Apprenticing under the Master June 26, 2005
Mark 1:1-20
Jesus the Master
Early on in the second session of God at the pub, we had the talk on “Why did Jesus Die?” Almost everyone in my small group was able to see Jesus as a great model for life, someone that they would like to follow, but the didn’t get the whole cross thing. How does his death affect my life? As I mused and talked about that discussion in the weeks to come, I started to ask the question, “what is the greater wrong, to accept Jesus as a model for life and to try to do as he did but not get the cross, or to embrace the cross for forgiveness of our sin but only give lip service to shaping our lives to mirror his life?
As evangelicals we have a strong emphasis on believing in Jesus’ death & resurrection for the salvation of our soul, but we have downplayed the things that Jesus said about doing the things that he did, about doing the things that he taught, about obeying all that he has taught us. Jesus tells a story of two sons – their dad comes and asks them to do a chore – the one says, “sure thing Dad!” and then does nothing, the other says, “no way!” and then latter changes his mind and does the chore. Jesus asks Which of these does the fathers’ will? Of course it is the second. But we would rather both say an enthusiastic yes and do the task.
I think asking questions about the greater wrong is usually wrong headed – if they are both wrong, the thing to do is to look for the right. The right thing is to believe in Jesus for the salvation of our life, and to recognize that the life that we are saved into is a life shaped to mirror his.
Brian McLaren writes in his book “A Generous Orthodoxy” in the chapter that asks the question “Would Jesus Be a Christian?” “…the more one respects Jesus, the more one must be brokenhearted, embarrassed, furious, or some combination thereof when one considers what we Christians have done with Jesus. That’s certainly true when it comes to calling Jesus Lord, something we Christians do a lot, often without the foggiest idea of what we mean. Has he become (I shudder to ask this) less our Lord and more our Mascot?”
McLaren goes on from there to talk about three different meanings of “master” as they apply to Jesus
Master – king
For the early Christians to say that Jesus is Lord was an extremely political statement. People would greet one another with “Caesar is Lord” just as Nazi’s would say “Heil Hitler” in the 30’s & 40’s. When the Christians would respond with “Jesus is Lord” they were soon looking down the throat of a treason-eating lion.
We do pretty well at this understand of Jesus is Lord – we honor him as king and sing about wanting to see him high and lifted up. But when is comes down to brass tacks – when the government wants to reduce support to the poor and sick to reduce our taxes, do we cry out no, Jesus is Lord! Most of us don’t even know what Jesus thinks about such things – if we say Jesus is our King, we should at least read his manifesto! You might be surprised with his political agenda!
Servant & Master
When we call Jesus Lord or Master, we are also saying that we will bend our will to his, we will do what he commands and we will give him our obedience. The twist to this one is that Jesus has also called himself a servant of all. So we are the servants of the great servant!
Master & Apprentice
The meaning that I had thought least of, if at all is the idea of Jesus the Master, as in master-plumber, master electrician, a master violinist, a master of martial arts. Those of you who have served as an apprentice probably get this more than the rest of us.
This is a meaning that the western church has largely ignored. Instead, we’ve put an emphasis on the saving act of Jesus’ death and resurrection. That emphasis is not wrong, as long as we add to it that we are saved into a life of apprenticing under the master, of molding our life to mirror his!
If you get your idea of an apprentice from the current show, it is actually the opposite to the way that Jesus calls us into apprenticeship. Donald Trump has people compete viciously to become his apprentice, Jesus on the other hand calls everyone, even the weakest among us to come and sit at his feet, to hear his words, to do what he did, to join in doing what he is doing.
The eastern church has a better grip on this apprenticeship than we do. McLaren shares this story from the Eastern tradition that describes their understanding as Jesus the Model.
Once upon a time there was a good and kind king who had a great kingdom with many cities. In one distant city, some people took advantage of the freedom the king gave them and started doing evil. They profited by their evil and began to fear that the king would interfere and throw them in jail. Eventually these rebels seethed with hatred for the king. They convinced the city that everyone would be better off without the king, and the city declared its independence from the kingdom.
But soon, with everyone doing whatever they wanted, disorder reigned in the city. There was violence, hatred, lying, oppression, murder, rape, slaver and fear. The king thought: “What should I do? If I take my army and conquer the city by force, the people will fight against me, and I’ll have to kill so many of them, and the rest will only submit through fear or intimidation, which will make them hate me and all I stand for weven more. How does that help them – to be either dead or imprisoned or secretly seething with rage? But if I leave them alone, they’ll destroy each other, and it breaks my heart to think of the pain they’re causing and experiencing.”
So the king did something very surprising. He took off his robes and dressed in the rags of a homeless wanderer. Incognito, he entered the city and began living in a vacant lot near a garbage dump. He took up a trade – fixing broken pottery and furniture. Whenever people came to him, his kindness and goodness and fairness and respect were so striking that they would linger just to be in his presence. They would tell him their fears and questions, and ask his advice. He told them that the rebels had fooled them, that the true king had a better way to live, which exemplified and taught. One by one, then two by two, and then by the hundreds, people began to have confidence in him and live in his way.
Their influence spread to others, and the movement grew and grew until the whole city regretted its rebellion and wanted to return to the kingdom again. But, ashamed of their horrible mistake, they were afraid to approach the king, believing he would certainly destroy them for their rebellion. But the kin-in-disguise told them the good news: he himself was king, and he loved them. He held nothing against them, and welcomed them back into his kingdom, having accomplished by a gentle, subtle presence what never could have been accomplished through brute force.”
- a Generous Orthodoxy P. 57
Come, Follow me
When Jesus calls his first disciples, he doesn’t invite them to be saved from this horrible existence and be in heaven after they die, he says come, follow me. In fact, while there are a couple of invitations to be saved, most often Jesus invites people (like us) to follow him – to learn from him by what he says and what he does.
In Matthew 11:28-30 Jesus says "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."
The King James Version says “Learn of me” which I think is entirely appropriate as we head into this new series
This is how we are going to be reading Mark over the Summer and into the Fall – reading it together to see what Jesus did, how he acted, how he responded to different types of people…and then to talk about how we can model our lives after his.
I will show you How to be fishers of Men and Women
The term Fisher’s of men is a bit funny – yes it is a turn on what these men already do, but you would usually think that fish need to be saved by the net – they are not often saved with the net. Jesus is inviting these men and us to fish for people so that the people might be saved.
This is how he begins his Gospel, telling his followers that he is going to show them how to fish for people, how he is going to show them how to make more followers of Jesus. He ends the Gospel by telling them to “Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation.”
So in between telling them that he would teach them to gather people for God’s Kingdom, and sending them out to do it without them, he shows them how.
There is a hint of how in this first chapter – that he became one of us.
Donald Miller tells this story in Blue like Jazz: Don had gone to hear a folk singer who ended up telling the story of a friend of his who was a Navy SEAL
The folksinger said his friend was performing a covert operation, freeing hostages from a building in some dark part of the world. His friend’s team flew in by helicopter, made their way to the compound and stormed into the room where the hostages had been imprisoned for months. The room, the folk singer said, was filthy and dark. The hostages were curled up in a corner, terrified. When the SEALs entered the room, they heard the gasps of the hostages. They stood at the door and called and called to the prisoners, telling them they were Americans. The seals asked the hostages to follow them, but the hostages wouldn’t. They sat there on the floor and hid their eyes in fear. They were not of healthy mind and didn’t believe their rescuers were really Americans.
The SEALs stood there, not knowing what to do. They couldn’t possibly carry everybody out. One of the SEALs, the folksingers friend, got an idea. He put down his weapon, took off his helmet, and curled up tightly next to the other hostages, getting so close his body was touching some of theirs. He softened the look on his face and put his arms around them. He was trying to show them he was one of them. None of the prison guards would have done this. He stayed there for a little while until some of the hostages started to look at him, finally meeting his eyes. The Navy SEAL whispered that they were Americans and were there to rescue them. Will you follow us? He said. The hero stood to his feet and one of the hostages did the same, then another, until all of them were willing to go. The story ends with all the hostages safe on an American aircraft carrier.
I never liked it when the preachers said we had to follow Jesus. Sometimes they would make Him sound angry. But I liked the story the folksinger told. I liked the idea of Jesus becoming man, so that we would be able to trust Him, and I like that He healed people and loved them and cared deeply about how people were feeling
-Blue like Jazz, - p. 33
This is how we are to gather God’s people into His kingdom – break down the barriers between us, get into their position, show them care, and invite them to follow Jesus too!
Conclusion
Jesus is our lord – our king, our master, the one whom we apprentice under. If you are his follower, it should always be our goal to be like the master.
