Seeking to be an authentic community of disciples, becoming more like Jesus - walking in step with God, alongside each other and seeing lives transformed
This week we're going to look at what it means to be a disciple as we continue our weekly series of Friday posts exploring and unpacking our Vision here at CBC. If you miss any of these Friday posts you can easily access individual posts by clicking on relevant word above - or you can use the 'Vision' label at the bottom of this page to view the whole series.
Jesus' final words to his disciples in Matthew's gospel were,
All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age. (Matthew 28:18-20).There is an expectation here that part of what it means to be a disciple is that you go and make new disciples.
Bands of disciples in the first century would not have been an uncommon sight. Certainly Jesus was not alone in having disciples - we read that John the Baptist had his disciples and the Pharisees had theirs.
A disciple was a pupil, a learner and a follower. Within a first century context a disciple would have followed their teacher - listening to them teach, listening to the way they answer questions, watching them in action, with the intention of becoming like their teacher. A disciple would learn how to imitate their teacher.
As we read the gospels we see that being a disciple of Jesus involved personal and exclusive allegiance to Jesus. It meant putting the claims of Jesus first - whatever the cost.
So what do we mean in our vision statement by the term 'disciple'? We mean that we have committed to follow Jesus, to learn from him, to spend time with him, to imitate him. Our allegiance is to Jesus - we put his claims first - he has first claim on our lives. We will be those who look to introduce others to Jesus just like the first disciples did. And we will be those who make disciples, who will then make disciples ...
Jesus' instruction to disciples is to make disciples, which involves teaching and obeying. Our vision talks about seeing lives transformed - and we'll look at this in a few week's time - but part of this transformation happens as people become disciples - responding to the call of Jesus - and then learn what that means by walking close to Jesus - which, in practice, we do by walking close to others - part of what it means to be an authentic community.
The first century gospel setting was generally hot and dry and dusty. As you walked along you threw up dust in your wake which will have covered those following behind. Whether it’s an urban myth or has any basis in fact there is the reported saying amongst disciples about ‘being covered in the dust of your rabbi’s feet’ - the closer you follow your rabbi the dustier you are going to get.
Our vision is to be covered in the dust of Jesus' feet. But what does this mean in practice? I guess that if we push this analogy a bit further, and bring in some of the thoughts from being an authentic community, then we will be those who are both being covered in the dust of one or two others who are walking slightly ahead of us - and from whom we're learning what it means to follow Jesus, and dust from our feet will be covering one or two others who are walking just behind us who are learning what it means to follow Jesus from us.
We'll be thinking more in a couple of weeks' time about this image of walking close to Jesus as we think about what it means to walk in step with God.
[Picture credit: www.LumoProject.com]
