Sometimes we may have initiated a “moment” in order to
teach a lesson. That’s possible. But as a general rule our teachable moments
came unannounced and unplanned.
Example: A
school teacher was going about her normal daily lesson plan when one of her
students asked the teacher “Mrs. Smith, why did we have Veteran’s Day off from
school yesterday”. The teacher used this
“unplanned” opportunity, the unexpected question from her young student to
discuss with the class about the sacrifices that our men made for our country
in past wars that. They spent an extra
20 minutes in class that morning, discussing people they knew in their
community who had served in the military and what that meant to them as
students and as citizens of this country.
It may have been in a time of tragedy. It may have been in one of the hardest times
in your life. It may have been when you
were under a lot of pressure or a time when you just didn’t know what to do. But I bet you that God has used “teachable
moments” in your life to instruct you in your own life lessons.
I want to give you an example and while I am sharing
mine, try to remember a time in your life when God taught you something in a
teachable moment.
My example:
I’ve shared with you a time that I can remember so well, when my Dad
spoke harshly to one of our neighbors because he was drunk and ran over two of
our dogs and killed them. Afterwards,
Dad felt badly about it and before he went to bed that night he put me in the
car with him and drove over to the man’s house and apologized to him. I really didn’t understand it then, as a
young boy, but as I got older I realized that he was using this situation, as
uncomfortable as it was for him, as a “teachable moment” for me.
Jesus did this so well. I believe because Jesus was the
ultimate TEACHER that His lessons were planned but there may also have been
some of those spur of the moment lessons that He used just because He was
always noticing and aware of what people said and felt.
Consider the Passover meal, or what we call, "The Last Supper". You, no doubt, have seen the image or a copy of the image
painted by LEONARDO de VINCI entitled “The Last Supper”. We all know what the setting is regarding this
painting. But do you realize what Jesus
was doing here, I mean besides having a last meal with His disciples before His
crucifixion? Let’s see if we can pull out of this lesson exactly wheat
Jesus was trying to get across with this “teachable moment”.
The Passover recalls the night in Egypt that would result
in God’s people being set free from slavery. Moses had been called out of the desert to
return to Egypt and lead God’s people out of bondage and into the land promised
to them by God Himself. He had, over and
over again, called for Pharaoh to let the people go. But even though God sent plague after plague
on the Egyptians, Pharaoh refused to let them go.
So at God’s command, the Hebrews gathered inside their
homes and ate the last supper, the last meal they were to ever eat in Egypt,
the land of slavery. Their homes were
marked by the blood of an innocent, sacrificial lamb. It identified them as God’s people and the
death angle “passed over” them.
All the first born of the Egyptians died but those
covered by the blood were spared. As a
result, the Hebrews were set free from their bondage. That is what the Passover meal represents to
all Hebrews or Jews. It declares God’s
fulfillment of His promise to His people to free them from slavery and deliver
them to the “promised land”.
Many years later, using the celebration of this event as
a teachable moment, Jesus helped His disciples, (and us) understand how His
blood was about to free us from the penalty of sin. Jesus would be the sacrificial lamb. His blood would save and protect us and His
life would be given for us all. He would
give Himself to set us free.
Sometimes we don’t see that when we read the story or see
the picture. Jesus was eating and
spending time with His disciples but He was always TEACHING. He recognized those teachable moments.
I wish I knew more about the traditional meal that they ate. Some of you may know what the meal consisted of. I’ve heard that some people know the components of the meal and actually serve a meal like it at the time of communion as people sit around a table. But we do know that the meal involved bread and wine.
During this meal Jesus “renamed” the bread and wine and using this as a teachable moment
He helped His disciples and us to remember that from then on the bread
represented His body that was broken for us and the wine represented His blood
that was spilled out for us. They were
common features of the Passover meal, but Jesus transformed them into signs,
everlasting signs of something much more.
He transformed them into a new covenant of grace and salvation.
Let’s look at another aspect of this gathering. While seated around the table with His disciples Jesus announced that one of these men would betray Him. The man who was actually going to “cause” Jesus harm, suffering and death, had his hand on the table with Jesus.
This teaches us how Jesus deals with those who disobey
Him and try to hurt Him. The “gift of
grace” was not just for the good guys.
It was not just for those who willingly accepted it and followed
Him. The gift that Jesus offered was for
“everyone”, even those who were against Him.
I think I mentioned this in another lesson. But when God called Abraham
to leave his country and go to another country that God would give him. Abraham was not even a believer. He served pagan gods. He had never prayed to God or accepted Him as
his god. But God showed grace on
Abraham. Jesus offered that same grace
to Judas that night around the table.
AND HE OFFERS THAT SAME GRACE TO ALL OF US. I am so glad and grateful for the wonderful
GRACE of God. Wow, if that don’t touch
you and teach you, I don’t know what will.
I have also mentioned that we learn from our troubles. I think it helps me
understand hard times a little better to realize that through these problems
and hard times and temptations we face, God is trying to teach me something. He is pulling out a teachable moment from all
of this. He is using our daily life to
instruct us in the real “life lessons” He has for us. Does that make sense to you? Does that help you feel a little differently
about what you are facing now?
Let me illustrate it this way. Suppose you have gone to the clothing store
and bought you a nice jacket or coat. It
is a very nice article of clothing. It
is made well and will serve you for a very long time. When you get home and walk inside where it is
nice and warm, you take off that coat and what do you do with it? You simply throw it on the floor, right?
No, you find a nice hanger, hook, peg or whatever to hang
that coat on so it will be safe and taken care of. Do you see how God uses these “teachable
moments” to teach us a lesson? He takes
things that we can remember, sickness, physical ailments, problems, conflicts
and uses them as a peg or hook, and on that hook He hangs the lesson He wants
you to remember.
If Jesus could use His own death to teach His disciples,
how much more can He use the things that happen in our lives? Imagine how He must have felt that night,
imagine what kind of stuff was running through His mind. Sure He was God but He was also man and had all the thoughts and concerns that men
have. He was concerned about the pain of
crucifixion. He was worried that His
loved ones, would His disciples be harmed?
Surely it went through His mind all sorts of “what ifs”. But in the middle of all those thoughts and
concerns that He was facing, He wanted to teach them a lesson. Can’t He use the little things that we
face to teach us how to become more like Him?
I don’t know how you learn. Sometimes I don’t learn like I am supposed to. I have sat in well planned classes, in well prepared settings and listened to very knowledgeable speakers present truths to me. But I left there and just didn’t’ get it.
Sometimes I will teach a class and think, “Wow, the class will really get this point I’m trying to make. This will just blow them away. They will leave the class shouting and singing”. But you know what happens don’t you? You will walk away and in your mind you are saying, “ I’m sure glad that’s over with”.
I probably do the same thing to God. He will put something out there and insert it
into my life and KNOW that it is a lesson I need to learn. But what do I do? I walk away thinking, “Why did this happen to me?
Why do I have to face this? Why
do I have to go through that”? And
I don’t learn the lesson.
But God if anything is gracious. The Word calls Him
“long-suffering”. To me this means that
He will be gracious to us for a long time. He will do His best to teach us the lessons He
wants us to learn. I like that in a
teacher. I am glad we don’t have a
teacher who will just throw the lesson out there and expect us to learn it or
not. I have heard instructors say “It is my job to present the information; it
is their job to learn it. I make the
same amount of money if they pass or fail”.
To me, that’s not a good instructor or teacher. Their goals are selfish. They are there for their own benefits not to
teach the students. Our God is not that
way. He wants us to learn. Our God will use each of those daily
“teachable moments” to touch our hearts and make us better people.
Look for those moments this week. When something has you puzzled or confused or
beat down, stop and see what God is trying to teach you. You might just find yourself right in the
middle of an eternal “teachable moment”.
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