Disciples

There's a knock at the door.  You wonder, who could that be this time of day.  You take a peek out the window and you see a couple of people on your doorstep.  You notice how nicely dressed they are, but you still don't recognize them.  Something compels you to open the door for them, although you would rather not.  As you hesitantly respond to their greeting, still trying to let your eyes adjust to the bright sunshine, one of your visitors begins speaking, "We would like to talk to you about the conditions in our world today."  By this time you have realized that your nice guests must be Jehovah's Witnesses whose aim is to be invited inside in order that they can begin visiting you to have Bible studies and indoctrinate you:  they get to be one step closer to being one of the 144,000 witnesses of the book of Revelation and you end up at the local Kingdom Hall.  Most likely you find the best and politest way to get them to go away.

There is something about Jehovah's Witnesses though that makes us respect their boldness and commitment to their cause.  We meet others like them at our door, on the street corner, or in the airport.  The Mormon missionaries are young men with matching suits and closely cropped hair.  On the street corners you can find anything from Pentecostals to Moonies.  In the airports we see the white robed hare krishnas selling flowers.  We do what we can to dodge them or refuse them, but mostly we feel embarassed by their confrontations about such a private issue as religious faith.

I'm not an expert in cults, but I've grappled with a few in my day.  Once I spent over an hour discussing religion and morality with a Moonie -- a member of the Unification Church of Rev. Sun Yong Moon -- on the corner of Thayer & Waterman near Brown University.  A couple of times I have met people who walk across the country carrying a wooden cross.  Several times I have stood at the door doing battle with a Jehovah's Witness.  I let them know that, although I respect their devotion and their right to propagate their beliefs, I do not agree with them and must point out their error.

Not only have I been on defense, but a few times I have gone on the offensive.  In my younger days, I would do what is commonly referred to as "passing out tracts" or "witnessing."  Once I went by myself to Lake Michigan and walked up and down the beach handing out tracts and giving a brief gospel message.  Another time I went with my youth pastor on a weekend bike trip.  We stopped at a beach along the way to pass out tracts.  One guy had fallen asleep and nearly had a heartattack when I woke him up -- I couldn't tell he was sleeping with the sunglasses on.  Later at a state park I handed out some tracts to a family.  Most of them seemed appreciative, but the father worked for a trucking company.  When he found out I was one of those people who rides their bike on the highway, he began getting irate about how we don't pay highway taxes and we slow down the trucks.  That was about the worst reaction I ever got to confronting people.

I didn't do it just to be confrontational.  I did it because it seemed like it was something that a disciple of Jesus should do.  Isn't that what Jesus did and what he taught his disciples to do?  I was just trying to be a good disciple and not be afraid to tell people about Jesus straight out.

One of the first things that Jesus did when he started to preach about the kingdom of God was to gather around him a circle of followers that we call disciples.  There seemed to have been a small core group made up of Peter, James and John.  Together with the others, sometimes called apostles, were twelve altogether.  Most would agree that the number twelve was significant and probably was symbolic of Jesus' desire to restore the nation of Israel under the leadership of twelve, just as they had been under the tribal system in the early days.  At another time Jesus chose about seventy disciples to go and preach in the cities.  In addition, we detect in the gospels a larger group of people called disciples:  these included a number of women.  These disciples -- pupils and proteges -- listened to Jesus' words, followed him to various cities, witnessed his healings and miracles, and sometimes even acted themselves on Jesus' behalf.

People have always been curious about Jesus' choice of disciples.  A number of them were fisherman (there's always some remark about their lack of learning, but we really shouldn't press that too far), one had been a notorious tax collector, one had a nickname that suggested he was something of a revolutionary (Simon the Zealot), and one turned out to be an embezzler and a traitor.

The two sets of brothers Simon (also known as Peter, also known as Cephas) and Andrew, and James and John (Jesus called them "sons of Thunder"), were partners in their fishing business.  Philip was good friends with Simon and Andrew and had grown up together in Bethsaida.  Bartholomew is always listed with Philip and has been considered to be the same man called Nathanael in the Gospel of John.  Bartholomew was his family name meaning "son of Ptolemy."  We find out in the book of Acts that Thaddaeus' name is also Judas son of James.

If we had been in charge of picking Jesus' disciples, we would have formed a search committee, drawn up prerequisites, held interviews, and picked the best and the brightest.  We would not have taken a walk down by the local lake and grabbed the first four fishermen we came across.  But that's just what Jesus did.  We also wouldn't have gone out of our way to select an IRS agent, but Jesus chose Levi the tax collector otherwise known as Matthew.

Jesus' followers were first impressed by different things.  The story in Luke 5 tells about Jesus borrowing Simon's boat for one of his lectures.  When he had finished, he told Simon to put out into the deep water and cast his nets.  Simon at first resisted saying that they had fished all night and caught nothing, but reluctantly complied with Jesus' instructions.  When he pulled in his net he had such a load of fish that the nets began to break.  He had to call in his fishing buddies, and even then they had so many fish that their boats began to sink.  Jesus had touched Simon right where he lived.  All of his words had had little effect, but this extraordinary deed was something that Simon understood.  It's like when I'm at work and I fix someone's computer problem, and they say, "Oh, you're a god!"  Simon's reaction to Jesus is, "You are too holy and mighty to be around me.  Leave me.  I'm a sinful man."

Jesus responded with a "you haven't seen anything yet."  All of this had been so he could drive home a point.  They netted a lot of fish, but they were now going to follow Jesus and gather together masses of people who would also follow Jesus.

Many of the passages in the gospels talk about how a disciple leaves everything to follow Jesus.  But we can read between the lines and see that Jesus' disciples were not all completely severed from home and family.  In fact, some time after Jesus' fishing expedition, after a synogogue service, he goes to the home of Simon and Andrew where Simon's mother-in-law is ill.  I've always thought this story a bit ironic.  I can just imagine the situation.  Jesus comes in with Simon and Andrew along with James and John.  Somebody says, "What's to eat?"  Simon apologizes, "Nothing's prepared. You see, my mother-in-law isn't feeling too well."  They stand around looking at each other.  One of them assesses the situation.  "We could fix something ourselves, or, Jesus, you could go and heal Simon's mother-in-law and she could serve us."  It was easier for him to heal her than for them to make sandwiches for themselves.  That's men for you.

Out of the many multitudes that it was said followed Jesus, whom he taught, healed, and even fed, many of them remained with Jesus.  At his death we read that many of his friends were there along with the women who had come with him from Galilee including Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and others. Luke tells about an experience that several of Jesus' followers had as they walked together to Emmaus after Jesus' resurrection.  One of them was named Cleopas or Clopas.  We know little or nothing about many of the people who became followers of Jesus.

The term disciple, however, seems to be used almost exclusively for the specially appointed twelve men.  It is clear that Jesus was not going around like Robin Hood trying to enlarge his band of merry men.  Most of the time Jesus appears to be trying to get away from people or doesn't want them to tell anyone what he has done.  Many times when Jesus meets someone, the gospels show him doing something for the person without any request made in return.  People are told to repent, people are judged by their attitude of acceptance and their willingness and faith in Jesus' ability to heal them, and one man is told that to inherit eternal life he must obey the commandments and give everything he has away.

If we read the gospels under the assumption that we are to be disciples of Jesus, we encounter very stringent requirements.  We try to interpret those texts to mean something a little different because the demands seem impossible.  What we must understand is the big picture and that takes looking at the gospels in their historical and theological context.  Briefly put, I understand Jesus to have been primarily concerned with restoring the nation of Israel to a status of favor with God as their messianic king.  He called for the people to repent of their evil ways and sought to care for the lost sheep of the house of Israel in order to bring them back into the fold.  Jesus' teaching and ministry were directed toward this end.  But when he came to Jerusalem, the people rejected him.  The result was a time the Apostle Paul refers to as the time of the Gentiles.  The gradual transfer comes in the book of Acts which develops this mission to the Gentiles as the risen Christ forms a group of people spiritually connected called the body of Christ, the Church ("the called out ones").  At the crux of Jesus' mission to Israel and the formation of the Church is the cross of Jesus.  For the Jews it was an act of one man dying on behalf of the nation in order to restore the favor of God; for the Church it was an act which opened the door for all people to be reconciled to God by believing in Jesus as God's Son.  If people do not understand this big picture, they will be confused as they read the Old Testament with its Law and the Gospels with its demands of discipleship.

We may, however, read the Old Testament and the gospels and apply its teaching in a secondary manner as we establish principles of conduct and seek to understand the big picture of the Bible.  We are comforted to know that Jesus chose ordinary people to be his disciples.  We are challenged as we read of the cost of discipleship and the need for a change in core attitudes towards things and people.  We are confronted with Jesus' focus of ministry on the sick, the poor, the hungry, and the outcasts of society.

Jesus of Nazareth is the same Christ of the church.  How do we respond when we read of how Jesus called his disciples?  Glad that he hasn't asked us to leave our families, to sell everything that we have, put on a robe and sandals and walk through the cities yelling, "repent!"  Some people have gone to such extremes in an attempt to obey the Gospels.  Some follow leaders who have them do crazy things or even perform criminal acts.  What are we to do?

There is a Christian radio program that discusses what we call cults.  At the end of every program they ask the question, "Are you willing to do for the truth, what others are willing to do for a lie."  Are we willing to go out of our comfort zones for the sake of the gospel?  Are we willing to give our money, our time, our possessions for the sake of others?  Are we willing to make real sacrifices of ourselves, to give up things that harm and to give away things that help?  Will we do for the truth, what others do for a lie?