Preparation for Discipleship
A Commentary on the Sabbath School Lesson for February 9-15, 2008
Sermon on the Mount
In my freshman year of college, a professor handed us a piece of paper with a two- or three- sentence paragraph and told us to count the number of times a particular letter occurred, for example the letter H. I counted carefully and was confident that there were a total of six, only to be told that there were actually nine. I was informed that what I had experienced was due to an area of diminished vision within the visual field called a scotoma (Greek for darkness).
The more I study discipleship the more I am convinced that the reason the disciples had problems understanding Jesus and the reign of God is that they had areas of diminished vision within the visual field that Jesus set in front of them. So Jesus called and taught as he accompanied them, as a guide accompanies one who lacks sight. The call to discipleship was and is a call to grow into the likeness of Jesus and to participate in the reign of God. However, the disciples had never seen such a kingdom, and as often as Jesus explained it to them, they had difficulty seeing. Jesus endured the problem all prophets encounter: seeing things as they ought to be, and when they courageously speak of their visions, hoping to reconcile the community to wholeness, they are often met with resistance as troublers of the community.
If we take the Sermon on the Mount as the “manifesto of discipleship,” then we must recognize that this is a vision many of us do not readily grasp or are easily given to practice. Some call it an impossible ideal, which opens up room for one to justify falling short as being realistic or pragmatic. In that sermon, Jesus urged the disciples to redefine their motivations to suit the purposes of God. Motivation was once geared toward outward self-serving displays designed to prove that a person met the demands of the law better than someone else. But Jesus confronted the inner sanctums of the individual, where the private practice of all manner of evil runs rampant. Jesus invited his disciples to return favor for malice, forgive those who wronged them, and not to seek vengeance on enemies, but indeed to do the seemingly impossible and love them.
The first step toward becoming true disciples is recognizing that a call to discipleship is a call to a baptism in compassion. The Gospels suggest that to be a disciple is to be moved by human pain, to respond with compassion, and then to be actuated by that compassion to work for restoration. Jesus urges us never to be acclimatized to human suffering and to remember that authentic worship attends to human needs first. However, meeting human needs are ends in themselves and should not be used as coercion tactics or gimmicks to proselytize. God is distressed when we know what is right, yet harden our hearts—choosing instead cultural, religious, political, and economic self-interests. When we so choose, we end up working against the reign of God. Thus, we are called through compassion to cleave our most cherished prejudices, traditions, practices, interpretations, and self-serving theologies.
The second step is realizing that we cannot let go of such ingrained tendencies easily. For this reason, Jesus spent time with the disciples, teaching them over and over again, leading them into sight, and re-creating them into new beings. It is worth noticing that the Twelve are called disciples first and apostles later. Even after Jesus sent them out the first time, they returned to continue their learning. Their apostleship was couched in their discipleship, and the authenticity of their discipleship depended upon their continual fellowship with Jesus. Hence, discipleship should be the context of all that we are, as well as the prism through which we look. In view of that, discipleship is a perpetual enterprise and one can ill afford a hiatus.
The third step, which is crucial, is participation in fulfilling the law of God. Jesus distilled the commands into love for God with all that one is and can muster and love for neighbor as self. Though short and succinctly stated, this distillation has proven all too difficult to embrace and practice. In Matthew 5:19, Jesus teaches that anyone who practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the Kingdom of Heaven. The least are those who do not. Love for God and neighbor is the foundation of everything that we are as disciples, and we embody this love when we are sent out as representatives of Christ. Pity, shame, or guilt can sometimes be disguised as compassion, and can lead one to do great things—even alleviate human suffering—all without ever truly seeing those in need as human beings of equal worth. There are too many examples of missionaries who have spent their lives in far away places, establishing hospitals, churches and digging wells, yet never quite seeing or addressing any of the indigenous people as worthy equals. True discipleship nurtures a compassion borne out of a love for God and love of fellow brothers and sisters. It is humbling to realize that this way of being and seeing is not something we can acquire—it is a gift of grace given to teachable souls in the capable hands of God.
Let me propose something that might induce discomfort among some, by redefining the Great Commission. The Great Commission is to love God and neighbor and to learn continually how to do so as we attend to the other. This will quicken our efforts and successes as we attend to the other commission that we have interpreted as great, which is “to go and make disciples of all nations” (Matt. 28:19). If in our discipleship we are ever learning how to love God and neighbor, then going to make disciples will naturally flow or burst forth from within us. All too often, however, the missionary zeal outweighs the love component and importance is focused on numbers and honorable mention, as well as voyeuristic interest in pitiable conditions of existence, all of which steal the focus from the trajectory of the reign of God.
To prepare for discipleship is also to prepare for opposition. Jesus did good things at no one’s expense and faced opposition. This is part of picking up a cross and following him. His was the opposition that came from without, the kind he generously faced with redemptive holy courage. This kind of opposition comes from the purveyors of tradition and detractors. There is a kind of opposition that comes from within, which can be a result of calculating the cost of carrying one’s cross. After all, more often than we care to admit, “blessed are the peacemakers” has led directly to “blessed are they that mourn.”
In conclusion, we are hard pressed to name even a handful of people who have demonstrated true discipleship in our own lives. Most of us have only caught brief glimpses of the Sermon on the Mount. Our challenge is to let our lives be demonstrations of such true discipleship, discipleship that is immersed in a compassion birthed by love for God and all human beings. In so doing, we will multiply the glimpses of the Holy in our communities.
Paul Mugane writes from San Diego, California.
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Comments
Paul,
All I can say is, beautiful! Challenging my inmost soul with the real beauty of Christ... Thanks for your comments...
Frank
This is a very, very good essay.
For best effect, read several times; and slowly.
I kept reading, trying to find a sentence that encapsulated the essence of the thought... Could not do it; there are too many.
The final two lines work pretty well however; (though don't miss the many in the full text)...
"Our challenge is to let our lives be demonstrations of such true discipleship, discipleship that is immersed in a compassion birthed by love for God and all human beings. In so doing, we will multiply the glimpses of the Holy in our communities."
On a mission trip to Peru several years ago, I "chatted" with a nurse in the OR. She spoke no English, me no Spanish. So, I "asked" her to point out her favorite passages of scripture. (No interpreter) I still have them underlined in the bible I had brought. And they were the passages where Jesus enters, sees the plight, and has COMPASSION.
Yes, compassion may be "just" a feeling; but sometimes feelings generate actions, and actions engender hope... She also shared with me passages about hope.
So, I love the idea of being a "glimpse of the Holy" for ones community. For Lord knows that with me, it really is only a tiny glimpse...
I give what I got...
Paul Mugane, whoever you are, Thanks...
One must first read the Sermon on the Mount as Christ's Action Plan. "Be ye therefore perfect even as your Father in heaven is perfect." "Think not that I have come to destroy the law or the prophets, I have not come to destroy but to fulfill." "Not one jot or tittle shall past before all shall be fulfilled." On the cross Christ cried: "It is finished" or "It has been accomplished!" We now live in the assurance of His Righteousness. We have the opportunity to be His witnesses. We are called to live the life of the forgiven.
Reading the Sermon on the Mount can be either a chilling experience or a liberating experience. Tom
Paul, I must say that was an extraordinarily insightful essay. Please continue to bless us with your thoughts.
Tom, I can't help but point out what Jesus himself defines what he means by all being fulfilled.
"For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled." (Mt 5:18)
That's not to say that we can't live in the assurance of Christ's Righteousness, just that the law still has a role to play in our Christian experience.
David
I think my piece covered that. Jesus Christ who wrote the law also fulfilled it in real time. I think my piece also covered the application of the ethics and ethos of Heaven in the section entitled The Life Style of the Forgiven. Or am I missing your point? Tom
David,
The word fulfilled is not an antinomian term...I don't believe Tom meant that. He brought to pass and "validated" both the law and His prophetic mission as the faithful covenant keeper "It is finished"...His blood shed for us that we celebrate in the Lord's supper...In fulfilment of the requirements of the Mosaic covenant.Gal.3:13;Mt.26:28.
Now, He reckons us perfect in Himself as believers.
You are both correct.........
David, there are several translations of the verse you quoted:
"Till heaven and earth disappear, not one dot, not one little stroke, shall disappear from the Law until its purpose is achieved" (Jerusalem).
"For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter, or stroke shall pass away from the Law until all is accomplished" (NASB).
Why did Jesus say "It is finished" just before he died? Did he not accomplish, finish and complete what he had been sent to to do? Didn't Paul write that "Love is the fulfillment of the Law"? The first four verses of Paul's letter to the Romans, Chapter 8, succinctly stated that the "law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death...in order that the requurements of the Law might be fulfilled in us." Paul, the expositor of the meaning of Christianity, writes more and better explanations in his letter to the Galatians. Of note, Paul was the first writer of the NT and was the first to explain the meaning of Christ's death and how Jesus had fulfilled the Law's requirements that had previously been part of the Jewish system--which we as Christians are no longer under.
Paul, I would add my thanks to those who have already recognized your meaningful and thought provoking essay. Beginning with the baptism of compassion and carrying though the way of being, gift of grace, worthy equals and perpetual enterprise to glimpses of the Holy I was moved and motivated.
Paul, this is wonderful.
I think one of the gravest shortcomings of popular Christianity is antagonism, or at condescension, toward Jews and the Jewish Scripture, or Old Testament.
It is true that Paul relaxed (for Gentiles) those parts of the law that were meant specifically as a means of marking out the ethnic and religious identity of the Jews.
But what's also true is that Paul, and the writers of the New Testament in general, saw Christianity as a new expression of JEWISH spirituality. In its broadest outlines, the law continued to determine and enrich Christian life.
Thanks Pat and Elaine
Tom
Chuck,
Agreed that Paul relaxed for the Gentiles those parts of the law that separated the ethnic and religious identity of the Jews.
However, there is nowhere in all of Paul's writing where he instructs the new Gentile believers to adopt those laws that were uniquely Jewish and identified them: circumcision, Sabbath, and Kosher dietary laws. To the contrary, he excludes those as a requirement for the Gentiles.
These were what identify Jews to our day, as well as 2000 years ago. To attempt to reinstate them is to ignore the plain message of both Peter and Paul. How did that come about?
Paul - we love you from all of us in Minnetonka!!!
What is the source of the comment "authentic worship attends to human needs first?"
John Brunt's 1981 Spectrum article about clean vs. unclean foods really challenges the whole distinction we continue to make in the Adventist church.
Healthy lifestyle is one thing...imposing ceremonial Jewish regulations and distinctions while ignoring others is another.
Downplaying or ignoring the implications of what happened in Antioch with Paul and Peter over this issue is also another.
Frank
Frank,
We seem to be kindred spirits...maybe we have we been reading the same book?
Tom, Pat, Elaine:
All I meant to say was the fulfillment at which the law will pass away that Jesus referred to was the creation of the new earth. To apply it to the cross is to take the phrase out of its immediate context.
Does that make sense?
Anonymous in Minnetonka:
That's the church I spent the first 18 years of my life in. Problem is I haven't been back since. Hope all is well there.
Dave,
As far as the law being a guide to life I feel you are correct...but if righteousness comes by the law Christ has died in vain. Make sense?
I have to sign off for a week...my wife and I have other comittments.
Pat:
Makes sense. As Paul make clear, no one has ever been justified by keeping the law (nor sanctified nor glorified for that matter).
Perhaps I should have clarified that point was more exegetical than theological.
David
With all do respect. I disagree. I think the New Heaven and the New Earth will be under the same ethic and ethos that Jesus demonstrated and fulfilled while here on earth. We look for that New Heaven and that New Earch because it will be governed by the two great commandments: Thou shalt love the Lord Thy God with all thy heart and all thy mind and thy neighbor as thy self." That is the sum of every jot and tittle. Tom
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