Being and Making Disciples of Jesus Christ
CEB
If you ask a preacher or other dedicated follower of Jesus to tell what the purpose of the church is, often the reply will be a variation of “making disciples for Jesus Christ.” As Christ’s disciples we are called to make disciples, to inspire and encourage others to follow Jesus, and to live according to his teachings. The Great Commission reads:
Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus told them to go. When they saw him, they worshipped him, but some doubted. Jesus came near and spoke to them, “I’ve received all authority in heaven and on earth. Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey everything that I’ve commanded you. Look, I myself will be with you every day until the end of this present age.” (Mt. 28:16–20)
We know our purpose. We want people to know God through Jesus Christ and to love and serve God and neighbor. Simple, right?
I wonder, though, if we take the call to “make disciples” for granted. Do we give the notion of discipleship the depth of thought it deserves? What is a disciple? When I refer to myself as a “disciple” of Jesus Christ, or when we say that we are called to “make disciples,” what are we saying? Our immediate response may be something like: “A disciple is someone who wants to live the way Jesus taught us to live. Disciples follow Jesus.” Yes, but there is more.
In the New Testament, the Greek words translated as “disciple,” have constellations of meaning that revolve around: following, learning, and teaching. The noun form “mathetes” indicates a pupil or learner.1 The verb form “matheteuo,” as used in Matthew 28:19, means being a disciple and making disciples, and it points to both learning and teaching.2 As we follow Jesus Christ, we learn from him, and we teach others what we learn. The pairing of teaching and learning in the word “disciple” offers an enhanced meaning that reassures us that as we try to respond to the call to make disciples, we do not have to have all the answers! As for me, I am not a perfect follower of Jesus Christ. I am a work in progress. I grow as I learn to do the Christian way of life. I learn, and I share what I learn with others, who in turn share with me what they learn. Discipleship involves a lifelong process of teaching and learning, and involves humility and caring interaction with others.
Thinking about discipleship in this way gives me a sense of freedom in my ministry. During my more than 20 years of serving as a pastor in local churches and 12 years at The United Methodist Publishing House, I recognize that humility and the willingness to learn open us for the activity of God’s Spirit. Not that I am always humble or willing to learn! I am frequently arrogant and often do not wish to change my perspectives. Yet, God, who loves us all, works actively on my discipleship growth. God empowers me to be honest as I share my experience with others. God gives me strength and hope as I explore ways to “make disciples.” I am very aware that I am not the one who makes disciples; rather God’s Spirit works with and through my particular gifts and awareness to make disciples. When I preach, I know that God speaks to listeners in ways I never imagined during my preparation. As I work to develop curriculum and resources for use in Sunday School and small groups, I have a keen awareness that the resource should offer encouragement for direct engagement with the Bible, for reflection and discussion, and for considering the next step a person needs to take on her or his journey of faith. I cannot force these things to happen, but I can offer all that I am to create opportunities for them to happen. God does the work.
Some of the questions I ask about curriculum apply to preaching and teaching in the local church. The Latin root of curriculum is “currere” which means “to run.”3 Related words are “car, corridor, courier, occur, recur.” Curriculum “runs” somewhere. We can apply this principle to sermons and ministry programs as well as to Christian education programs and resources in order to ask some important questions about discipleship and making disciples. Where is our church running? Where are we running? Who are the people we serve? What are their needs? Where are they running? Where is our faith running? And perhaps, most important question, what do we need to run better? Paul uses this image of running as he talks about making disciples:
“I have become all things to all people, so I could save some by all possible means. All the things I do are for the sake of the gospel, so I can be a partner with it. Don’t you know that all the runners in the stadium run, but only one gets the prize? So run to win. Everyone who competes practices self-discipline in everything. The runners do this to get a crown of leaves that shrivel up and die, but we do it to receive a crown that never dies. So now this is how I run—not without a clear goal in sight.” (1 Cor. 9:22–26).
What are we running toward? What is the goal we keep in sight? What is the content that we learn and teach as we grow in our own discipleship and work with God to make disciples? A legal expert asked Jesus a similar question after witnessing a conversation between Jesus and a group of Sadducees:
One of the legal experts heard their dispute and saw how well Jesus answered them. He came over and asked him, “Which commandment is the most important of all?” Jesus replied, “The most important one is Israel, listen! Our God is the one Lord, 30 and you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your being, with all your mind, and with all your strength. The second is this, You will love your neighbor as yourself. No other commandment is greater than these.” (Mk 12:28–31. See also Mt. 22:34–40 and Lk.10:25–28)
For Jesus, the heartbeat of the law, of God’s way of life, was clearly stated in Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18. The first occurs in what is known as the shema, which describes the nature of God and of the relationship between God and God’s people. Jesus yokes this commandment to Leviticus 19:18, which calls the people to love one’s neighbor as oneself. Jesus quoted the commandments from his tradition, and he emphasized that the commands to love God and neighbor give life to all the other commandments. Christians refer to this teaching from Jesus as the “Great Commandment.”
Ministers, those who serve the Gospel, are called to practice their ministry with their eyes firmly set on the biblical vision for relating to God, to one another, and to all creation. The Great Commission and the Great Commandment are lenses through which we view this vision. We look through them to see the biblical vision of God’s Kingdom, a way of living as individuals and as communities based upon God’s will for all creation more clearly. Jesus presented this vision of life together throughout his ministry and his teaching, and he calls us to live according to God’s ways of justice and mercy. Following Jesus means looking at and living inside this vision. Choosing God’s way of life is choosing to live as holy people. As Leviticus 19:2 and 1 Peter 1:15–16 remind us, we are set apart for holiness. We are called to be holy because God is holy. We are called to help create this vision now and to live in the hope of its completion in the fullness of time.
Are we called to be like God? To be just? To be merciful? To be holy? This means loving and serving God and neighbor. Wow! This vision is so huge as to be almost incomprehensible! But what a vision! What if everyone lived God’s ways of peace, justice, mercy, and love? The vision offers an amazing alternative to the harmful ways of life practiced in our contemporary world. At first glance it seems impossible to achieve! We are called to encourage others to claim this vision; however, we do not have to achieve this on our own. We have the power and strength of God’s Spirit in Christ undergirding the many gifts all of us bring to our discipleship and to the call to make disciples. The last words of the Great Commission are, “Look, I myself will be with you every day until the end of this present age” (Mt. 28:20). Being a disciple and making disciples means continuing to learn from Jesus who is always with us.
Notes
1. http://www.blueletterbible.org/lang/lexicon/lexicon.cfm?strongs=G3101
2. http://www.blueletterbible.org/lang/lexicon/lexicon.cfm?strongs=G3100
3. The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Third Edition.
