Teaching

Mark1:21-28 v 22 “The people were amazed at His teaching, for He taught with authority- quite unlike the teachers of religious law.”

Jesus and his companions went to the town of Capernaum. On the Sabbath day He went into the synagogue. The people were amazed at His teaching, for He taught with authority- quite unlike the teachers of religious law.”  Suddenly a man possessed of an evil spirit cried out: “Why have you come? To destroy us? The Holy on of God!”  Jesus reprimanded him, “be quiet and come out of him.” The evil spirit screamed, threw the man into convulsions, and then came out of Him. People were amazed! “What sort of new teaching is this?” The news about Jesus spread quickly throughout the entire region of Galilee.”

The Ontario government announced a change in the kindergarten program from play based learning to include a back-to-basics program for learning to read, writing and math in January of this year. I have been to courses on adult learning and soon realized that they were the same as the “new teaching “in the schools to offer a variety of styles of learning as in a group there will be all sorts of different learners, the visual, auditory, and tactile learners. We are still learning today the subtleties of how best to teach.

In Jesus’s time the people were used to sitting and listening to others to learn. However, they noticed immediately that Jesus was different. They also believed not just in good things being in your body, part of your soul, but bad things too, actual demons that possessed people. Jesus was seen to first teach with authority and then He command a demon to leave a person. People were amazed and the news about Jesus spread quickly.

I believe in good and bad forces around us all the time. I believe that the Holy Spirit is good inside us. So, can there be bad spirits in some people too? Jesus certainly did so that is good enough for me.  Maybe it’s time for us to “go back to basics” in our spiritual practices and beliefs?

Prayer: Almighty God who has the ultimate power over all for good in this world guide us to experience your loving teaching style today. Amen.