Jesus the Teacher



Prayer – Dear Lord Jesus, You are the Lord of my life. You have come into this world as a Baby, then lived a perfect live, only to surrender that life because of my sin. Please help me to keep You firmly in the center of my existence and may this time of prayer and study only strengthen that position You hold in my heart. In Your name I pray. Amen.

Read - John 8:2–11
http://www.esvbible.org/John 8:2-11

 Think about It – In a modern classroom, you will find all kinds of technology that aids in the educational process. There are computers, electronic blackboards, internet connections, and recording capabilities. It’s a whole new world! For those of us who grew up a few decades ago, we had the good old chalkboard. They were dusty, sometimes hard to see and in constant need of erasing. If you were really on the cutting edge, you might have an overhead or opaque projector (one of these usually had to suffice for the entire building). But mostly, just the chalkboard. Teachers have always written things down for their students. 

We have only one incident of Jesus actually writing something down recorded in the Bible. It is from the story that we read today for our devotion. Jesus is presented with a seemingly impossible situation (which I think are His favorites) and takes the opportunity to teach His followers and the Pharisees. He didn’t even have a chalkboard. He wrote in the dirt. What did He write? The text doesn’t tell us because we don’t need to know! It has been speculated that he was writing the secret sins of his “students” (the Pharisees). It was a powerful tool as they all slip away from the chaos of this sensational moment of having “caught” a prostitute in the act of fornication. Interestingly, her customer was not dragged in leading some to suspect this was a setup, with Jesus being the target all along. Jesus turns the trap into a teaching opportunity, like the Master Teacher that He is. 

Jesus also takes this opportunity to teach one person the most important thing she would ever learn – God is gracious. Tradition holds (although that’s all it is – tradition) that the woman caught in adultery was Mary   Magdalene, who becomes an ardent follower of Christ. This life changing moment becomes the pivotal event in her life as she receives from the Lord the one thing she never received from anyone else. She receives the eternal Kingdom of God because of His grace – just like we do. 

Prayer – Dear Lord Jesus, I am just as needful of Your grace as was the woman caught in sin. The only difference between us is that I haven’t been dragged out into the public square. Please help me remember Your gracious action in my life every day. In Your name I pray. Amen.

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