Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls (Matthew 11:29).
A yoke is the harness-collar that a draft animal wears in order to pull a heavy load. Such horses and oxen are trained and disciplined to respond to commands — “walk on,” “whoa,” — or to turn in response to a pull on their leather leads.
Jesus’ invitation to discipleship involves learning from him, listening to his commands, responding to his direction.
Jesus calls people, not farm animals, to follow him, but he still expects us to pay attention, listen, learn and follow his commandments. Jesus’ first disciples devoted themselves to being like their teacher, walking in his ways, paying attention to what he said and did, and practicing what they had been taught.
First disciples
Like Jesus, the first disciples proclaimed the gospel with boldness, cast out demons, healed people of their diseases and even raised the dead. They taught the way of Jesus.
If we are disciples of Jesus or if we are going to fulfill his great commission to go and make disciples, we had better be familiar with what Jesus said and did. It is not enough, however, for us simply to know about Jesus and follow his example.
Saint Augustine said that, although one becomes a barrel-maker by learning to make barrels, one does not become a Christian by learning about Christ or even practicing being Christ-like.
Jesus’ first disciples tried very hard to follow in their master’s footsteps, but it was dying and rising with Christ that made them gentle and humble in heart.
Other disciples
Luther, himself a “disciple” of Augustine, was very clear that before we can follow the example of Jesus we must first accept the gift of Jesus.
Christians do not imitate Jesus; we are in Christ Jesus and he in us; one flesh (cf. Ephesians 5:31-32). Saint Paul explains himself this way, “It is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me” (Galatians 2:20a).
Our spiritual discipline, our discipleship, is the same as John the Baptist’s who said, “He must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:30).
Only those who have died with Christ in the waters of baptism and come forth a new creation can genuinely follow the example of Christ. That is what we see in all of Jesus’ disciples.
They are transformed from sinners doing the best they can into sinners justified by grace through faith.
Trying to be the best
Peter tried so hard to be a good — the best! — disciple, but he failed again and again! He stumbled, nearly drowned and even denied Jesus three times. From this experience of death only the gift of Jesus as savior could raise Peter to new life. Then it was no longer Peter who lived, but Christ who lived in him.
Paul, too, tried very hard to be the very best person he could be:
…circumcised on the eighth day, a member of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless. Yet whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ (Philippians 3:5-7).
Paul decreased and Christ increased. Just so, Paul warned the Christians in Galatia who had succumbed to the temptation to make something of themselves: “If those who are nothing think they are something, they deceive themselves” (Galatians 6:3).
Jesus told his disciples,
If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it (Matthew 16:24-25).
Becoming transparent
The greatest part of our discipleship must be devoted to becoming more transparent so that others can see Christ in us.
Jesus himself exhibited this divine transparency: “Whoever believes in me believes not in me but in him who sent me. And whoever sees me sees (not me but) him who sent me” (John 12:44-45).
Our spiritual discipline is simply our doing what our being in Christ dictates. When we worship, hear God’s word, eat God’s supper, receive God’s bath, pray, serve, study, wait (I’m convinced waiting is a spiritual discipline) and enjoy one another’s fellowship; all this serves to make the presence of Christ in us more apparent.
Jesus’ first disciples never succeeded at becoming better people.
Peter never did get the knack of walking on water.
Paul was never rid of that thorn in his flesh.
But those first disciples were powerful witnesses of the sufficiency of God’s grace.
Each of them regarded him- or herself as “least of the apostles, unfit to be called an apostle,” but by the grace of God each of them was what they were, and God’s grace toward them was not in vain (cf. 1 Corinthians 15:9-10a).
R. Don Wright is the pastor of St. John’s Evangelical Lutheran Church, Hatboro, Pa.
Thank you for this insightful article! May God's grace toward me never be in vain.
I wonder how often we forget that the center of discipleship is dying and rising with Jesus and not our best attempts at doing what Jesus would do.
Peter,
So we’re to die and rise with Jesus and not try to do what Jesus did? Which is to die and rise…....Interesting
davebob,
So you disagree with the point of this article? That as imitators of Christ, we are about as reflective of Christ as sand, but from receiving the free gift of Christ's death and resurrection, we can reflect Christ more as a polished mirror, sinners though we yet be.
Hey Peter,
I agree with some parts.
How is it possible to reflect Christ without at least somewhat imitating Him? Tell me how a person who has received the free gift of Christ’s death and resurrection, but otherwise does nothing to appear to be a child of Christ, reflect an image Christ? Except Christ Himself, who will even know this person is of Christ if you can’t draw some distinction between him and the unsaved? And to that point, what good is this person to the unsaved people who observe him from afar and do not see something desirable enough in the way he goes about his life that they might enquire as to why he does the things he does?
Peter may have never walked on water again, but I’ll bet he cleaned up his language, at least in public.
Was Paul’s “thorn in the flesh” sinful behavior he could not free himself from? I thought it was a physical ailment.
Jesus first disciples may have not become better people per say, but they did start saying and doing things that only believing Christians would say and do; even unto death. And I suspect that at least their public behavior showed them to be very different, in a good way, or the early church would have died.
I know there are a lot of “works” in there for you to digest Peter; I get that.
Hi davebob,
What things are said and done that are only done and said so by believing Christians?
Interesting note about cleaning up one's language. While I can't say anything about Peter, we know that Paul did not. In Phillipians 3:8 that word usually translated "rubbish" (skybalon) is Greek profanity meaning excrement.
Hey Peter,
Thinks that are said and done by believing Christians:
Baptizing and being baptized in the name of the holy trinity, partaking of the Lord’s supper, spreading the gospel of Christ, Tithing and collecting tithes for Christ church, singing Christian hymns, visiting Christians in jail, being martyred for their belief in Christ among other things.
Hi davebob,
Marytrdom is the only one on your list that I can't think of a counterexample for. Visiting Christians in jail is done by many people, including any non-believing family members. Some Christian hymns have also become so well known that they're sung by people who don't otherwise care about Jesus (and I'm not counting the Christmas-and-Easter-only crowd). Tithing is also something not limited to believing Christians. Nonbelievers can and do make financial contributions to those churches with ministries that either help them or people they want helped. Also, nonbelieving family members dragged to church by relatives sometimes contribute because it is socially expected of them.
Spreading the Gospel of Christ and the Sacraments are sticky issues. Technically I don't know that you can spread the Gospel without being in Christ, but keep in mind that people like the Gnostic Marcion have helped out; in Marcion's case gathering and preserving the letters of Paul. I don't know if you realize just how large of a group you ARE including. With the Sacraments, it's official policy that gross sinners can preside for the Sacraments. Ex opere opera; it's not the righteousness of the one performing the Sacrament that matters, but the righteousness of Christ. The clearest example comes from about 1700 years ago during the Donatist movement. The Romans forced bishops to sacrifice to the Roman gods or die, many did, and after the persecution, the church reinstated them and allowed them to perform Sacraments, etc. The Donatists were that splinter group that said bishops that sacrificed were out.
So on one hand, non-believers do just about everything on your list. On the other hand, many in same-gendered relationships do all of those things you listed as most important on your list as well.
Peter,
Stay on point.
We are talking about first century Jewish men, not the Mormons. "The apostles started saying and doing things that only beleiving Christians would say and do". None of your examples work there.
davebob,
In the early centuries, there were degrees of membership in the church. For all that they had closed communion, the earlier part of the service was open to more people (and that communion was closed then is as much a product of Greco-Roman culture than anything else) so those who could not partake of the Sacrament could sing hymns, and likely visited those in jail. I would be surprised if all of these managed to escape all of the various persecutions.
I don't think it was their holy deeds that attracted people; it was the power of God manifest in their witness. Strength in their very real weakness that was the mark of their discipleship. And it is ours as well.
Hey Peter,
The answer to your question still remains; the first disciples were saying and doing things that only believing Christians were doing. Baptizing and being baptized in the name of the holy trinity, partaking of the Lord’s supper, spreading the gospel of Christ, Tithing and collecting tithes for Christ church, singing Christian hymns, visiting Christians in jail, being martyred for their belief in Christ among other things. After the period that would include the book of Acts, the purity of church practice began to diversify, and that continues to this day ( i.e. Her church, Mormons, Jehovah's etc... ). They reflected Christ by doing the things Christ taught.
hi davebob,
I think this is the crux of the issue: today Christianity is enough a part of our culture that it makes it clear that "doing" cannot be the criteria for discipleship. Certainly Christians do all of these things, but that's not what makes us Christian. Trust in Christ alone and only for the forgiveness of sins is what does that. As a result of what Christ has done for us, we are transformed and able to witness to God's grace here on earth, both in word and deed.
Even in the first century, there was no "purity of the church". Paul's letters show that there was a huge rift between him and the Jerusalem church (say at least on the order of the ELCA-LCMS divide, if not greater...Acts clearly seeks to downplay this divide, but Galatians suggests otherwise), and that each of the various churches in Asia had different practices and beliefs, often missing the mark (hence the 7 epistles). The best example are the Judaizing Christians of Galatians, who were trying to do everything on your list, yet are roundly condemned by Paul for their "gospel-plus" approach to Christ, with the "plus" being things Jesus the Jew would have also observed.
Hey Peter,
To the original point, within 400 years AD, Christianity co-opted, without coercion, the most powerful nation on the planet; the very nation that crucified Jesus. How did this happen? If it was all God’s doing, why wouldn’t the whole world be Christian? No, I think people saw and heard what the Christians were doing and saying and said to themselves “Yes, I want some of that”. How long would Christianity have lasted if Christ’s representatives on earth were not practicing what Christ preached? If the early ambassadors to Christ had no distinction to the culture of the day, what would compel a person to sign up for a life of service to others? Fast forward to today. The very distinction of cultures that separated us from the world has greatly diminished. In America, there is not a dimes worth of difference between your average Christian and a run of the mill atheist. Interesting, the churches that show the most distinction from cultural influences, are growing. Sadly, some of those are not even considered Christian, but are best described as cults. We can preach the cross and He who was hung on it, until the cows come home, but in the end, if the church does not show it’s faith by the lives we lead, folks that see us from afar will not enquire as to why we are so different.