Stages On The Journey

I am looking at this passage as a portrayal of the Christian journey of faith. Like all journeys, the Christian pilgrimage through life has a point of departure, a destination, and a route through which we travel from one to the other.

Verse 39 shows us a pilgrim who has just begun the journey. Jesus describes this person as ‘a blind man’ who is naively attempting to ‘lead [another] blind man.’ Only one thing can come of this: ‘they [will] both fall into a pit.’ The beginning of the Christian journey is fraught with hazards, largely due to our residual pride and inexperience. We may attempt to take on more than we can carry. Our spiritual muscles are not yet developed, and, in trying to negotiate the steep incline, we may experience muscle fatigue and failure. We have seen the light, and we blind other people with what we think we have seen.

During the summer after my junior year at Baylor, a few friends and I went to the Pacific Northwest and joined a team of ‘summer missionaries,’ as we were called. We went from city to city in the states of Oregon and Washington, staging what churches billed as ‘youth-led revivals.’ We were probably not qualified to be doing what we were doing, and I’m not sure how many we revived—but we were there. There was a young woman on our team—I can’t remember her name—but she, like the rest of us, was a very young Christian…and a very critical one. She criticized most of the young men on the team, pointing out our laziness, our lack of solemnity, and what she saw as our spiritual immaturity. She was probably right, but her criticism did not help. She seemed to speak more out of contempt than love, and her rigidity contributed to a climate of division on the team. I myself have been guilty at times of trying to correct other people, not because they invited my correction and not because I was qualified to offer it but because I didn’t know better than not to give it. Paul says in Rom. 14:13, ‘Therefore let us not pass judgment on one another any longer, but rather decide never to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of a brother.’ And you may recall that, when Peter asked our risen Lord about what would be expected of one of the other disciples, Jesus said, ‘What is that to you? You follow me!’ (John 21:22). It is characteristic of immature Christians always to be busy with other people’s business, but we need to grow beyond that.

So, what Jesus does next is, He takes us to the finish line of our journey. He skips the route we must travel and shows us the goal toward which we are to move. You see this in v. 40: ‘A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone when he is fully trained will be like his teacher.’ I love this verse because it shows us that maturity in the faith is a process. When we are born again by the power of the Holy Spirit and receive Christ by faith, we are like children. We may be seasoned adults, but, spiritually speaking, we are—as Peter says—‘like newborn infants, [who] long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it [we] may grow up into salvation’ (1 Pet. 2:2).

So, as we make our journey, we recognize that we are ‘not above [our] teacher.’ Our teacher is Christ, and He is above us. So we must learn not to get ahead of Him.

I lament how often in my Christian journey I have tried to do the Lord’s work without the authority or the guidance or the power of the Lord. I have tried to do good things on my own steam: preach sermons, teach the Bible, counsel the heart, visit the sick, comfort the brokenhearted. We can’t do such things with mere human ability. No, not in the least. And as we move along the path of Christian maturity, we have to learn that the Christian life is a supernatural life. To quote Peter again, we are ‘partakers of the divine nature’ (2 Pet. 1:5). And part of what that means is that the good we do, we do in His power at His leading—or it is not good that we do. He gives us grace to do good works. Just read Ephesians 2:10 to see that: ‘For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.’ You see, we are to be instruments in His hand, arrows in his quiver. We are not living for God in our own strength. We are living for God through God’s strength. Else, we are not living for God. So we are not above our teacher, right?