In the end of the 9th chapter of Luke's Gospel, we find three potential disciples. Each reveals a certain misconception of what following Jesus means. The first one says, "I will follow You wherever You go." He was not called by Jesus and thus does not understand what discipleship entails. He is ready to follow Jesus, yet Jesus' response reveals that he is more committed to what he thinks discipleship is rather than to Jesus Himself. His "wherever" has a certain meaning. "The foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head," Jesus says. Birds and foxes have more security and certainty in life than He does. Anyone who wishes to follow Jesus must embrace a life of uncertainty. However, this uncertainty is safe. A disciple does not know what tomorrow is going to bring but he is safe because Jesus will be with him tomorrow as He was yesterday and is today. A follower does not know where he will go next but he is safe because he will be following Jesus. Such is the paradox of safe uncertainty. That is why it is so important to be called by Jesus and not to embark on the journey based on one's own perception of discipleship.
The second man heard the call but said "Lord, permit me first to go and bury my father." He thought discipleship could wait. Other things demanded his attention first. Jesus says, "Allow the dead to bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim everywhere the kingdom of God." Discipleship means a life of unconditional commitment. It is about you, it is about right now, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.
The third man, like the first one, was not called to follow Jesus but came up with the idea on his own. He also came up with some conditions: "I will follow You, Lord; but first permit me to say good-bye to those at home." Jesus, rather harshly, replied, "No one, after putting his hand to the plow and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God." Discipleship means embracing a life of single focus. It is to be pure of heart. A.W. Pink calls this life single focus "godly simplicity".
We don't know whether any of the three became true followers of Jesus. As for us, though, we are called to embrace a life of safe uncertainty, unconditional commitment and single focus.
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
Following Jesus, Part 3: The Cross of Discipleship
There are a few things that we Evangelicals don’t preach about: pride, sex, money, for example. But the greatest omission, perhaps, is suffering. We have divorced discipleship from suffering, yet Jesus taught that suffering was essential to the follower's life. Historically, Christians embraced this teaching. Augustine writes, “God had one son on earth without sin, but never one without suffering.” Dietrich Bonhoeffer also emphasizes the unbreakable bond of suffering and discipleship. He says,
“Just as Christ is Christ only in virtue of his suffering and rejection, so the disciple is a disciple only in so far as he shares his Lord’s suffering and rejection and crucifixion.”
Bonhoeffer says, “Suffering, then, is the badge of true discipleship.”
Jesus cannot be any clearer: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me." (Luke 9:23) In the greater passage, Jesus teaches that denying oneself means to lose one's life, to become a different person, to embrace a new self, and gain a new life. As one does it, she discovers that she did not really know who she really was. She relizes that only now, only in Christ, she is what she was meant to be. The new self that one finds through losing the old self it the real self, the true person, the one God had dreamed up before time began. To become a true disciple of Christ one needs to confess Jesus as the Christ of God (like Peter did) and wholeheartedly embrace the scandal of the Cross. We follow the One who was crucified, so we too must take up our crosses. It is a decision and a daily struggle.
Soren Kierkegaard says, "To suffer rightly is to have a secret with God!” To suffer rightly means to suffer with Jesus, allowing Him to come alongside and help and comfort us. It means to suffer like Jesus with grace and patience. And it means to suffer for Jesus, turning every struggle and difficulty into a means of becoming more like Him and clinging closer to Him.
If one does not embrace suffering, one cannot be called a disciple of the One who suffered on our behalf. Kierkegaard rightly observes, “He who himself does not wish to suffer cannot love him who has.”
“Just as Christ is Christ only in virtue of his suffering and rejection, so the disciple is a disciple only in so far as he shares his Lord’s suffering and rejection and crucifixion.”
Bonhoeffer says, “Suffering, then, is the badge of true discipleship.”
Jesus cannot be any clearer: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me." (Luke 9:23) In the greater passage, Jesus teaches that denying oneself means to lose one's life, to become a different person, to embrace a new self, and gain a new life. As one does it, she discovers that she did not really know who she really was. She relizes that only now, only in Christ, she is what she was meant to be. The new self that one finds through losing the old self it the real self, the true person, the one God had dreamed up before time began. To become a true disciple of Christ one needs to confess Jesus as the Christ of God (like Peter did) and wholeheartedly embrace the scandal of the Cross. We follow the One who was crucified, so we too must take up our crosses. It is a decision and a daily struggle.
Soren Kierkegaard says, "To suffer rightly is to have a secret with God!” To suffer rightly means to suffer with Jesus, allowing Him to come alongside and help and comfort us. It means to suffer like Jesus with grace and patience. And it means to suffer for Jesus, turning every struggle and difficulty into a means of becoming more like Him and clinging closer to Him.
If one does not embrace suffering, one cannot be called a disciple of the One who suffered on our behalf. Kierkegaard rightly observes, “He who himself does not wish to suffer cannot love him who has.”
Monday, October 15, 2007
Following Jesus, Part 2: The Call to Discipleship
As we discuss discipleship, one question inevitably arises. How does one become a disciple of Jesus? A simple answer is that one needs to respond to Christ's call to discipleship as Levi did in Luke 5. The call to discipleship is gracious and rooted in Divine freedom and authority. Karl Barth says,
“Just because the command of Jesus is the form of the grace that concretely comes to a person, it is issued with all the freedom and sovereignty of grace against which there can be no legitimate objections, of which no one is worthy, for which there can be no preparation, which none can elect, and in face of which there can be no qualifications.”
The call issued by Jesus to Levi is gracious since Levi had no qualifications for becoming a follower of the Messiah. But as Jesus said, He did not come to call the righteous, i.e. those qualified to follow Him, but the sinful. The only prerequisite for discipleship is one's sinfulness. Jesus freely calls Levi and Levi simply obeys Jesus.
Unless we understand the grace of the call to discipleship, we do not understand discipleship. And unless we are amazed by grace, we do not understand grace. To really get it, we need to be surprised, embarrassed, puzzled, freaked out by grace. If I am not surprised that Jesus called me to follow Him, if, on some level, it makes sense that He called specifically me, I really have no idea what grace is. The call is gracious and thus inexplicable and mysterious. It cannot be manufactured but only experienced. Here is what Anne Lamott writes about the wonder of grace:
“It [grace] is unearned love—the love that goes before, that greets us on the way. It’s the help you receive when you have no bright ideas left, when you are empty and desperate and have discovered that your best thinking and most charming charm have failed you. Grace is the light or electricity or juice or breeze that takes you from that isolated place and puts you with others who are as startled and embarrassed and eventually grateful as you are to be there.”
When Jesus calls one to follow Him, there is only one legitimate response. It is obedience. Simple, spontaneous, leave everything, no looking back obedience. We respond to the call by dying to everything around us and being resurrected to the new life in Christ. We accept Jesus as a Mediator, not only between God and man, but between two people, between us and reality, as Dietrich Bonhoeffer writes. Jesus must be welcomed as the Negotiator between the follower and reality. He must determine our attitudes towards and relationships with all that surrounds the new follower. Barth says that the call to discipleship is a coup d'etat of God. The call forces us to make a choice to either join the Divine rebellion, thus renouncing all our foreign allegiances, or fight against the Divine take over.
“Just because the command of Jesus is the form of the grace that concretely comes to a person, it is issued with all the freedom and sovereignty of grace against which there can be no legitimate objections, of which no one is worthy, for which there can be no preparation, which none can elect, and in face of which there can be no qualifications.”
The call issued by Jesus to Levi is gracious since Levi had no qualifications for becoming a follower of the Messiah. But as Jesus said, He did not come to call the righteous, i.e. those qualified to follow Him, but the sinful. The only prerequisite for discipleship is one's sinfulness. Jesus freely calls Levi and Levi simply obeys Jesus.
Unless we understand the grace of the call to discipleship, we do not understand discipleship. And unless we are amazed by grace, we do not understand grace. To really get it, we need to be surprised, embarrassed, puzzled, freaked out by grace. If I am not surprised that Jesus called me to follow Him, if, on some level, it makes sense that He called specifically me, I really have no idea what grace is. The call is gracious and thus inexplicable and mysterious. It cannot be manufactured but only experienced. Here is what Anne Lamott writes about the wonder of grace:
“It [grace] is unearned love—the love that goes before, that greets us on the way. It’s the help you receive when you have no bright ideas left, when you are empty and desperate and have discovered that your best thinking and most charming charm have failed you. Grace is the light or electricity or juice or breeze that takes you from that isolated place and puts you with others who are as startled and embarrassed and eventually grateful as you are to be there.”
When Jesus calls one to follow Him, there is only one legitimate response. It is obedience. Simple, spontaneous, leave everything, no looking back obedience. We respond to the call by dying to everything around us and being resurrected to the new life in Christ. We accept Jesus as a Mediator, not only between God and man, but between two people, between us and reality, as Dietrich Bonhoeffer writes. Jesus must be welcomed as the Negotiator between the follower and reality. He must determine our attitudes towards and relationships with all that surrounds the new follower. Barth says that the call to discipleship is a coup d'etat of God. The call forces us to make a choice to either join the Divine rebellion, thus renouncing all our foreign allegiances, or fight against the Divine take over.
Friday, October 5, 2007
Following Jesus, Part 1: Fishing with Jesus
In the 5th chapter of Luke's gospel we find Jesus calling Peter and others to become fishers of men. What is peculiar about this passage is Jesus' use of the metaphor. The Old Testament prophets were quite fond of the metaphor of fishing but used it in the context of judgment. They used it to denote pulling disobedient people out of the chaotic and confusing realm of idolatry and social injustice to be judged by God (Jer. 16:16-18, Amos 4:2, Hab. 1:14-17). Fishing was a metaphor of Divine punishment. In Matthew 13:47-50 Jesus uses the metaphor consistently with the Old Testament, while putting it in the kingdom context. In Luke 5, however, Jesus is not talking about judgment at all. The metaphor is still refering to two different realms: the dark and cold realm of the sea (symbolic of the state without God's presence and rule) and the realm of God's kingdom. The two realms are also emphasized in Col. 1:13, 1 Peter 2:9 and Eph. 5:8. Jesus fishes for Peter and other future disciples. He catches them, like fish, and pulls them out of the darkness into the light. Jesus transfers them into the realm of His kingdom. So, our first lesson about following Jesus has to do with following Him into the realm of His kingdom, being transfered, fished out, pulled into the sphere of His rule. To be a disciple means to live in the realm of His word and His rule.
This passage also teaches us that following Jesus means to assume the mission of fishing others out of the sea of chaos and confusion and transferring them into the kingdom of God. We are not supposed to catch and release them back into the realm of darkness, nor are we supposed to catch them and put them on ice by suffocating them with fear and rules. We are to see people transformed from lovers of self into lovers of God.
So, why can Jesus change the metaphor? Why can He replace the realm of judgment with the realm of His glorious rule? Because He was caught in the Garden of Gethsemane, dragged through the streets of Jerusalem and hooked on the Cross of Golgotha where he suffocated like fish out of water. Jesus went into the realm of confusion and brought clarity, He went into the realm of chaos and brought order, He went into the realm of idolatry and brought true worship.
That's why He can change the metaphor of judgment. And that's why He is right to call us to follow Him.
Thursday, October 4, 2007
Gentleness
My five-year old daughter Zoya was arguing with her cousin Eli (also 5 yeas old) about Jesus. It was getting to be a nasty fight. Zoya, who grew up listening to Bible stories and Papa’s sermons (poor kid…), was adamantly defending historicity of Jesus. He really lived, he really died, he really rose from the dead, she was saying. Eli, raised in an agnostic home, said that Jesus was only in one’s heart. Sounds like the Gnostic controversy, doesn’t it? It shows that such issues are obviously important and that you don’t have to be a 74 year old Greek bishop to grasp their importance. After the adults broke the kids up and encouraged them to be nice to each other even if they disagree, Zoya whispered while walking past Eli: “I’m right.”
We encourage our kids to doubt and figure out the faith on their own. Of course, we create an environment that’s conducive to belief and godliness. We don’t brainwash them and will not be signing them up for Jesus Camp anytime soon. And yet, my 5 year old cute little girl has already succumbed to the most grievous fallacy of the Evangelical Church – judgmentalism. Why do we think that truth gives us the right to be inconsiderate and intolerant? Evangelicals are so excited about truth that they have neglected grace. In fact, a lot of us are quite happy to return grace, get a refund and buy more truth. So, instead of promoting truth by grace, we have hidden it with judgmentalism. One of the fruit of the Spirit is gentleness, which is the opposite of judgmentalism. So, if there is no fruit of the Spirit, can we claim that the Spirit is present? Maybe, a radio news flash was right: 75% of churches are without the Holy Spirit. I’d like to see their research data… The worst thing that I realized as we discussed gentleness in our home group was that I am judgmental towards judgmental Christians. Is there hope?
We encourage our kids to doubt and figure out the faith on their own. Of course, we create an environment that’s conducive to belief and godliness. We don’t brainwash them and will not be signing them up for Jesus Camp anytime soon. And yet, my 5 year old cute little girl has already succumbed to the most grievous fallacy of the Evangelical Church – judgmentalism. Why do we think that truth gives us the right to be inconsiderate and intolerant? Evangelicals are so excited about truth that they have neglected grace. In fact, a lot of us are quite happy to return grace, get a refund and buy more truth. So, instead of promoting truth by grace, we have hidden it with judgmentalism. One of the fruit of the Spirit is gentleness, which is the opposite of judgmentalism. So, if there is no fruit of the Spirit, can we claim that the Spirit is present? Maybe, a radio news flash was right: 75% of churches are without the Holy Spirit. I’d like to see their research data… The worst thing that I realized as we discussed gentleness in our home group was that I am judgmental towards judgmental Christians. Is there hope?
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