6. Spiritual Disciplines Series
May 10th, 2009
Discipleship
A few weeks ago my parents came down to visit for Easter and I got to relieve another childhood memory. My parents stayed at a hotel on Saturday night. Sunday after church we ate lunch and were hanging out before they had to start the journey back home. All of a sudden my mom panicked. She had forgotten her favorite pair of black shoes at the hotel. She remembered right where they were. She had taken them off and put them in the closet of the hotel room with her clothes for Sunday and just forgot to pack them when they checked out. So my dad had to drive all the way over to the hotel to look for the shoes. He called to tell her they were not there and that she must have packed them someplace else. He didn’t get to see this but I did. My mom’s face turned a light red hue as she realized something. She had a pair of black shoes, and she had a pair of brown shoes with her. She thought she had brought a third pair, her favorite pair of black shoes but then realized she hadn’t. She had decided against bringing them. When she had changed she thought to herself that her favorite black shoes would go well with her current outfit and so she imagined bringing them and even leaving them in the hotel while they were still safely at home in her closet.
I have always felt that my mom was a little ditzy. She is very smart but in some ways I thought of her as the absent minded professor type. When we were growing up we would often go on trips to see relatives especially around the holidays but we lived a few hours away from them so it would become a little bit of a journey. My dad is captain early starter. He wakes up and in ten minutes he is ready to go. He always plans to leave about an hour before we ever made it out the door. That was just the beginning of our problems. It would seem that no matter how carefully we planned or how many checklists we went through it was inevitable that someone would forget something and we would have to turn around and go back. We began to refer to our first attempt to leave as the false start. We would forget to turn off the lights, go to the bathroom, get a snack, turn off the curling iron, bring the Christmas presents but it was always something. Whenever we tried to start a journey we would have to turn around and go back for something.
Now I am sure you can all think of a story like this from your own life where you were starting to leave when all of a sudden you realized you had to go back for something. We do that don’t we? We get ready to go and as soon as we start off we remember something we need to go back for. Lack of planning or commitment sometimes keeps us from continuing on with the decisions we make. Following Christ is not a one time decision that we choose and are done with. It is not like voting where you make your pick and it is over. It is like eating or drinking or breathing you must do it all the time because following Christ is about more than just believing or accepting Him, it is about becoming His disciple. The decision to follow Christ is a decision that requires constant and continual attention.
Our goal for the first part of this year was to develop mature Christians. So we have looked at our identity, our investment in the kingdom of God, and our values as a church. Now we have been looking at Spiritual disciplines: bible study, prayer, evangelism, stewardship, and perseverance to help see how to become more mature Christians. Discipline is a huge part of maturity. We need discipline to get through school, to work, to maintain a family, a home, and a life. Part of being an adult is learning how to discipline yourselves because honestly not every part of life is fun, enjoyable, and exciting. We have chores and responsibilities that are not always things we want to do so we need discipline. Is it any wonder then if part of growing up is learning discipline in our physical lives that to grow to maturity in our faith we would need to learn Spiritual discipline? While we can measure the benefit of learning discipline in our physical lives seeing the purpose of Spiritual discipline can sometimes be more challenging. The purpose of Spiritual disciplines is to create discipleship.
This term discipleship is a real problem. It is very much a ‘Christianese’ word. We toss it around in the church like it is something we should all understand but when was the last time someone explained to you what discipleship is? We are called disciples of Jesus. We are expected to live as His disciples. But what is discipleship? What does it mean to be a disciple?
Look at Luke 9:57. Jesus has been traveling around teaching. Not too long before this Peter, James, and John have witnessed the transfiguration. Jesus has come down from the mountain and is traveling when we find Him in our text. Here we see a few brief encounters with Jesus where He begins to answer that question:
Lk 9:57 As they were walking along the road, a man said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.” Lk 9:58 Jesus replied, “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.” Lk 9:59 He said to another man, “Follow me.” But the man replied, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.” Lk 9:60 Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” Lk 9:61 Still another said, “I will follow you, Lord; but first let me go back and say good-by to my family.” Lk 9:62 Jesus replied, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.”
Luke gives us three separate encounters relating to discipleship in which he interchanges the order. In the first encounter the person comes to Jesus to initiate the conversation and Jesus states His objection. In the second encounter the order is reversed. Here Jesus initiates the conversation and the man states the objection. In the third encounter the man initiates the conversation and raises the objection with Jesus adding a comment at the end.
Jesus doesn’t appear so friendly in some of this. The first man wanted to follow but wasn’t ready to pay the price. This at least seems reasonable. Jesus is warning the man that a life following Him is not all it is cracked up to be. The second man merely asks to take care of his religious, social, and family obligation: to host a funeral for his father. Jesus refusal to allow this seems harsh. What kind of man wouldn’t allow someone just a little time to go bury their father? Jesus almost appears to be an intolerable task master who displays no concern for others. What He is getting at however is the need for a disciple to reprioritize their life.
Then comes the third guy. He doesn’t have to bury his father he just wants to say good-bye to his family. It seems innocent enough but again Jesus refuses. The problem is that this man’s duty to his family is keeping him from following Jesus. He wants to go where Jesus goes but something is holding him back. In fact that is the common thread in all three of these encounters. There is something that gets in the way of these men that keeps them from following Jesus. The problem is they don’t know what it takes to be a disciple. But what is discipleship? What does it mean to be a disciple?
1Ki 19:19 So Elijah went from there and found Elisha son of Shaphat. He was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen, and he himself was driving the twelfth pair. Elijah went up to him and threw his cloak around him. 1Ki 19:20 Elisha then left his oxen and ran after Elijah. “Let me kiss my father and mother good-by,” he said, “and then I will come with you.” “Go back,” Elijah replied. “What have I done to you?” 1Ki 19:21 So Elisha left him and went back. He took his yoke of oxen and slaughtered them. He burned the plowing equipment to cook the meat and gave it to the people, and they ate. Then he set out to follow Elijah and became his attendant.
Elijah is one of the better known Old Testament characters. He was very important to the Jewish culture for just as they viewed Moses as a representation of the law while Elijah was a representation of the prophets. Elijah was the first and perhaps the greatest prophet that the Lord would send to win His people back to Him. Elijah makes his prophetic debut during the reign of King Ahab to proclaim a drought as punishment for the Baal worship that Ahab’s wife Jezebel was promoting. He is perhaps best known for his show down with 450 prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel. This is the battle where the pagan prophets appeal unsuccessfully to Baal to cast fire on a wood pile they built. When Elijah’s turn comes along he has them pour water on the logs before praying and when he does fire comes down and consumes the pile of wood, the stones, even the soil around it. This battle with the pagan prophets was one of a number of incredible things that happened in Elijah’s life. He raised a widow’s son from the dead, prayed and God shut up the sky so it would not rain for a three and half years, and he would be taken up to heaven in chariots of fire. He had a pretty impressive resume but that was all ending. His time on earth was wrapping up and it was time to find a replacement. So Elijah went and found Elisha who was working at plowing a field. When Elijah passed by he threw his cloak around Elisha and kept on going. While this may seem odd to us this would have been immediately recognized by Elisha as a call to discipleship. Elisha stops what he is doing and runs after Elijah asking only for a moment to say goodbye to his family.
This is not really the right answer. If Elijah had been as a man calling Elisha than going back to say farewell to his family would be acceptable, but Elijah makes it clear that it was not he but God who was calling Elisha. Though he got off on the wrong foot Elisha meant business. He slaughtered his oxen and cooked them over the fire of his plowing equipment. Elisha was destroying his livelihood so that when he followed God’s call he would have nothing to go back to. He was in and he was in all the way. So Elisha became the disciple of Elijah and the prophetic torch would be passed to him. When Elijah throws his cloak over Elisha he calls him to discipleship.
What Jesus is saying in Luke 9 is simple: if you want to be my disciple, if you want to follow me, when I throw my cloak over you there is no going back. This is what it means to be a disciple: If you have other things you are holding onto, if you have other priorities you cannot be my disciple. You want to follow me you need to burn your old way of life so that you have nothing to go back to for anyone who begins to plow in my kingdom and looks back at what he was is not fit for my kingdom. Essentially Jesus is saying: if you want in, get in but if you want to follow me there is no going back. Either you leave it all behind or don’t bother leaving at all.
God calls each of us from different places in our lives. Some of us like Elisha are working in the fields of our lives. Some of us are like the first man from Luke 9 we are called away from our homes, our comfort zones, and the life we know. Some of us are like the second two men called to leave behind friends and family to follow Christ. We are all called to follow. Jesus passed His cloak to us. He completed His ministry and His mission so now the task that remains is to make disciples of all nations. Jesus sends us out to do just that. Just as Elijah passed his cloak to Elisha to carry on with his ministry so Jesus has us carry on with His ministry.
Discipleship is not simply believing in Jesus. Discipleship is not even just following the example that he set in our lives. Discipleship comes from when we actively involve ourselves in the affairs of the kingdom. We follow Christ with our lives and we devote ourselves to working in His harvest fields. To be a disciple we must be willing to let go of all the things we are holding onto. We have to leave our lives behind. We have devote ourselves to the kingdom. This is what God is calling us to. Jesus is calling us to let go of who we were and to follow Him, to submit ourselves to His authority, and to serve in His kingdom. A disciple is much like a servant, they follow their master’s bidding. Are you willing to become a disciple of Jesus? Are you willing to follow Him no matter what the cost? Jesus says: “Come follow” what is your answer?
