Today in chapel the speaker spoke on a passage that I am very familiar with, but hadn't meditated on in a while. In Luke 14 Jesus addresses his followers and procedes to give them a challenge on the cost of being his disciple. He first addresses the issue of people or family. He says that unless you hate you father and mother, brothers and sisters, you cannot be my disciple. Now, I know some of you are thinking that can't be. What in the world is Jesus talking about here. Being a disciple of Christ is a high calling. I believe what He was trying to get at was that if you hold anything in a higher place of importance or priority to the point that you are not willing to follow Him, then you are not worthy to be called His disciple.
I believe we have done ourselves a disservice by not understanding the Jewish mindset and culture in the time of Christ. To become a disciple of a rabbi was the ultimate achievement of any young Jewish boy. It was a life-time commitment in which he would leave all that he knew to live and study and seek to model their lifes and teachings after the rabbi who chose them. You see, Jewish boys would study in a synagogue until they were around the age of fourteen. At that time they would present themselves before a rabbi and the rabbi would drill the young boy in all the interpretations and teachings of Torah. After this took place, he would either be deemed worthy or unworthy to follow or become the disciple of that rabbi.
If the boy was found unworthy, then he would go home and begin learning a family trade. To have a rabbi choose you meant that he believed that you had what it took to become his disciple. Think about this in light of what Christ has done for us. We as believers have been called to be his disciples. He believes that we have what it takes. Not only that, but he has commanded us to make disciples. If we are going to be effective in this life, we must begin looking at people not for what they are, but for what they can become in Christ. We must believe that by the grace of God they do have what it takes to be His disciple.
I know this is just a short breakdown, but it was a fresh reminder to me to do more and to stop holding back.
2 comments:
Mike-It's obvious that The Lord has been specifically working in your heart recently. These last two blogs really show depth. You make an excellent teacher my friend! You are real and just speak with simple, yet passionate terms about relative and specific experiences you have, and then you apply it to a bigger point. That's what makes great teaching in my opinion. Thank You for adding to the clarification of some things in scripture that unless they are explained as you have, can remain pretty distant. God bless you brother, keep it up!
Mike-It's obvious that The Lord has been specifically working in your heart recently. These last two blogs really show depth. You make an excellent teacher my friend! You are real and just speak with simple, yet passionate terms about relative and specific experiences you have, and then you apply it to a bigger point. That's what makes great teaching in my opinion. Thank You for adding to the clarification of some things in scripture that unless they are explained as you have, can remain pretty distant. God bless you brother, keep it up!
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