“What It
Takes To Be A Disciple”
Joshua
24:14-18
Matthew
4:12-25
In his book “Sources of Strength,” President Jimmy Carter writes, “Will we succeed or fail at what we try? Maybe it’s better not to take a chance rather than accept the possibility of failure. Of course, that attitude leads to a timid, diminished life. Failure is a reality; we all fail at times, and it’s painful when we do. But it’s better to fail while striving for something wonderful, challenging, adventurous, and uncertain than to say, ‘I don’t want to try, because I may not succeed completely.’”
It seems that
as we get older our sense of adventure diminishes. We don’t risk
ourselves like we used to. Maybe it’s
because we have tried and failed one too many times, or maybe it’s just because
we have grown up enough to learn our limitations. We know what we can do and what we can’t
do. By trial and error we have learned
enough about ourselves and the world around us to know when to take a chance at
something and when not to. Why risk
failure when we can do nothing and not fail.
So, we err on the side of caution.
We weigh the pros and cons. We
count the costs. We kick the tires, look
for the added features, we read the fine print, and question whether or not it
is the right time.
On a spring
day, I drove from
I couldn’t
believe what I had just done. I had just
asked to try out for the college baseball team.
I went to my car and sat there for a minute in absolute fear. What was I thinking? I can’t play college baseball. I started the car and drove home, my baseball
glove and bat sitting beside me in the car.
I never went to the field again.
I was unwilling to take a chance and try out than to accept the
possibility of failure. I was unwilling
to let myself strive for something wonderful, challenging, adventurous, and
uncertain than to not succeed completely or not succeed at all. Now, I’m only left with the regret of never
having tried, of never having taken a chance.
Whenever I read this story about
Jesus calling the first four disciples I always think about all those times
when I didn’t take a chance, when I was unwilling to strive for something
better. I marvel at the response of the
four fishermen. Without questioning,
without counting the costs, without thinking about it, they left their
livelihood and family and followed Jesus.
Jesus called, they followed.
Nothing is said about any motivation of why Jesus called these
particular men, nothing is said about whether or not Simon, Andrew, James and
John had been to hear Jesus preach, or whether they had been primed to make
this life changing decision. Nothing is said about whether or not Jesus
had talked to these men before to screen them for such important
positions. We are only told that Jesus saw them and called out to them,
"Follow me." And they responded.
Why would four men make such a
radical and immediate decision to follow Jesus without first considering the
pros and cons of such a venture. Why would these four men leave their daily
work, drop their nets, abandon their established livelihoods and leave their
families to go with someone they had never met?
We might suppose that the
disciples understood the call of Jesus as an invitation to be part of something
much bigger than what they were experiencing as fishermen. Kind of like a promotion to a bigger and
better job, a step to take to bigger and better things. Yet, our text tells us nothing of the
motivation behind the response of these four men, and nothing about any rewards
they received for their discipleship.
Perhaps the disciples immediately
realized that fishing for people would be much more spiritually satisfying than
simply fishing for fish. All of us want
to be satisfied in our spiritual life of faith.
We want to be fulfilled and enjoy the fruits of our labors of
faith. All of us, at some point of time
in our life, wonder whether we are truly living a spirit-filled life that is
pleasing to God, whether we are truly living up to God’s expectations for us
and in the life God has called us to live.
But, yet again, our text remains silent.
Nothing is given to indicate that these four men even contemplated or
wondered about such things. Nothing in
the text even offers a hint at the men’s spirituality or even if they were
spiritual people at all.
Perhaps the disciples
responded to Jesus’ call out of some great internal faith. After all, isn’t that what we are taught
about this story, that the four men responded out of
their own faith, just like we are to respond to Jesus out of our own
faith. It certainly does take great
faith to just walk away from our current lives, drop everything we have, leave
our family, and follow someone we don’t even know.
Of course, we understand this as a
great act of faith, but our text isn’t so clear. Nothing in our text says that they were great
men of faith, or that they even understood what faith was all about. Nothing is said about them believing in Jesus
or understanding Jesus’ ministry and mission.
In fact, the disciples throughout this gospel, continually misunderstand
Jesus, continually miss the point of his teachings, continually fail to see who
Jesus is, and in the end of the gospel they will disappear completely when
Jesus is crucified. Whatever faith,
belief, or understanding they may have had here, it doesn’t take long for them
to forget.
In any event, these four men
decided to make a radical and immediate decision to follow Jesus, a decision
that would change their lives forever.
We cannot help but be amazed and impressed with the immediate and radical
commitment that Jesus inspired in these fishermen. Somehow they were compelled to follow Jesus,
a man they didn’t even know. Somehow
they are able to respond to Jesus’ call and take that first step on the road of
discipleship, on a journey that would challenge them and bewilder them, on a
journey that will lead them to a destination that for them is not yet known and
not yet defined.
Maybe in the end, these four men,
who were once fishermen but now called disciples, did act in faith, but not in
a faith that understands, not in a faith that weighs the pros and cons or seeks
rewards, or kicks the tires, or reads the fine print, or waits until the
“right” time to make a commitment, not in a faith that comes from a
spirituality within, but in a faith that is not of their own, a faith that
comes from the outside that enables them to respond to a call that for now
remains unclear and unsure.
Maybe in the end, what it takes to
be a disciple is just a willingness to take a chance and strive for that which
expresses the will of God, to strive for that which is oriented toward the
kingdom of heaven. Maybe in the end,
what it takes to be a disciple of Jesus Christ is a willingness and readiness
to just go and be a disciple and serve the Lord.
In the summer of 2001, I was
required by the Presbytery to take a class called Clinical Pastoral
Education. It was a class where I had to
go be a chaplain at a hospital. I didn’t
want to do it, and I tried to get out of it.
But I couldn’t get out of it. It
was either take the class or not get ordained. My first day I was
terrified. It was all I could do
to go to the hospital that morning. I
was afraid of failure, of not being able to do what I knew I needed to do. But most of all, I was afraid of getting out
of my comfort zone and doing what I knew I had a difficult time doing.
I’ll never forget walking on that
hospital floor and standing outside the first door in the hall. I stood outside the door just staring at
it. When suddenly I
heard this voice in my head say, “Just go.” I knocked on the door, and went in. And I was never the same again. Clinical Pastoral Education was the best and
most important class I ever had in seminary.
It was extremely difficult and I had numerous failures, but in the end I
discovered something wonderful, challenging, adventurous and even uncertain; a
newness of life that I could have never found on my own.
In the end, I discovered just what
it takes to be a disciple of Jesus Christ and what it means to follow him. But, I would have never known if I had not
tried, if I had not taken a chance, if I had not risked my comfort and
security, if I had questioned the motives or counted the cost, or if I had
waited for the “right” time to be committed to the work of ministry and mission
in Christ’s church.
President
Carter concludes his book with these words, “We’ll never know whether something
new and wonderful is possible unless we try.
Let’s stretch our hearts, stretch our minds, be
adventurous! Serve God with boldness,
and who knows what wonders the Lord may work.”
Amen.