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Clarifying Discipleship
By daniel | October 10, 2004
Fellow disciples,
The questions asked last Sunday were these: what does it mean to arrange one?s life around Jesus? and what of the two aspects of the Spirit?s ministry in the saints (life and power)? If you?ll permit, I?d like to speak to these a little, hopefully offering some clarity toward helping us walk well.
A disciple, speaking simply, is someone who does life with another, with the goal of being able to do what the other can do ? becoming meaningfully like the other. Thus, a disciple of Jesus is with Jesus for the purpose of acquiring His mark, His character, His view, His abilities, His way and manner. For this reason it?s just reasonable for Jesus to insist, “everyone, after he has been fully trained, will be like his teacher” (Luke 6:40). That?s how discipleship, when properly engaged, works. It remakes you into whatever master you choose. (So choose carefully.)
Now, to properly engage apprenticeship to Jesus involves three verbs: see, choose, and act. One must see what is offered in this relationship to Jesus as master, and one must see that it is, in fact, worth trading in your current approach to life to have it.
Then, one must choose. Jesus never invited people to dream wistfully of what it might be like to really be His. His invitation, then and now, is, “Follow me.” And, then and now, Jesus makes that offer as plainly as He can and waits for you to respond. He expects you to actively choose ? to follow or not. There simply is no other option. Discipleship does not happen in half-measures. It is or it is not. Choose.
Finally, one must act intelligently. For example, if you saw the value of being bilingual and chose to learn Spanish there are certain arrangements you would make in order to implement that decision, certain actions you would take that can reasonably be expected to give you mastery of the Spanish language. You would not just listen to the Spanish radio station or “just go get a book.” You?d get a teacher, take a class, find Spanish-speakers to dialogue with, maybe take a trip south-of-the border. You?d take intelligent steps. You?d arrange appropriate parts of your life around the purpose you?d espoused. Likewise, when Jesus invited Peter, James and John to follow Him, they saw the offer on the table, made a life-altering choice, and took a course of action that could reasonably be expected to accomplish the purpose they?d espoused. In their case, with the man Jesus walking around Palestine, that meant they left their nets on the shore and walked around Palestine with Jesus, doing whatever He did. Now, with the man Jesus crucified, ascended and poured out in the Spirit, there are other ways to be with Jesus, doing whatever He is doing.
And that brings us back to Sunday?s question. We?re blessed with a bit more light on the matter of discipleship than the original twelve were when they chose. We can see that being a disciple of Jesus now comprises all that we are as members of the body, participants in the new mankind, citizens of the kingdom, and brethren in His family. As you come to see the life available to you, as you come to see Christ?s intentions for the world (and for you as you find your place in His purpose), we invite you to intend what He intends ? to choose. Choose to be His. Choose to live out your calling as His student in the church. And then act. But don?t act ignorantly, and certainly don?t act religiously. Act intelligently. Choose a course of action that can reasonably be expected to remake you into the image of Jesus, that can reasonably be expected to make you useful to the church in the world.
For the original twelve, that meant leaving their occupations and travelling Palestine with this revolutionary rabbi that had called their names. Arranging their lives around Jesus was a costly but simple matter.
The same holds true for us. Only now, Christ is not to be found wandering Palestine?s dusty roads. Rather, Christ is to be found in us as the Spirit ? in each one of us and in the organism we form when we gather.
To arrange life around Jesus, therefore, is now a matter of doing whatever is necessary to live by the Spirit. As Jesus? student I must now make arrangements ? intentional decisions about my time and my attention ? that will allow me to commune with Him in my spirit, where Christ dwells by faith. As His student I must now make arrangements ? intentional decisions about my time and my expectations ? that will allow me to gather meaningfully with other saints in real-life scenarios (like homes and dinner tables and larger gatherings); also, I must make arrangements concerning my finances that will make me useful to the body of Christ and her mission to claim the world in His name. As the apprentice of Jesus, I must come to identify His life?s work as my own, abandoning other goals, and I must execute His intentions in the situations I live in. And by working with Him in real life I acquire a real life that is both His and mine at the same time.
These arrangements are the expressions of a choice ? the choice to be His through and through. And that choice is fuelled by sight ? the perception of a life far greater than what you have thus far known. All this is the sane and holy response to Christ?s simple and ageless call: Follow me.
May our Master grant us the grace to see, the will to choose, and the wisdom and courage and relentlessness to act decisively and to keep acting.
Peace to you all,
Virgil
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