A friend called me this week asking me about a discipleship program at their church. The program was based on the reading of a particular book.about discipleship. I went over the book and it seemed to be a very good book explaining the particulars of discipleship in biblical times.
I told my friend though, that while the book may be very good, the idea of discipleship in the Bible is different than indoctrination, such as one might learn from a book. Indoctrination, by the way, used to be a positive term referring to the full intense learning of a subject or doctrine. Discipleship is not about a transfer of knowledge from master to pupil. It is rather about the pupil learning to live by closely following the example of his Master. It was about doing, not just learning about how to do. It was clinical, not mental. When the Galileans wanted to become the disciples of Jesus, they asked, “Master, where are you staying?” (Jn 1:38) That is because in Israel in those days, a would-be disciple left home to live and even become part of the family of his master/teacher. To their surprise, Jesus answered the disciples that he didn’t have a home, thus exemplifying the idea that the true believer's home is not of this age but of the World to Come. As it happened, the disciples then spent the rest of their time with Jesus travelling the dusty roads of Israel as the itinerant preacher their Master was. This made me think of a documentary I saw long time ago, The Woman who Willed a Miracle.This woman became the foster parent of Lemke, a blind, cognitively impaired boy with cerebral palsy. When the child became older, she brought him to the fence in front of her yard so he could stand there. It is then that this frail woman decided to strap this boy who couldn’t stand by himself and much less walk on her back, body to body, arm to arm, leg to leg. Little by little, his muscles strengthened and, to the surprise of everyone, he learned to walk. More happened to him but I will not spoil the story for you. Maybe you can get the film, I will put a link to a short video of the story at the end of this posting. In the eyes of God, our attempts to live in His righteousness are make us similar to that boy who couldn’t walk. We learn to walk, and our spiritual muscles are strengthened by strapping ourselves onto Him, body to body, arm to arm, leg to leg,following in His every step and move. That‘s what discipleship is: imitating the Master; walking in His footsteps. Come to think of it, the best teachers teach using the clinical method: they teach by example. https://youtu.be/ZWtZA-ZmOAM?list=PLEB61FC59EB5889CA
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
If you appreciate these articles, support their upcoming publication in a book called, "REFLECTIONS OF A FIRE CHAPLAIN"
|