The Tongue of a Teacher

I no longer remember when I heard a clear call to be a teacher. Most likely it came while I was wandering in the woods with my college mentor, a retired botany professor who knew every weed and twig and could tell the history of every place as though he had lived there. He might have – he lived to be a hundred years old!

Growing up in a Lutheran family, I was taught that everyone has a vocation, a calling from God. So it seemed natural that I should discover that I had what Isaiah called the tongue of a teacher. At first I was never quite sure whether I became a teacher because I talked with authority, or talked with authority because I was a teacher. (I still don’t know, but I no longer care which came first.) However it happened, it seemed natural. It helped that I thought of it as a gift, because it never occurred to me that I should take any pride in being successful.

“Teacher” was one of the titles given to Jesus by his disciples. We will hear it used in Sunday’s Passion reading from Mark, when the disciples ask about preparations for the Last Supper. Jesus was much more than a teacher, of course. Jesus was the Son of God, come to us in human form. As an early Christian hymn quoted by the Apostle Paul put it, Jesus Christ was “in the form of God” yet “did not count equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death – even death on a cross.”

Jesus constantly pointed beyond himself, even when everyone was focused on him. It was always about God the Father when Jesus spoke. In speaking that way, he taught his disciples something about teaching. It is not the teacher who should be the focus; the focus is on the subject of the teaching. It is not a person drawing attention to himself or herself, but rather leading beyond, toward the subject. When the subject is God, the image Jesus gave us is one of obedient servanthood, serving God through serving others.

After many years my call changed from teaching botany to teaching theology. This tongue of a teacher no longer explains fibro-vascular bundles, but rather tries to sustain the weary with a word. Somehow it is much easier to convince people to look at God than look at plants! As we pass through Palm Sunday into Holy Week, the most emotional week of the church year, let us remember what Jesus taught us. Let us keep our focus on God. Let us walk with Jesus through his trial, through his condemnation, through his crucifixion and burial. Then let us stand a week later at the empty tomb and join with every tongue to confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

[Palm Sunday: Isaiah 50:4-9a; Psalm 31; Philippians 2:5-11; the Passion according to Mark.]

Listen to this as preached on Palm Sunday.