Deurpost

In the previous post I took a look at how the Jewish tradition dealt with the topic of discipleship. Now, the question that could be raised is whether Jesus’ views on discipleship were an exact copy of how the Jews did it, or if Jesus used the method of the Jews just as a stepping stone for deploying His model. You probably guess that Jesus’ model is unique, and actually twists the Jewish way at some very important points.

It Was Unique In Whom Jesus Chose
The first thing to notice is that Jesus chose His disciples, whereas in the Jewish culture the disciple chose his Rabbi. Jesus also specifically chose the Jews and their culture (rather than any other culture), and Jesus also chose unlikely Jewish people (like farmers, fishers, and carpenters as opposed to the rabbis or the sages) for His mission. Doug Greenwald, executive director of ‘Preserving Bible Times’ has a really good insight into the Jewish culture and why it worked perfectly for Jesus’ mission. He said, “The Jews had a passion to be pure. Purity being defined as doing those things that would honor God as interpreted by their rabbis. This means that they would never set foot on Gentile land or house; they would never dine with sinners; they would never seek out and fellowship with lepers; they would never see disabled people as being right with God; they would never see anything of redeeming value in a tax collector; they were zealous not to be compromised with Greco-Roman culture; they knew the Scriptures well; they were men of mostly ritualized prayer, and would pray at different times of the day; and they knew their own culture well.

Jesus chose men who had the basic raw material to help Him rescue the world, starting in Jerusalem. They had a passion and spiritual hunger; they were common enough to work outside the religious system; they had to give up a lot.”

It Was Unique in How He Defined Being a Disciple
In Matthew 23:8-12 we read how Jesus instructed His disciples to never raise up new disciples for themselves and take the role of master themselves (which was the Jewish tradition), “But you are not to be called rabbi, for you have one teacher, and you are all brothers. And call no man your father on earth, for you have one Father, who is in heaven. Neither be called instructors, for you have one instructor, the Christ. The greatest among you shall be your servant. Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.“

Now you may think that this contradicts other parts of the New Testament which clearly talks about elders, teachers and leaders being ordained in the community. But Jesus is specifically talking about the traditional disciple/teacher here. Jesus says that his disciples are not to be like other disciples in that regard. Other disciples, when they are trained go and raise disciples for themselves and then they become the teacher, the father, the rabbi, the master. But Jesus’ disciples are not to raise up disciples for themselves, taking on the role of master, but raise up other disciples and point them to Jesus, as He is the only Master.

We see how Jesus applied this Himself to the twelve apostles. In the beginning of ministry in Mark 3:14, Jesus “appointed twelve (whom he also named apostles) so that they might be with him and he might send them out to preach,” and at the end of his ministry in Matthew 28:19-20, Jesus says to the twelve, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations… teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” Now, this is a very familiar section of Scripture, but pay attention that Jesus says to His disciples that when they make disciples they should teach them everything that He commanded (as opposed to teach them everything that they commanded – which was the Jewish tradition). Why? Verse 20 says that He will be with them always. Jesus did not die, like all the “normal” Jewish rabbis did.