Discipleship: The Great Call
This time of year tends to bring out the Martha in all of us. There is so much to do in these few weeks before Christmas and, just like her, I so often find myself busy in the kitchen while my rabbi is teaching in the living room. We all know the story, but I heard it in a new light as it pertained to discipleship.
The last chapter of Matthew gives us the great commission, commanding us to make disciples of all nations. Right now, we’re much better at making converts than disciples. But that was not at all what Jesus wanted us to do. Make disciples… disciples are so much more than just converts. Please let me explain!
Now, to understand what Jesus and the entire New Testament means when they use the word “discipleship” we have to know what it actually meant in Israel back in the day. It all begins when little Jewish boys and girls turned 6 years old and go through “Bet Zepher”. This is the first step in their education and lasts for up to 4 years. You know how precious honey was back then? Yeah, well, on the first day of their training at the local synagogue the rabbi would give each child a dab on their tongue and quote from the nineteenth Psalm. Right away, these children were given a vivid picture of just how valuable the Word of their God was! They spent four years memorizing the Torah. That’s the first five books of the Bible! These ten year olds went home with Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy memorized. Yikes!
Well, most of the children went home at this point. But some particularly bright boys (and only boys) were invited to stay and advance to the next level of training; Inbet Midridge. It was, as you can imagine, a great honor to receive this invitation! This period of training lasted another four years and included the memorization of the rest of the Old Testament (yes, you read that correctly). In addition, they were taught the art of articulate thinking, discussion, and debate. They learned how to answer questions with questions. Remember that the next time you read the dialogues between Jesus and the religious leaders! It was this period of training that Jesus would have been in when he was in the temple, “lost” in Jerusalem by His parents. At twelve years old, He had the rabbis amazed at His level of understanding. At the end of this period, fourteen year old boys waited anxiously… See, there was one more level of training to which they could potentially rise.
Discipleship.
Most of those chosen to participate in Inbet Midridge would be consider unworthy to proceed to Discipleship. They would go home to ply their trade; carpentry, fishing, tanning, butcher… They immediately descended to the level of the common man.
But a few incredibly bright teenagers would pass their final exam and a rabbi would take them under his wing to make… you guessed it… a disciple. This period of education had no end. As long as their rabbi lived they were learning about him. The goal of their discipleship was profound. Don’t miss this. I can’t even describe how insanely important this is to us!
They were to mimic every single move their rabbi made. Every word and very action, down to the way he ate, drank, and tied his sandals, was copied. They learned everything about his habits and personality so that when he was gone, no one would be able to tell the difference!!!!!! Does that not just blow your mind?! And we call having Bible study once a week discipleship!
Now get this! You understand now how difficult it was to become a disciple at all back then, but what did Jesus do? He went down to the shore where the religious rejects were plying their trade and invited them to follow and learn from Him. He asked the tax-collector who hadn’t made the cut to leave his trade and be what no one said he could be. It makes it a little easier to understand why they left their lives behind, doesn’t it? And not only did He ask those rejects, He even invited women into His presence. That was considered a waste of time to the general populace. But Jesus saw worth in creating disciples of anyone who would commit their lives to learning of Him.
Discipleship meant literally leaving everything the “average” or “normal” life included. Remember the guy who wanted to stay with his dad until he died? Jesus responded that if you loved mother or father more than you loved Him then you were not worthy to be a disciple. Another asked for a chance to go back home to say good-bye to all those who were not willing to follow. Jesus responded that anyone who starts to follow but ends up looking back isn’t fit for His kingdom. It didn’t matter if you made the cut with the religious community. But it most certainly did matter how committed you were to Him. Did you understand the opportunity He was offering you? Your chance to be a disciple... who would pass that up for the sake of a good-bye? It wasn’t that He was demanding an unrealistic level of devotion. It was that He knew what He was offering. We just don’t get it sometimes.
Now Mary and Martha are a perfect example. Two women, who, as tradition held it, had no chance of being disciples to any rabbi. Yet in Luke 10 we see them come into Jesus’ presence. Two women, two very different responses. Mary chooses discipleship. We see her sitting at the rabbi’s feet, drinking in His words, this chance to learn how to mimic the Teacher. Meanwhile, Martha is in the kitchen, buying herself with her chores and griping about the fact that Mary is ignoring hers. She is plying her trade... what she has been doing since she was ten and came home from Bet Zepher. But here is her opportunity to be a disciple! What was she thinking?
On the other hand... what are we thinking? Are we really disciples? Or are we too busy plying our trade to learn how to mimic our Teacher? After all, the whole goal of discipleship is to create exact replicas of the Teacher, to make it seem to those around us that He is here. We can’t possibly know how to be like Him while we are busy plying our trade.
Disciples are extreme. Disciples are radical. Disciples are the chosen few, the studied, the fanatics. Disciples aren’t nice, sweet people who have their normal lives all figured out. Disciples follow their Rabbi wherever He goes and does whatever He does, which, when you know the Rabbi, you must admit is pretty crazy sometimes. Disciples are crazy, overboard, religious nuts without a life of their own. They are out of their “ply-their-trade” comfort zone. They’re easy to spot, because they look like the Rabbi, and they’re looking more and more like Him every day they sit as His feet studying Him. They deny themselves daily and take up their crosses just to mimic Him. They go to the rejects of the world and invite them to follow. They resist the devil. They proclaim the truth. They are hated by the world.
The disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ... are you one of them?
