February 18, 2016: Teachers Change Lives

Luke 4:14-15

He began to teach in their synagogues and was praised by everyone (v. 15).

When my son was in elementary school he would come home from school saying, “Mrs. Johnson said…” and he would proceed to relate some insight, some nugget of truth, that his teacher had implanted into his little noggin. Often, this new truth was something I had already told him a hundred times. But I was only his father. Mrs. Johnson was his teacher.

You’d never know it by their salaries, but teachers are powerful. Teachers change lives. They open our eyes to worlds we didn’t know existed—Shakespeare, geometry, music, economics. Is there anyone, anywhere, who hasn’t been affected by a teacher?

The title most often applied to Jesus was rabbi, or “teacher.” Luke says that Jesus began his public ministry by going to the synagogue to teach. Shortly thereafter, Jesus went to Capernaum, and Luke says the crowds were “astounded at his teaching, because he spoke with authority” (4:32). Jesus was a teacher.

We all need a teacher to teach us, to impart some life-changing truth we don’t know, or did know once but forgot—that God loves us, unreservedly and completely, now and forever.

Prayer: Teach me, Lord, what I need to learn.

Today’s devotional was written by Lou Lotz, the pastoral leader of Central Reformed Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan. This Lenten series comes from Words of Hope, whose mission is to build the church in the hard places through media. To learn more about the organization or subscribe to Words of Hope’s daily devotions, visitwww.woh.org.