Simple Discipleship
Discipleship is an oft misunderstood word. Maybe more accurately, it is most often misunderstood in our practice. We have tended (as many authors/prophets have pointed out) to replace discipleship with the dissemination of information. If we know more scripture, take another Bible Study that approaches faith from a new, refreshing angle, then we will be better disciples. In this wrong thinking knowledge=discipleship. And in the worst of cases, attendance=discipleship. The thinking goes, Jesus had disciples whom he taught and whom lived with him for 3 years, therefore, we need to learn and to attend/be present.
The problem with those thoughts is that they fall short of what actually took place between Jesus and his disciples. The other problem is that they are a 21st century, North American reading and interpretation of a 1st century Palestinian way of life. In order to be a disciple, a young Jewish boy would enter into an in depth journey of learning and memorizing scripture and varying interpretations of those scriptures. They would have to leave their family and friends behind to go and live with their rabbi. But the most important aspect of discipleship was that each disciple was expected to become like their rabbi. They would slowly loose their own identities in order to become more like their teachers. In other words, discipleship was all about a transformation of lifestyle, worldview, theology and praxis.
Alan Hirsch writes, in his must read book ReJesus, “one must first be committed to being marked by Jesus, to submit oneself to being shaped and changed to reflect more and more the lifestyle and teaching of Jesus” (p. 35). It’s not enough to have knowledge of scripture. It’s not enough to be active in a faith community. It’s not enough to have a daily devotion. It’s not enough to slap a fish sticker on your car, your backpack, your laptop or anywhere else. Discipleship is simply becoming like Jesus! Discipleship is abandoning ourselves in order to become like our rabbi in our thinking, in our lifestyle, in our worldview, and in the way we live & serve. We have been marked by the indelible love of Christ and that mark now must color every part of our being. When it does, we begin to be like Christ. Then, and only then, we are disciples.
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