I’m intrigued by the teaching style of Jesus, his well-known propensity for responding to a catch question with an equally or more challenging question, or embarking on a story leaving listeners puzzling, or saying they need to be like little children to understand.
Today is Monday, just an ordinary Monday, but more special than normal because I’m playing swing ball in the garden with my grandson. It’s half term. But then the ordinary becomes the extraordinary, a moment of beauty and insight and awe. The ball swings near a pink rose. ‘Look at the beautiful rose’, I say. My grandson pauses whacking and walks up to the rose. ‘It is beautiful,’ he says, and keeps looking. I ask if he can smell the rose. He buries his 4 year-old nose in the petals. ‘Mmmm that’s nice’, then, emphasising every word as if talking in capital letters, ‘ There’s a spider web and an actual spider on the rose!’ Then, beaming with the utter joy of discovery, ‘There are creatures in the garden!’
I see through the eyes of a child again, seeing as if for the first time. I could talk to him about eco-systems and habitats, but this is not the moment. The teacher and learner in me just pauses, soaks in the moment. We are learning together, we don’t need words.
Back to Jesus the teacher. I think he quietly says, ‘Just stop, take time and you will understand’. On that Pentecost day, the waiting disciples begin to understand and experience what Jesus had promised, the Holy Spirit, the Advocate who will teach them everything. What a teacher! I am in awe as we celebrate together, more than 2 millenia on, this same Holy Spirit, this same teacher, is still with us. We are still learning!
Mel Adams
