Teachers

John 1:35-51

35 The next day John was there again with two of his disciples.

36 When he saw Jesus passing by, he said, "Look, the Lamb of God!"

37 When the two disciples heard him say this, they followed Jesus.

38 Turning around, Jesus saw them following and asked, "What do you want?"
They said, "Rabbi" (which means Teacher), "where are you staying?"

39 "Come," he replied, "and you will see."
So they went and saw where he was staying, and spent that day with him. It was about the tenth hour.

40 Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, was one of the two who heard what John had said and who had followed Jesus.

41 The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, "We have found the Messiah" (that is, the Christ).

42 And he brought him to Jesus.
Jesus looked at him and said, "You are Simon son of John. You will be called Cephas" (which, when translated, is Peter).

43 The next day Jesus decided to leave for Galilee. Finding Philip, he said to him, "Follow me."

44Philip, like Andrew and Peter, was from the town of Bethsaida.

45 Philip found Nathanael and told him, "We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law, and about whom the prophets also wrote—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph."

46 "Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?" Nathanael asked.
"Come and see," said Philip.

47 When Jesus saw Nathanael approaching, he said of him, "Here is a true Israelite, in whom there is nothing false."

48 "How do you know me?" Nathanael asked.
Jesus answered, "I saw you while you were still under the fig tree before Philip called you."

49 Then Nathanael declared, "Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the King of Israel."

50 Jesus said, "You believe because I told you I saw you under the fig tree. You shall see greater things than that."

51 He then added, "I tell you the truth, you shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man."

I can remember some of the grade schools I attended and teachers I had while I traveled with my Army parents, but most memories have slipped away. I remember 4th grade in Lawton, Oklahoma and standing out between buildings with the wind spinning around in little whirlwinds around the courtyard. I was amazed. I remember Mrs. Bolton in 7th grade at Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina because she was an artist and I thought that was wonderful. I remember 5th grade in Mrs. Langford’s class and staying inside during recess because a boy had passed a note to me and our punishment was to write on the chalkboard using long hand. Mrs. Langford had an ulterior motive because Clay really had the loveliest penmanship and I did not. His job was to teach me, and best I can remember, he was successful. Our life teachers are so important and the impact they make are the foundation for what we all become.

John the Baptist was a teacher or as we might call him today, a preacher. He followed behind other Hebrew prophets living a simple life, calling on reform of sinful rules, preaching repentance and promising God's justice. He had his life goal and position set before him and he must have been very good getting his message across. I can't imagine what it must have been like to realize that what you had been preaching about, the coming of the Lord, had actually happened and you saw The Lord walking on the same ground you were walking on. It must have been exciting for John to shout out this news and then see his students immediately started to follow Jesus, the Son of God.



Today as I think on these verses I'll be thinking of teachers and what a big influence they have on our lives... what a big job they have to guide us in the right direction. I've never thought about it before, but Jesus was a teacher. How cool.