame Him. “I am willing,” He said reaching to touch the leper. “Be cleansed.” The disease vanished. The leper left the gathering free and clean (Mark 1:40 – 42).
Jesus came to teach and preach and heal. But He came to cleanse the world of sin. The leper asked for a healing, but he was saying, “I’m filthy. I’m defiled. I’m tainted. Make me pure. Make me clean. Make me new.”
The confession of a sinner.
In many ways, leprosy symbolizes the ravages of sin. It gradually erodes the body—first the skin, then muscle, then bone—all while life remains. The leper bears the effects of the disease. Sinners bear the scars of their actions. Persons affected with leprosy are separated from community as sinners are separated from commune with God.
When the leper cried out, “You can make me clean,” he was saying, “You can restore me to what I once was.” Jesus healed this man as an example of the eternal healing He came to do. For all who come to Him and say, “If You’re willing,” Jesus says, “I am willing.” For those who say, “I’m a mess. I am hopeless. My life is dark” Jesus says, “I am willing.” He longs to hear the cry, “You can put me back together. You can give me hope. You can clean me and restore me to what I should be.”
The healing of the leper was a real-time lesson on forgiveness of sin. Jesus transformed him from an outcast to a man embraced by society. Jesus heals the sinner and transforms him/her from a wretch to a child embraced by God.
Few students, however, grasped the lesson. It would be repeated over and over, but until the Resurrection, it remained unlearned.
Today, we have the benefit of knowing the whole story. We know Jesus’ mission and purpose for healing. We know what He did to fulfill that mission. Still, we may not understand what He has demonstrated before our eyes. All around we can see the evidence of His healing—broken people who now treasure their circumstances. Hopeless people now inspiring others to dream. Addicts in recovery, shattered marriages restored, convicts mentoring troubled youth. Have you learned the lesson? Have you trusted in the cleansing that comes when sin is forgiven?
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