Dust
July 23, 2006
Matthew 4:18-22
Last Sunday, one of our guests/visitors to the service asked if we had a pamphlet about what we believed as a Church. I said we did and handed it to her.
In the pamphlet, which is in the entryway for all who are interested, are listed 5 of the core beliefs of our church and the denomination to which it belongs.
3 of these core beliefs mention specifically Jesus Christ.
At the center of our church, at the center of our faith is this man who lived on this earth 2000 years ago.
To people who have spent time in the church this isn’t a surprise.
It is a given.
a for sure.
a taken for granted reality.
Of course Jesus is at the center of the Church. But when you take a step back, it is quite astounding that a group of people still exist that seek to learn from a man who lived 2000 years ago.
I mean think about it. This - -
Jesus never wrote a book, in fact the only thing we know that we wrote -
He wrote in the dirt.
He didn’t have a home since he left home. He said, "he had no place to lay his
head."
He didn’t become overly popular - only a couple hundred people met him
personally and less than 10 times that ever heard or saw him.
He didn’t travel outside a certain region.
He didn’t lead an army.
He didn’t govern a nation.
And yet 2000 years later, people gather around the world literally, in order to learn about him, be loved by him, to serve him and to submit their lives to him.
The man Jesus grew up in Israel. In a region, a very religious region called Galilee. People from Galilee believed that God had spoken specifically to their ancestors when they needed it most, as they traveled in the wilderness, after being released from slavery in Egypt. They believed that God spoke to their leader Moses at Mount Sinai.
The words God spoke to Moses were recorded by him in the 1st 5 books of the Bible. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. Books that later became known as the Torah, meaning teachings, or instructions, or the way.
These teachings, the Torah, were the central passion of God’s people.
People desired to be taught the Torah.
to live according to it.
to obey it in all aspects of their lives.
Because this appetite to live according to Torah was so prevalent, the Teachers or Rabbis began to ask "How young can we begin teaching Torah to children?" and one of them said, "Under the age of six we do not receive a child as a pupil from six upwards accept him and stuff him (with Torah) like an ox."
In order to stuff children like an ox with Torah, an educational system of sorts was developed. (see bulletin)
The 1st level of education was called Bet Sefer, which means "House of the Book." Little Jewish boys around the age of 6 would go to their local synague and be taught by their local rabbi. The Rabbi would spend significant time with the children helping them to memorize the Torah, the 1st five books of the Old Testament.
Genesis
Exodus
Leviticus
Numbers
Deuteronomy
Sometimes the rabbi would take honey and place it on the students’ fingers and then have them taste the honey, reminding them that God’s words taste like honey on the tongue. The rabbi wanted the students to associate the words of God with the most delicious, exquisite thing they could possibly imagine.
So crucial were the words of God.
So central to the people living in Galilee was the Torah.
And because so few copies of the Torah existed (the Gideons hadn’t placed Bibles in every hotel in Galilee yet) parents wanted their children to memorize the Torah.
The Jewish culture of the day centered around the Torah and the Rabbis teachings about it.
By age ten, students had begun to sort themselves out. Some students excelled at Torah. These went onto the next level of education which was called Bet Talmud meaning "House of learning."
Students who hadn’t done well at the 1st level wouldn’t continue on, but instead began to learn the family trade. In order that in time they would carry on their parent’s sandal making, farming or leather business. They weren’t cut out to be rabbis.
Meanwhile, their better classmates would learn the rest of the Old Testament. All 39 books. Genesis through Malachi. Learned. Memorized.
Additionally, they would begin to study the oral traditions around the text. The words of explanation that different rabbis had given over time.
You’ll remember in the life of Jesus, as a child his parents found in the temple area when he was 12, no doubt in this level of his education. Luke 2:46, 47 says, "they found him in the temple courts, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. Everyone who heard him was amazed at his understanding and his answers." Jesus, the child was a learner. He took part in his educational system.
As a Rabbi himself, Jesus would later tell his disciples, "Remember everything I learned I passed on to you." (John 15:15). At the age of 14 or 15, only the best of the best of the best were still studying. By now most students had dropped out and went to their family’s business. But those that remembered would now apply to a local rabbi to become one of his talmidam (or disciples). We think of a disciple as a student, but back then the goal of being a disciple wasn’t just to know what the rabbi knew, but it was to be just like the rabbi, to do what he did.
So a third level of education developed, "Bet Midrash (House of Study). At this level, the rabbi didn’t approach a student but just the opposite. A student would ask a Rabbi or tell him that "I want to become on of your disciples." When the student did this, he was in essence saying he wanted to do what the rabbi did. "I want to be like you."
When the rabbi heard this, he didn’t automatically say yes. He would want to know some things like:
Can this student do what I do?
Can this kid be like me?
Does this kid have what it takes?
The rabbi would question the student on the Torah. On the interpretations of it.
He would drill the prospective student because he did not have time to train a kid who wouldn’t ultimately be able to do what he did. If the rabbi decided that this kid did not have what it took, if this student was not the best of the best, then he would send the student home. He might say, "You obviously love God and know the Torah, but you do not have what it takes to be one of my talmidim." And then he might add, "Go home and continue learning the family business." But, if the rabbi believed that this kid did have what it took, he would say, "Come, follow me." (p. 130 Velvet Elvis)
The student would leave his mom and dad, his local synagogue, his village and friends and devote his life to learning how to do what the rabbi did. The student would follow in the dust of the Rabbi. As a learner, an observer, a sponge of everything he did, said, taught and believed. So at the age of thirty, when a rabbi generally began his public teaching and training of disciples, we find Jesus walking along the Sea of Galilee. Our text says, "He saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen."
Why are they fishermen?
Because they aren’t disciples. They weren’t following another rabbi . They weren’t the best of the best. They were not good-enoughs. They weren’t good enough; they didn’t make the cut.
The not smart enoughs
The ones who dropped out.
The ones who couldn’t make the grade.
And what does Jesus do?
Did he wait for them/these washed up fishermen to ask if they could follow him.
No - they knew that they hadn’t made the grade.
No - Jesus instead says, "Come, follow me!"
Jesus gives an invitation for them to join him. To follow him.
Jesus sees them and in his heart believes that these ordinary people can be like him. He believes that they can do what he does. That they can be like him.
And their response? "At once they left their nets and followed him."
Jesus took these ordinary men, really young men. These men who didn’t make the cut. These B Team people, these JVers and through his working in them, they changed the course of human history.
One author writes, I find astonishing Jesus’ choice of personnel to reach the world; not men of means, and elite strata of society, or men of the ecclesiastical establishment, but simple Galilean fishermen, rough and somewhat pedestrian in their thinking, influenced by Jewish passions and prejudices. They were slow to learn and slower still to unlearn. (Bill Hull, p. 66 Jesus Christ - Disciple Maker).
Later on in the life of Jesus, his disciples are riding in a boat and Jesus comes walking by on the water. And one of the disciples says, "If it’s you, let me come to you on the water." What? What’s going on? What is Peter thinking?
You know the story. Peter jumps out of the boat because he wants to walk on water like Jesus.
But it makes sense.
If you are a disciple, you have committed your entire life to being like your rabbi. If you see your rabbi walk on water, what do you immediately want to do? You do what he does. Walk on water.
So this disciple gets out on the water and he starts to sink, so he yells, "Jesus save me!"
And Jesus says, "You of little faith, why did you doubt?"
Who does Peter lose faith in?
Not Jesus; Jesus is doing fine.
Peter loses faith in himself.
Peter loses faith that he can do what his rabbi is doing.
If the rabbi calls you to be his disciple, then he believes you can actually be like him. Jesus wouldn’t have called Peter out if he didn’t believe Peter could do it.
Remember this phrase of Jesus? "You did not choose me, but I chose you." (John 15:16)
Let’s think about this. Jesus believes in you. He believes you can:
do what he did
be what he was
Knowing this, isn’t obvious why Jesus got frustrated with his disciples.
Because they were incapable? No. But because he knew how capable they are.
He sees what they could do and could be.
They just don’t realize what they are capable of!
Do You?
Jesus has chosen you.
Jesus has chosen me.
People who haven’t attended nor even necessarily finished the best schools.
People who are far more ordinary than we care to admit.
Jesus has chosen you because he believes you can be like him.
Most often we are told that we need to believe in Jesus. This is a good thing. But what I am learning is that Jesus believes in us!
Most often we are told that we need to have faith in God. This is a good thing. But what I am learning is that God has faith in us.
The Rabbi thinks we can be like him!
The 12 who Jesus believed in.
The 12 that Jesus invited to follow him.
The 12 that Jesus saw something in were people that others had seen nothing in.
Others had reasons for,
Peter and James
Thaddeaus and Philip
Thomas and John and the other 6
To not be disciples of a rabbi.
Being human, these guys no doubt believed that those reasons that
prohibited them
disqualified them made them 2nd rate to God.
Don’t believe that lie - I choose you to be my disciple.
I believe in you.
I believe you can do what I do.
"Come Follow Me - Walk in my dust."
Friends, Saints, Ordinary Folk. Our God has chosen you. He sees past all the surface stuff we put on to cover our blemishes and to make ourselves look good. He sees within us his handiwork and he calls us to live into what he believes we can be.
There was a phrase that developed among Rabbis.
It was a phrase of invitation.
The phrase was, "Cover yourself with the dust of your rabbis feet." (Repeat this after me).
May you follow so closely behind Jesus that His dust covers you.
May you follow so closely behind Jesus that his love for you transforms you.
May you follow so closely behind Jesus that you become more and more like him.
My friends hear the good news. You have been chosen. Our God believes in you.
May you be covered with the dust of your rabbis’ feet. Amen.
Let me give you some homework.
Allow yourself to let this truth about our God to sink in.
Take the insert home and work through the questions and allow this truth about our God to sink in!
Most of content was taken from Rob Bell’s Velvet Elvis, chapter 5 and has been influenced a sermon by John Ortberg, "Dust of the Rabbi" Sept 10, 11, 2005. Also from DVD Nooma called Dust.
