Experiencing Discipleship
A Commentary on the Sabbath School lesson for February 16-22, 2008
The Last Supper
Follow me
Where I go,
What I do,
And who I know.
Make it part of you to be a part of me.
Older readers will immediately hear the voice of John Denver singing these words, which speak the essence of friendship, of the willingness to join oneself into the life and experience of another. In the upper room, Jesus said to his disciples, “Abide in me, and I in you. No longer do I call you servants, but I call you friends” (John 15:4, 15).
Follow me is the call of discipleship. Discipleship is not about believing correct theology. It is about a journey with a friend, a costly journey. To be a friend of Jesus is to place oneself in the path of criticism, abuse, and false charges. “Your master eats and drinks with sinners.” “Your master does not wash his hands” (Matt 9:11; Luke 11:38).
“When Christ calls a man he bids him come and die.”1 The only way to survive this journey is to die. “It is easy living after we are dead.”2 Dead people have no need to defend their actions or behavior, their characters or their reputations. Being dead to self is liberating. It frees one to concentrate on others.
Where I go. “The Father has sent me to announce good news to the poor, to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty the oppressed” (Luke 4:18). “As the Father has sent me, so I send you” (John 20:21).
Jesus says to us, “Go, my friends, wherever there is need, wherever there is hurt. Go to those who are lonely and afraid. Make yourselves vulnerable and accessible; offer permanent love, no-strings-attached love. Go to the nursing home, the prison cell, the homeless shelter, the work cubicle, the teenager’s bedroom. Go and be my visible body, my comforting, healing, restorative presence in the world.”
What I do. “Jesus got up from the table, took off his outer robe, and tied a towel around himself. He then poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel” (John 13:4, 5).
Discipleship is down and dirty work. It is hands-on work. We cannot outsource our discipleship. Jesus held the children in his arms; he lifted up the woman who had fallen at his feet; he touched the untouchable lepers; he broke the bread and fed the multitude.
We who are joined to Christ are new beings, the old self is dead and gone, the new self has come. And God, who changed us through Christ into his friends, now gives us the task of making others his friends also (2 Cor. 5:17 paraphrased).
And Who I know. “Father, the world does not know you, but I know you, and these know that you sent me. I made you known to them, and I will continue to do so in order that the love you have for me may be in them, and so that I also may be in them” (John 17:25).
Although Jesus’ whole mission on earth was to make his Father known, some of the greatest revelations of the Father’s love can be seen during Jesus’ final hours. Consider the following vignettes of God-kindness.
Shortly after uttering the words, “If you have seen me you have seen the Father” (John 14:9), Jesus demonstrated the tender pity of the Father by making excuses for his sleepy disciples. “Surely the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak” (Mark 14:38). While being taken into custody, he stopped the action and took the time to heal the ear of his arresting officer’s servant.
During his trial, Jesus prayed earnestly for Pilate to be spared from the deed he was about to commit and even sought as far as possible to excuse his actions. “The one who handed me over to you is guilty of a worse sin” (John 19:11). The soldiers tasked with carrying out his execution were assured of God’s forgiveness, and he excused their ignorance. “You don’t understand what you are doing” (Luke 23:34).
When the women of Jerusalem wept for him, Jesus responded to them with words of concern for their children’s future. In personal agony, his thoughts were of his mother’s sorrow, and he entrusted her to the keeping of one whom he knew would not only provide for her but love her as well.
As disciples, are we quick to put the best construction on the motives of others? Do we pray for those who despitefully use us? Does our concern for the immediate eclipse our concern for the future well-being of others? Is our forgiveness conditional, our love limited?
God did not need his son to die to forgive humankind; God is forgiveness personified. But God did need a faithful witness to his forgiving character and Christ was faithful unto death. He was love incarnate. “Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end” (John 13:1).
Make it part of you to be a part of me. “My flesh is the real food; my blood is the real drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood lives in me and I live in him” (John 6:55, 56). “To the Holy Communion this scripture in a special sense applies.”3
Ellen White had no problem in referring to the communion meal as a sacrament. Our haste to disavow all things Catholic has dulled our senses to the meaning and importance of the sacramental nature of the Lord’s Supper. A sacrament is basically a sign; it “signifies.” A sacrament is a kind of language; it has something to say.
We come to communion, not as spectators or silent congregants, but as active participants. In communion, we are outwardly speaking to God in word-signs. The Eucharistic celebration is an act of thanksgiving for the gift of God in Christ. It is also an act of self-giving to God. We indicate our willingness to be broken for the needs of the world. We offer our life blood to be poured out for our brothers and sisters.
“It is at these, His own appointments, that Christ meets His people, and energizes them by His presence.”4 Do we need to be spiritually energized? Do we desire greater vitality and endurance in our spiritual journey? Do we want to know God intimately? His invitation is to take, eat, and be filled with his energizing, life-giving Spirit. The bread that came down from heaven is the bread of the Presence.
Jesus said, “Do this for my recalling.” He did not say, “Do this to call me to mind.” He was saying, “Do this and enter into the reality of my life and death.” To remember is to “re-member,” to reassemble, to put back together again. We re-enact the event. We are to put ourselves back into the upper room and to be present with Christ as he speaks. “As we receive the bread and wine…we in imagination join in the scene of Communion in the upper chamber.”5
As we commune with him, “In full consciousness of His presence…[we] are to hear His words,” as he speaks to us personally and individually.6 And maybe, if we listen with our whole hearts, we will hear him sing.
Follow me
Where I go,
What I do,
And who I know.
Make it part of you to be a part of me.
Notes and References
1. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship (New York: Collier, 1963), 7.
2. Ellen White, Messages to Young People (Washington, D.C.: Review and Herald, 2002), 127.
3. Ellen White, Desire of Ages (Mountain View, Calif.: Pacific Press, 1940), 661.
4. Ibid., 656.
5. Ibid., 661.
6. Ibid., 659.
Donna J. Haerich is an elder at the Forest Lake Seventh-day Adventist Church, in Apopka, Florida, and teaches an hour-long Sabbath School class there.
Copyright © 2008 Donna J. Haerich
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Comments
Donna:
Thanks for the essay. I like it a lot.
However, that said, it is very devotional and contemplative in nature; thus the kind of thing which gets a knowing nod from the reader, who each “experience” it in their own private way. So, if I may, I’m wondering how this reality you paint might actually work.
The lesson (#8) takes what I think is a risky step when it boils discipleship down to our “experience” with Christ. For how on earth can I ever quarrel with or question (if in fact I should be) someone’s experience with Jesus? Are you suggesting that any and all experiences brought to the table are valid?
You have assembled many fine texts which point to different aspects of what the experience might look like, but if, in the end, the only determinant of salvation is my own experience, how do these texts guide me in my interactions with others whose experience seems to be so different than mine??
As perfect example; the discussions on this site. Each brings an experience with Christ (let's just give everyone the benefit of the doubt and accept all here are honestly following Christ the risen Savior) which, when compared to others experience, leads to some very different views of the world. For example, me; middle age white professional male born in the USA, raised in Africa, and “hearing” the call of Christ for real in about ’92. And my experience and ideas and ways of thinking are rather different from many others here whose experience and conclusions is quite different.
And because of our vastly different experiences, we disagree here about all manner of things (you likely know the list well) and, more than likely, also believe we do so in fulfillment of our experience with Christ!
This presents a very interesting dynamic doesn’t it? It seems to me that, if one was so inclined, he might think to himself that “person X over here believes he is motivated by his experience with the Christ; but he is so wrong that he therefore clearly does NOT have the experience he should be having.” or something like that. I think we all can come across a bit like “if you’re thinking correctly, you’ll be thinking more like ME”! I mean, if people really believed they were wrong/incorrect, they would change!
The only possible way out of this human dilemma, it seems to me, is with a new paradigm. I think many/most/all of us sort of see this. And we call it the “kingdom of God” paradigm… Except that we all have such different ideas on how that kingdom is ushered in… So, the circle continues; round and round…
How do you see this Donna?
Experience with Jesus is going to be different simply because we come to this experience with such different baggage. Some of us are lepers and others are deaf but regardless of our baggage there is going to be a similar experience in Jesus.
When we come to Jesus He gives us a new lease on life. We lose ourselves and become one with Jesus. If therefore someone says he has a relationship with Jesus and remains boastful, self-righteous then we must question that experience.
But then it is not for us to judge. Let Jesus be the judge. Our role is to celebrate whenever someone comes to Jesus.
Bob,
Peter asked the same question of Christ, "Lord, what about this man?" and Jesus answered, "If I want him to live until I come, what is that to you? Follow me." Basically saying, You follow me and don't spend time worrying about your brother's journey.
One can argue theological (or political)differences but it is hard to object to another's personal experience. As Elwyn says, we each come in with our own set of givens. Thankfully there is no prerequisite of uniformity to the commission, "Go and tell what God has done for you."
However, it's hard for me to believe that there was not a lot of lively and heated discussions in the upper room prior to Pentecost. And when the Holy Spirit descended, the question came to them, "What does this mean?"
I believe that Spectrum contributors are gathered for the same reason - to figure out just what and how the gospel looks and sounds in the 21st century.
And thank you, Bob, for making me think!
Donna
Donna,
What you summed up reminds me of how unique our walk with God truly is. The moment we begin thinking we are the template of goodness for our neighbor we fail. The moment we allow God's love to germinate in our hearts, and then share that experience with another - no strings attached - we begin to understand, "...let us love one another..." - 1 John 4:7.
Simplistic? Mundane? Impossible? To the one who has lived in the gutter only to be met with their Savior's endless compassion - not even close.
You said in your opening paragraph "Discipleship is not about believing correct theology. It is about a journey with a friend." Unless that correct theology involves the journey itself ;)
What would you say to those who would disagree? How many points of doctrine must we agree on before we are all united in that journey? Brings to mind the thief on the cross next to Jesus - how much did he need to know before he was allowed "in the kingdom"?
-Stacie
Or the Philippian jailor..
Frank
Donna and Bob,
This question has come up before here on Spectrum. It is an old and tired cliche to speak of "experiencing a personal relationship with Jesus" as being the one concept we should all hope to attain.
Unless one can put "legs" or "wheels" on it, it becomes simply another concept devoid of elementary explanation that doesn't budge. One is expected to simply "understand" what the speaker intends, as though we all see things the same way, which all of us know will not, nor should not happen.
If there are no definitive guides to achieving that ephemeral relationship, it us left to each of us to go his own way: be it Adventisism, Judaism, Buddhism, Islamism, Universalism, or as another, yet unnamed system. (Must it be Jesus, or does God qualify?)
As one who seeks more clarity (how can one defend or oppose the air?) it is mere verbiage without content. I suggest a good read of the
"Wittenburg Door" to bring one down to earth and show us the hypocrisy and not-so-subtle ways Christianity operates.
Elaine:
I am very sympathetic to your comments; having a "relationship" seems so personal to the person having it, yet to those around it's very vague and almost impenitrable. So I know what it "feels like" for myself, (though even that can get frustratingly vague -- if we're really honest with ourselves... recalling mothers Theresa's long dark night of the soul extending for years...) but have little clue what it might "feel like" for you -- or anyone else.
Is there a way of determining how "valid" YOUR relationship with Jesus is?? (Fully accepting what Donna said above re: Christ's comment to Peter) Seems there is. Jesus Himself talked about the idea that IF you're one of my disciples you'll show love for one another. And IF you give that cup of cold water and help the helpless and visit the prisoner etc it's as if you did it to Christ Himself. So YES: now we have a way of measuring... Just find those folks treating people kindly/lovingly/compassionately and THEY are clearly THE disciples of Christ... Right?? And many on this site take roughly this stance...
Except it seems a bit more complicated than that. Because in Matt 7 Christ ALSO talks about people who DO all these things but then dismisses them (depart from me). Why? Because they never KNEW Him! So, we're right back where we started; Relationship with Jesus. It's a kind of circular argument isn't it; yet there it is. So here's this person who SAYS he has a relationship with Christ, yet thinks so differently that I do... What to do??
It does seem, does it not? that often it looks like we (well, maybe not "we", but "they" -- you know, them over there) tend to use their "relationship" as a way of having Christ affirm them and their choices. And in time, "they" come to be pretty sure that if Christ were here, He would vote like they do, have the same positions on homosexuality and abortion and evolution/creation and politics and on and on. We've all seen this I'm sure... at least sensed it...
Once, I had a long discussion (heated at times) over a few weeks with an SDA author/writer who was quite conservative. In a book they had written they said something to the effect that if One would earnestly ask for the presence of the Holy Spirit as they studied the topic (it was the Atonement as I recall) they would see the glorious wisdom of what THIS author had concluded!! I protested vigorously; "you can't use the Holy Spirit as a tool to support YOUR position here!" -- because that means "if I disagree with you, the Holy Spirit is NOT with me" -- which means you've equated yourself with God... They didn't see or accept that argument at all... Conversation over... So I think I see hints in your words that this circular dynamic frustrates you too...
There is a scene in Liz Gilbert's book "Eat Pray Love" where the old medicine man in Bali comments on how people with differing perceptions of God are so prone to argue and fight with each other. What he does he said is to ask them what they believe about God -- and then AGREE with them!
I think there is a dangerous wisdom in that advice; dangerous because one will be accused of thereby believing ANYthing and nothing at the same time, but it's wise because for that person, that IS how God "looks" -- so it IS valid for them so therefore that's where you start with them...
So maybe when someone says they have a relationship/experience with Christ the only proper response is "GREAT! ---
me too."
Bob, sounds like we are on the same wavelength on this.
Your answer to someone who claims to have a relationship with God is the same when someone tells me of the miracles God has done for him. "Great." Who am I to argue? If someone attributes all the good to God, and all the bad to the Devil, so what? There's never any objective measurement, so it's all personal, isn't it?
I believe the last part of Matt. 25 is a good standard: whether one believes in a god, THE GOD, or no gods, if he treats people in this manner, he's an example of how all Christians should be. Because millions of non-Christians do all those kind things, kinda makes us Universalists, doesn't it? St. Peter is not checking out our membership cards at the Pearly Gates (if there is one) but we can all have the opportunity to live in this way while here, even if it is the only life we get.
Elaine,
Experiencing a personal relationship with Jesus was not the subject of my commentary. I was writing on the SS lesson topic of what "experiencing discipleship" might objectively look like. If in the process the essay enhanced one's personal relationship - great!
I suggested in my response to Bob that evaluating others faith experience was not in our purview. I agree with you that our dialog on this site should be of a more substantive nature. We each come to this site with our own "personal religious experience" and suddenly we are confronted with others whose "personal religious experience" we do not deny, but whose view points on how to translate their faith into words and action differ widely, much as did the disciples of Jesus who met together in the upper room.
What do we in our day and age understand Christ's message to be? How are we to explain its meaning to society at large? How do we relate with content and clarity its contemporary relevance? Must the answer to these questions put us at odds with each other? Can one's passionate response to the call of Christ make them anathema to their brothers and sisters?
By the way Elaine, I nailed six or seven thesis to the wall hoping to elicit discussion and not even you apparently picked up on them. :-)
Donna
Well, I do appreciate this essay Donna; too few of this sort on this site as far as I’m concerned. For there really is a deeply personal and deeply challenging aspect to this salvation journey we all tread here on this earth. But, to struggle alone with these great insights into God seems at the same time antithetical to experiencing Him as community…
So here comes the Messiah; trolling (a fishing term) the earth for souls and converts. And lo and behold, look what He “hooks”! Why, people as different as me, and you, and him/her over there! (Can you believe the sorts of people He is attracting?? Good heavens; what kind of operation is He running here??) But He also welcomes each that have been attracted TO Him. And He then bids these to find “rest” with Him. Why on earth did Christ have to make His call so … indiscriminate? But He did…
It does seem, on reading of the Christ in the NT, that He made some strange choices when it came to choosing His friends. A strangeness that continues to this day it seems. And it seems an appropriate challenge for those who claim to follow Christ today, is this: Can I be as indiscriminate with my love and acceptance as was… this Christ??
Donna, These words began your essay:
Follow me
Where I go,
What I do,
And who I know.
Make it part of you to be a part of me.
Becoming a disciple requires acquiescence to these, doesn't it?
The disciples were able to see in Jesus, when he called them: charisma, leadership ability, and more, so they trusted him completely, dropping everything to join him.
Two-thousand-years later we have no direct contact with Jesus as they did, and are unable to catch that same essence which so attracted them. We are left with 2nd and 3rd hand accounts, written at least a generation later. On what basis are we today able to experience what the disciples saw and felt? We have only others' descriptions and stories, and our creative imagination--imaginations that in every individual will be different as we readily see today.
How would one expect to create a relationship with Aristotle or Pythagoras except by reading about these two great Greeks? Would we dare call an Aristotlean scholar as "having a relationship" with him? Knowing all about someone, insofar as possible, can never equal what the disciples experienced. We are each left, struggling, with our own mind that creates this for us.
Elaine,
Experiencing discipleship with/by someone from the past means becoming a follower/student/friend of that person through the witness of those who have been his/her disciples. Discipleship in the Kingdom of God, Jesus said, is like a seed. Don't we somehow sense the family likeness no matter what form of Christianity? Generic? Absolutely!
Donna,
The steps to discipleship you mentioned, in my mind, are objective enough. It's like the food that's external to us (knowledge/teaching/story of Jesus) until we eat it so it can become part of us. It's like friendship. Or marriage. What is friendship? Marriage? They're examples of relationships that are both similar yet different in each individual case. So with experiencing discipleship or being a disciple of Christ.
Elaine,
You make it sound as though we cannot know Christ first-hand. In fact my way to Jesus was through my father -- one of the most "Christian" people I have ever known. It was through his daily life that I then found Jesus. It is not a struggle with my mind, or knowing a person only written about.
Then I have experienced that same charisma talked about in the Bible through my own father first and then as I grew in understanding of the leading of Jesus I have found a real personal connection.
We can know HIM better through experience than just through writings about Him.
Elaine asks the question, how do we, 2,000 years later, connect with and experience the person of Jesus. While I agree that what we have to work with today are the second and third hand accounts of his life, these writing are not so much meant to be biographical as they were theological treatises designed to address her very question.
When the eye witnesses to the ministry of Jesus, those who had seen and touched the Word of Life and experienced his personal charisma, were dying off, there was the need to instruct a new generation of followers in the mystery of the incarnation. So how does someone who has never seen Jesus in the flesh come to know him intimately. Yes, the written word is one way. Yes, our sanctified imaginations are another.
A third way, suggested by the gospel writers, was in the breaking of bread. "And it came to pass, as he sat at table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and give it to them. And their eyes were opened and they knew him." Jesus said that he would not leave us orphans, that he would come to us, that he would make himself known to us. Where two are three are gathered he promised to be in their midst.
"it is at these, His own appointments, that Christ meets His people... The communion service was not to be a season of sorrowing. This was not its purpose... Now (we) come to meet with Christ... in full consciousness of His presence, although unseen, (we) are to hear His words..." Ellen White believed in the real presence of Christ at Communion. She believed in the Sacrament with a capital S. She speaks of the special sense in which it forms a connection between us and God. We can "know him" in the breaking of the bread.
Finally if the Holy Spirit indwells the believers, then when we look into the eyes of our brothers and sisters, we can see Christ looking back at us! In as much as you have done it unto the least, you have done it unto me. Whoever loves is born of God and knows God. We can only have a relationship with Jesus to the extent that we are authentically open and available to others. IMHO
Eric
Its all a matter of becoming dead to sin:
http://adventistsnotcult.blogspot.com/2008/02/sanctification.html
If Donna hasn't done it yet, I was thinking she can further develop each segment (thesis) to constitute part of a series of messages for a week of spiritual emphasis. Concluding with a communion service theme was so fitting. This commentary, IMV, captures the radical nature of discipleship in a Christian community. Thanks.
Donna, I appreciate your last statement:
"when when we look into the eyes of our brothers and sisters, we can see Christ looking back at us."
This the authentic test, maybe the only one. If we cannot respect and treat our fellowman just as we wished to be treated, we have no part in calling ourselves Christian.
But there are millions who pass that test and know nothing of Jesus, nor even acknowledge him.
Evidently, one's actions are much more important than his religious beliefs? Or can those who have no religion still pass the test? Can a secular humanist?
I had the opportunity this week to listen again to John Denver’s song, “Follow Me.” I hadn’t heard it in a long time and had forgotten how lovely it was. Yes, I remember that was where I was in my youthful 20’s, full of idealism, and fortunate to have soon found a lifetime relationship that blossomed with that attitude and approach.
I recall that metaphor of Nietzsche’s, where the first stage of life is as a camel, consumed with the mantra, “put a load on me,” to learn God’s and society’s rules. Later, that fully loaded camel goes out into the desert of life experience where it becomes a lion that will eventually slay the dragon covered with scales of “thou shalts,” whereupon it becomes a child full of awareness and wisdom. At that point, one has hopefully integrated the former into a life of self-actualization and realization, where one moves from one’s inner sense of what is appropriate for the circumstance. One has long ago discarded the dependency of training wheels…
The last line of John Denver’s marvelous song, “Follow Me,” is important to keep in mind, where he shifts the roles of one sidedness:
“Take my hand and I will follow you.”
Healthy relationships grow and mature when reciprocal and filled with mutual respect. Mature, fully formed discipleship is a two-way street of sharing and experience where knowledge, power and grace are not the exclusive domain of namely the “teacher.” While I am grateful to certain of my teachers for their part in launching me forwards, I have grown considerably since that era. I was their disciple back then but have long since passed that threshold, moving on in my life of experience and personal transformation.
Bruce
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