THEN AND NOW #4 It s About Making Disciples

Transcription

1 It s About Making Disciples Two Very Different Worlds: Western Evangelicalism and the Gospels Part III The NT (New Testament), after all, does not come in the form of timeless aphorisms; every text was written in a given first-century time/space framework. Indeed, the NT authors felt no need to explain what were for them and their readers common cultural assumptions. Gordon Fee 1 One Word Can Turn the Lights On! Have you heard the puzzler about the person who leaves home and makes a series of left turns? It goes like this: A person leaves home alone, turns left after a short while, then turns left again, then turns left one more time before arriving back home a short time later with two other people. What just happened? Believe me, you can ponder that one for a long time and not figure it out. But when someone provides you with a small clue it s about baseball then suddenly it dawns on you that someone just hit a home run with two on base (if you are not a baseball fan, you might find someone to explain that to you!) With that one-word contextual clue of baseball, we stop scratching our heads and smile as a wave of comprehension moves across our face. Now it is no longer a puzzle that perplexes us, but something that makes perfect sense because now we have a context for the question. Sometimes Bible passages can be similarly puzzling if we miss the key word contextual clues the author provides to open up our understanding to a passage. That s why Luke tells us that the leper was covered with leprosy (5:12), that Jesus healed the man s withered right hand on the Sabbath (6:6), that Simon fished all night and caught nothing (5:5). To the Jewish mind of Jesus day, the words covered, right and night are key words, just like baseball, that suddenly open up those passages and allow the fuller meaning of the narrative to come into view. Context always matters when we engage the Scriptures. And understanding the Jewish world of Jesus day often provides helpful insights that allow us to see much more of the rest of the story. That s the reason for this series on the Jewish world (mindset) of Jesus day. This month we continue the compare-and-contrast framework by exploring another key Gospel word disciples. It s a key piece of the make disciples pie. Lacking that firstcentury perspective and understanding will keep us from being intentional about what it is Jesus calls us to make. THEN AND NOW #4 It s About Making Disciples What is a Disciple? In reading the Gospels, it s hard to miss the word disciples. Jesus begins His ministry by calling a few observant Jews to become His disciples. Roughly three years later, He goes to Jerusalem with His band of disciples and dies on a Cross. Between those two events, He walks the land remaking these disciples in what Luke characterized as Jesus do and teach pedagogy (Acts 1:1). 2 To more fully understand the Kingdom of God that Jesus came to proclaim, we need to understand what it meant to be a disciple in the First Century so we can know what it is we are to make, as well as how to go about making them today. When Jesus said in Matthew 28:19 go and make disciples teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you, He was a Jew speaking to other Jews in a Semitic dialect. As such, those words had a very specific (and timeless) meaning that embodied a common paradigm that first-century Jewish listeners well understood. For us to better understand what Jesus said, we first need to disconnect from our traditional Hellenistic understanding of those words easier said than done and then ask how the Jews who first heard those words would have understood them. This process will give us clarity about how the key words make, disciples, teach, obey, everything, commanded should fit into our disciplemaking efforts of today.

2 The Role of the Rabbi Every first-century Jew knew that the Scriptures had authority over all aspects of life. God may have been a mystery to them, but behavior was not. Furthermore, it was scrupulous behavior 3 that defined a righteous person. Thus, observant Jews had a deep desire to honor God by doing all the right things. In the world of Pharisaism, rabbis were the teachers who were given the authoritative role to interpret God s Word for living a righteous life that is defining for their disciples what behavior would or would not honor God. Choose Your Rabbi Carefully A first-century disciple (talmid) was a student/learner, and the process of making disciples (talmidim) was a learning community (yeshiva) of adherents. 4 Since a rabbi s interpretation of God s Word was forever binding on his disciples, 5 choosing to enter into religious training with a rabbi was a lifeshaping decision. If a first-century rabbi ultimately agreed to a would-be-disciple s request and uttered those cherished follow me words of invitation, the disciple-to-be agreed to totally surrender to the rabbi s authority in all areas of interpreting the Scriptures for his life. In fact this first-century Jewish idiom follow me means: come and be with me and submit to my authoritative teaching. It is hard for us in the West to identify with this extreme desire to surrender, but that degree of submission was a cultural given for all observant Jewish young men something each dreamed of and aspired to. Emulation While not overtly required, disciples intrinsically had a deep desire to imitate their rabbi. 6 As we say in our contemporary culture, that s just something that comes with the territory. This often included emulating how their rabbi ate, observed Sabbath, his likes and dislikes, mannerisms, prejudices and even preferences. Some disciples would go to extreme lengths to try to imitate their rabbi. The story is told of one disciple who so wanted to emulate his rabbi that he hid in the rabbi s bedchamber. That way he would be better able to emulate with his own future wife how the rabbi was intimate with his wife. Extreme to be sure! But illustrative of the deep, deep desire disciples had to emulate their rabbi in all ways. Born to Mimic Part of our extended family includes a two-year old grandson and two, fifteen-month old twin granddaughters (from different daughters!) Both are in various stages of being mimics. Our grandson is repeating the last few words of every sentence we speak. It s like having your own personal echo chamber following you around. Lacking a working vocabulary, our twin granddaughters are doing the same, only with gestures. If my wife or I pat our head, guess what they will do? The same thing. If we sneeze, they do their best to imitate a sneeze! Observing this consistent pattern of toddler behavior, brought to mind that mimicking might be part of what Jesus was thinking when He said unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven (Matt. 18:3). Emulating Him would be one of those obvious things Jesus would expect His disciples to do in His Kingdom! As another example, back to baseball for a moment. While I was recently watching some of the Little League Baseball World Series on television, I saw 11- and 12-year old boys emulating all kinds of behaviors that we find in major league baseball players. This included the baggy pants piled up around their ankles as well as their spitting all over the field (from bubble gum?) as if they were seasoned tobacco chewers! They know how to emulate their idols! Being an intentional emulator is not just limited to children. Observe how we develop board certified surgeons, nurses, licensed electricians, schoolteachers, biochemists, counselors, and golf pros today. Common to each are long periods of study, training, technique emulation, internship experiences, as well as continuing education. We are accustomed to the practice of placing ourselves under the watchful discipling oversight of others as we mimic those who have established proficiency in our professional areas of interest. Ironically, we seem to put far more passion, commitment, and dedication into becoming a disciple of someone, or some thing, than we seem to do in developing and nurturing our piety as committed disciples of Jesus Christ. Thus, we all become disciples of someone or some thing - be it hedonism, career, self-absorption, baseball, our favorite cause, or Jesus Christ.

3 Wrestling with the Word of God Yeshivas, or groups of disciples intensely dialoging over Scripture s claim on an aspect of life, was a standard part of rabbinic disciplemaking methodology. 7 Yeshivas would discuss the Torah (the Pentateuch), the Ketuvim (The Writings), and the Neviim (The Prophets) which comprised the whole of their Scripture (The Tanakh) as they knew it. To this they would overlay the various interpretations of the sages through the ages. Debate was commonplace in the yeshiva experience as the rabbi and his band walked the trails. Those disciples who could best argue and defend their interpretive position regarding some aspect of wrestling with God s Word to comprehend who God is and how God does things, 8 were meeting the objectives of the rabbi and the yeshiva experience. Since all disciples had memorized most, if not all of their Scripture, 9 the issue was not the content of God s Word, but rather how it was to be lived out. As part of that process, the disciples would debate various sage interpretations of the texts pertaining to a real life issue. Because of their love of learning, that might involve weeks of dialogue and debate, for the rabbis were in no hurry to resolve these issues and questions. However, when the rabbi ultimately did declare his authoritative interpretation on an issue, all further debate ceased. His declared interpretation was now binding on his disciples lives. It was not optional from the disciple s perspective whether he would embrace that understanding or not. It was a done deal. From that point forward, he would be committed to living out his rabbi s understanding in every aspect of his life. That contextual perspective does beg the question: Do we embrace Jesus teaching in that same submitted, passionate way, e.g., the Sermon on the Mount? Transparency Unlike many of our contemporary discipleship programs or notions, there was no curriculum or agenda for this multi-year discipling experience. Rather it was a continual, daily, relational living experience where either the rabbi would ask questions of a disciple as he closely observed the disciple s daily behavior, or the disciple would initiate a discussion by asking a question based on some aspect of his daily life. In the dynamics of this intimate discipling community, all of a disciple s daily life was observable by the rabbi. A disciple always expected the rabbi s consistent and persistent question, Why did you do that? The rabbi s emphasis was always on behavior formation, not just the imparting of wisdom and related interpretive information. 10 In this interactive manner, the rabbis functioned to clear up gray areas of understanding and difficult areas of textual interpretation for their disciples. By always asking questions, the rabbis were concentrating on developing discernment in the mind of the disciple, not the imparting of how to formulas or tips for living. Notions of four steps to piety, or three steps to effective prayer would be abhorrent to the first-century disciplemaking process. Believe is a Verb As developed in last month s Reflection, the Semitic understanding of believe was not based on an intellectual assent to a creed, doctrinal statement, or series of faith propositions. Rather, believe, faith, truth were active (often imperative) verbs in which a disciple willingly submitted to his rabbi s interpretive authority regarding God s Word in every area of life. Thus, to say you were a disciple in the name of Gamaliel, meant that you not only totally surrendered your life to Gamaliel s way of interpreting Scripture, but also willingly conformed all of your life s behavior to his interpretations. Essential Attributes This revisiting of some of the first-century contextual backdrop of make and disciples is both sobering and challenging, as well as paradigm changing. In light of the essential traits of firstcentury disciples, desire and submission - what we would call obedience today - as well as emulation, love of learning, community and transparency, we are now ready to make some observations regarding disciplemaking (and spiritual formation) today. As mentioned earlier, some implications to being such a disciple include: A willing and totally conforming submission to their rabbi s (think Jesus) understanding of Scripture and his authoritative declaration of how to live life so as to honor God. This came with a passion and zeal to give up all of their preconceived notions of how to live their life and then to enthusiastically embrace the way their rabbi deemed it best to honor God in all the minutiae of daily life. A deep desire to emulate everything their rabbi (Jesus) did. Being in a relational community characterized by intimacy and transparency.

4 Observations A disciple of Jesus is one who surrenders to Him and His way of seeing and doing things. As such, a disciple comes with a willing desire to conform all aspects of his or her life to the authoritative (and binding) Lordship of Jesus Christ. To Jesus, righteousness was a matter of the heart, not a codification of behavior. 11 Thus, emulating behavior flowed from a radically changed heart. As part of this dynamic, it needs to be understood that-- Jesus disciples come with a deeply rooted desire to surrender to His authority. Jesus is always the authority. He is our rabbi as well as The Rabbi. It is to Him and Him alone that we surrender. Disciples of Jesus today cannot explicitly or implicitly transfer any authority to a pastor, teacher, or well-known author, and thus take any authority away from Him. In Matthew 28:20, Jesus states He will be with His disciples always. Therefore with the continual indwelling of the Spirit of Christ within every believer, there is no need for anyone else to assume His role as rabbi of His disciples. Paul stated that no one was ever baptized in my name. 12 He did so to make the point that no one could ever say he was a disciple of Paul. All believers, Paul insisted, are to be disciples only of Jesus Christ. Jesus revealed much about who God is and how God does things in His encounters with people. The role of the teacher-preacher-author in disciplemaking is to be a co-disciple with certain spiritual gifts that can help open the depths and riches of the Scriptures, thus further revealing to all disciples more of whom God is and how God does things. The central issue of being a disciple of Jesus is: How can I surrender submit every aspect of my life, including worldview, paradigms, career, personality, character, ethics, desires, motivations, values, family, ego, sexuality and attitudes to the authority of Jesus and His teachings? Small groups and one-on-one relationships can often serve much of the purpose of a yeshiva if those involved consistently ask and explore what it means to daily surrender every aspect of their lives to the Lordship of Christ. It is important that these groups and relationships define what they are about, and what their purpose is. The difference between discipling groups, (often limited) accountability groups, Bible study groups, and fellowship groups can be vast in terms of their impact on the daily holiness of a disciple. Some Things to Wrestle With This overview of making disciples during the time of Jesus highlights some of the assumptions and presuppositions embedded in the rabbi-disciple relationship. These first-century (timeless) givens provide us with issues to wrestle with as we ask questions of ourselves, and raise disciplemaking issues for our small groups, churches, and informal communities of faith. Today we don t seem to have as much of an appetite to wrestle with the biblical text as it relates to the daily holiness issues of our lives and God s authority over them. With our often lack of love of Scripture learning, we tend to prefer simplistic answers that we can selectively embrace at our convenience. Consequently, much of what it means to be a committed follower of Jesus Christ today is often reduced to formulas and acrostics, a genre that would never have survived rabbinic scrutiny in a first-century yeshiva. Jesus method of discipling was not a quick, fill-in-the-blank Bible study with pat answers. He did not hand out principles for daily living. Rather, He came to reveal God s Truth. Jesus intent was to develop discernment in his listeners regarding who God is and how God does things, not to provide easy answers without often rigorous effort wrestling with God s Word and its demands. In fact today s Greek notion of biblical principles was foreign to the world of the rabbis of Jesus day. Are we willing to conform every issue in our life to the Word of God, or do we often seem to try to avoid wrestling? When we do wrestle, are we prepared to place ourselves under the authority of His revealed response in His Word? Have you ever found yourself not bringing an issue to the Scriptures because you didn t want to hear, or didn t want to have to encounter God s authoritative response regarding money, ego, sex, alcohol, career, and pride. The reader is encouraged to add to this list. We live in a culture that chafes under almost any concept of authority. Do your own thing or Frank Sinatra s I Did It My Way refrain is the mantra of the day. How might this cultural malaise impact our understanding and willingness to put ourselves under biblical authority? To what extent do we even have a desire to want to surrender to the authority of Jesus today and accept it as binding, in the same manner that first-century disciples had a willingness to surrender to their rabbi s interpretive authority?

5 What Jesus Didn t Say In pondering Jesus words go and make disciples teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you, it helps to also consider what Jesus did not say, e.g. go and make believers who think my teaching contains some good ideas to consider. go and make believers who will (mostly) agree with the creeds my church will create. go and find people who will obey, when it s convenient, some of what I teach. go and find people who will attend church, sing in the choir, and usher in a pinch as needed. go and find believers and teach them how to pick and choose from among my teachings. go and find people who will do their best to avoid wrestling with my difficult teachings. go and find believers and model for them a lack of love of learning about my Word. go and submit yourself to a Christian author who really speaks to you. Disciples or Believers? As you may have deduced, in the preceding section I began to sketch a caricature of a Western believer that stands in contrast to the (timeless) attributes and traits developed for a disciple, e.g., Disciple Believer Believe is an action verb Believe is just a creed Concerned with right doing & right thinking Mainly concerned with just right thinking Submits to the Lordship of Christ Submits only to self Willing to wrestle with God s Word Desires simple answers and formulas Loves learning - biblically literate Lacks desire to learn biblically illiterate Accepts Jesus teaching as binding Accepts Jesus teaching as optional Emulates Jesus Emulates the world and its ways Engages in Community Isolates as a Lone Ranger Yearns to be a butterfly Content to remain a caterpiller 13 With estimates of some forty-five million evangelical Christians in America today, there should be sufficient leaven in the loaf and salt in the shaker to radically impact our society. Yet one survey after another reports that there is essentially no difference between those in the church pew and those in the culture when it comes to divorce, cheating on your income tax, etc. Might that be because there are too many believers in the church today and too few disciples? Too many people content to be saved but not transformed? 14 Too many content to be caterpillars with no yearnings to be butterflies? If so, what caused that outcome? What needs to be done about it? It Matters How We Read God s Word It goes without saying that disciples of Jesus will read His words and embrace His teaching in very different ways than believers will. It is a given that we will never truly wrestle with God s Word until we hear it as a disciple does. And our transformation unto His likeness will be modest at best until we submit ourselves to the authority of His Word like a disciple would. Ponder Did the attributes of a first-century disciple surprise you? Challenge your paradigm(s)? In what ways? Review the bolded essential qualities of a first-century disciple in this Reflection, and replace the word rabbi with Jesus. How would you assess the impact of these distinctive qualities of being a disciple of Jesus in your life desire, submission, emulation, passion, community, biblical literacy and transparency? Biblical discipling is a life shaping, life-determining process. Who are the people, or what are the things that are shaping your life? Who have you emulated or are currently emulating in your life? Is it possible to ever outgrow the need to be in some form of a discipling relationship? How would you describe to others your biblical understanding of making disciples? Do you see any cultural expectations that may have shaped our current notions of discipleship? How would you contrast the disciplemaking of the First Century with contemporary notions of discipleship and mentoring that you have experienced or observed today? From your perspective, is there a meaningful difference today between what it means to be a believer in Jesus Christ and what it means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ? What challenges you most in this chapter? How are you going to respond to those challenges?

6 A Personal Prayer (Re)discovering the first-century presuppositions of a disciple of Jesus should drive us to our knees and cause us to echo Isaiah when he cried Woe to me (Isaiah 6:5). Therefore, it seems best to close this Reflection with a personal prayer so that we too can rise up as Isaiah did in verse 8 and say Here am I. Send me! (to be your disciple) (added). Lord, I do want to have a deep desire for You, Your Will and Your Ways. Yet, I confess I often find little or no desire to want to do so. In the power of Your Holy Spirit, remind me to pray for that desire when I find it missing; To pray for a desire to want to submit to You as a loving act of devotion and worship; And to have a passion to want to emulate You in all that I think, feel, and do. Lord, work in your Sovereign ways to empower me to want to be Your disciple. Tear down all my bastions of self-centeredness and self-sufficiency. Make me into Your person, Your disciple, Your ambassador, and the leaven in Your loaf a person who loves You and willingly shares Your love, grace and mercy with others. And free me from any sense of obligatory obedience, for Your glory and Your praise. Amen. Where Can I Dig Deeper? If you would like to learn more about the dynamics of the rabbi-disciple relationship in the First Century and how Jesus remade the Twelve, consider reading: Sitting at the Feet of Rabbi Jesus by Ann Spangler and Lois Tverberg, Zondervan, Making Disciples Jesus Way: Wisdom We Have Missed by Doug Greenwold, Second Edition, Bible-in- Context Ministries, Columbia, Maryland, Shalom Doug Greenwold PBT Teaching Fellow Reflection # 909 Doug Greenwold 2009 Doing what we do because context always matters Mailing List If this Reflection has been forwarded to you and you would like to receive future installments of this Two Very Different Worlds series, you can subscribe on the PBT website to receive them. Just go to the NEWSLETTERS page (under TEACHINGS) and enter your address. Notes and Sources 1. Gordon D. Fee, New Testament Exegesis, Revised Edition (Westminster/John Knox Press, Louisville, Ky., 1993) For more on Jesus Do and Teach methodology, see Chapter 5, Do and Teach in Making Disciples Jesus Way: Wisdom We Have Missed, Second Edition (Bible-in-Context Ministries: Rockville, MD, 2007), Joel B. Green et. al., Dictionary of Jesus and the Gospels (Downers Grove, Ill.: Intervarsity Press, 1992), Green Matthew 16:19. Here Jesus declares Peter to be the successor rabbi of the band. As rabbi, he will have the authority to bind and loose with his interpretations. 6. D. Thomas Lancaster, Discipleship to Rabbi Yeshua, June James C. Martin and Douglas Greenwold, Rediscovering Discipleship: A Contextual Perspective (Rockville, Md.: A Preserving Bible Times Discipling Discussion Paper, 2002). 8. James C. Martin, The Gospels in Context (Bible World Seminars: Amarillo, Texas, 2002), David Bivins, Jesus Education, under Articles. 10. Martin and Greenwold, Rediscovering Discipleship: A Contextual Perspective. 11. Matthew 6:21, 12:34-35; 13:15; 15:18, 18b-19; Luke 6:45, 10:27 et al. 12. I Corinthians 1: I am indebted to Dr. Richard J. Alberta of Cornerstone Evangelical Presbyterian Church in Brighton, Michigan, for this thought from his message What the Follower Must Do from his Following Jesus (A Radical Journey) series. 14. Dr. Richard Alberta