Teaching involves two people: the learner and the Teacher, or the one who speaks and the one who listens ; or to put it exact the one who wants to know and the one who knows….yes the teacher knows and imparts his known knowledge to the one who seeks out to know it.
Teaching can also be defined as giving a fresh perspective to refine or widen once understanding. The teacher first gains the knowledge then adds on his experience and then gives a deeper explanation to the learner and thus transforms his thinking. The teacher also knows the learner well, his ability to grasp things or his calibre to understand the lesson taught or his experience to apply the learnt knowledge.
To be a great Teacher one must be warm, accessible, enthusiastic and caring …and so on and most importantly the Teacher should never be haughty, proud or snobbish….. We have come across great teachers who have influenced us in many ways or who inspired us to make great decisions or some who refined our way of thinking …… they all could only give what our earthly mind had longed for or searched to find, but let me introduce you to the Greatest Teacher of all time – CHRIST the one and only wonderful Teacher who can quench the hunger to know the possible and the impossible. Only he can satisfy the innermost longings of our soul, body and mind.
Christ the teacher had a wonderful pattern for any learner to understand him, let me simplify his methods or his pattern of teaching. His methods always adapted or inclined towards the learner. Christ demonstrated a variety of methods, He used stories, illustrations, parables, questions, discussions, lecture, debates and visualization or any situations he could use as a picturesque to teach. We can’t pin point to any specific pattern as to this is the way he taught or still teaches so we have to follow it, but no Christ had his unique way to make the learner understand according to his standards.
Christ’s timing to teach is always excellent, yes indeed and it is still so perfect. Let’s say that as a teachable moment. His teachable moments provided visualization for the listener to understand and then it helped in the application of the lesson learnt. Christ taught to transform lives rather than to impart information.
Christ is always mission oriented, His enthusiasm thrived in herding the sheep to green pastures and back into the sheep pen safe and sound, or to rightly put His ultimate desire is the Kingdom of God and not one person should be left out from his Kingdom. Christ so full of the Kingdom spontaneously talked and taught about it anytime and anyplace, these spontaneous teachings brought about immense influence and transformation.
Spontaneity, this factor enabled Christ to talk to all manner of people….at all time and anytime bringing out the best in that person and influencing them to transform their lives fit for the Kingdom of God.
Christ aided with authority from His father stood by his word and had best explanations and questions for the ones who confronted them. His stern corrections always imparted good understanding and betterment of discernment.
Illustrative explanations like a catalyst exploded the minds of the seekers of knowledge impacting them to venture into their dark minds to come up with questions to eradicate the folly struck in their uncircumcised mind.
Christ’s power packed strategies often diversified in accordance with the mind of the learner, the ability of the learner and the pace of the learner. Christ centered his teachings in a parallel level to the mindset of the one who listened in eagerness to seek wisdom and reformation of mind.
Renewing of mind is the resulting outcome of his teaching, that transformed the lives of the ones who listened and they started to march to the beat of a different drum and thus influenced others bringing in change.
Christ’s teaching is always transformational and it transcends ones way of thinking and totally transports them to a different angle in the same scenario with a different perspective.
Applying Christ’s pattern of teaching in our daily lives to our kids or students or friends or nieces or nephews or brother or sister or mom or dad or grand dad or uncle or aunt whoever they might be rest assured that transformation in their life is guaranteed for the best.