Following The Rabbi

Following The Rabbi 1 Kings 19:19-21 There’s a well-known verse in the Bible that talks about God’s greatness. It’s Psalm 19:1, and it says, “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims His handiwork.” Well, besides the heavens declaring God’s glory, the sky above also teaches us something about discipleship. All of us know that the planet Mercury is hot, and Pluto is cold. Why is Mercury hot and Pluto cold? Because Pluto is really far away from the sun, while Mercury is very close. The further you travel away from the sun, the colder things get, but the closer you come to the sun, the hotter things become. So when we talk about discipleship, you might be thinking that you’re not a Mercury Christian or a Pluto Christian. You might say I’m just an Earth Christian where things can get both hot and cold. Or maybe your discipleship is more like a seasonal Christian, who changes depending on whether it’s spring, summer, fall, or winter. But when it comes to discipleship, God is searching for Mercury Christians. God’s looking for those people who want to get really close and stay hot because they’re close to the SON. Getting close to the Son is what discipleship is all about. During this season of Lent, growing hotter for Christ is what we’re called to do. You see, when Jesus gave us what’s known as the Great Commission, He told us to “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit” (Matt. 28:18-20). Once you accepted Christ, you, by association with Christ, became His disciple. And the moment you became His disciple, Jesus said, “Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple” (Luke 14:27). Remember, Jesus said, “Come,” but when you arrive, Jesus also said, “Follow.” When Jesus told people to follow Him by carrying their own cross, Jesus’ audience knew exactly what He meant. They saw firsthand Roman executions, and how the condemned were forced to carry the weight of the cross. They had to fully submit to Rome’s power, and Christ used this graphic example to show people that anybody who desires to follow God must submit to Him. Jesus said this to get people to re-think their enthusiasm for Him. It’s easy to come, but once you’re there, your cross is waiting. So, discipleship includes everyone who comes, and it involves following. Before Jesus walked this earth, there were disciples, and they followed their rabbi’s. This practice has been going on for thousands of years, where the disciple was to imitate the rabbi. In a weird way, the movie Young Frankenstein shows us an aspect of discipleship. After meeting Dr. Frankenstein in the train station, Igor hobbles down the steps and instructs his new master to, “Walk this way.” Funny as that scene is, it points to an important truth. To follow a rabbi meant more than just sitting in a classroom. It involved a literal kind of following, in which the disciples traveled with, lived with, and imitated their rabbis, so they could learn not only from what they said, but also from what they did – from their reactions to everyday life, plum down to how they lived. This approach to teaching is more like an apprenticeship than a classroom. I recently read the story of a woman named Ange Sabin. She was a very gifted potter, molding beautiful works outta clay. She recently returned from Japan after a 6-month apprenticeship with a famous Japanese potter. Now before her journey, she daydreamed of working side-by-side with her renowned mentor. She couldn’t wait to show off her own skills. But Ange didn’t know what her apprenticeship involved because once she arrived, her famous mentor, Masaaki Shibata, put her to work as a member of his own family. She cleaned, did daily chores, picked rice, and dug for clay to be used. Her pride began to sink, and the thoughts of never showing Masaaki her talent depressed her. The entire 6 months, she never crafted not even one piece of pottery. Before Ange left, Shibata’s wife said, “When you came to us, you were like a fully grown tree with big branches. We have to cut those branches for something new to be able to grow.” Kinda sounds like Jesus’ teaching, doesn’t it? (John 15). When Ange got back home, she was still depressed, but when she sat down at her pottery wheel, she noticed a subtle difference. Something had changed, and when she opened the kiln door, she marveled at the result. Without realizing it, she did learn a new way of doing things. Her work went from good to great, and her craft had been transformed. Christ’s disciples, like Ange, knew about a different kind of learning. Learning wasn’t so much about retaining information as it was about gaining essential wisdom for living. This was the ancient method whereby rabbis trained their talmidim. In Hebrew, Talmidim is plural for disciples, whereas talmid is singular, meaning student. A female disciple was a talmidah. We too are Christ’s talmidim. If you have come to Christ and decided to follow Christ, you have become a talmid or a talmidah. To see what being a talmidim involves, we look back to Elijah and Elisha in today’s Scripture. Elijah was one of Israel’s greatest prophets, known for some amazing miracles, like raising the dead and calling down fire from heaven to defeat false prophets. Despite how powerfully God used Elijah, he still had his low moments, and it was after one of these low moments where God instructed him to anoint Elisha as his successor. Verse 19 tells us Elijah went and found Elisha plowing his fields, went up to him, and placed his cloak around him. Now a cloak was the most essential piece of clothing someone owned. It had multiple purposes, such as protection from the weather, bedding, or as luggage. It could even be given as a pledge for a debt or torn into pieces in grief. When Elijah put his cloak around Elisha, he was making a pledge that Elisha would become his successor. He was saying, “Follow me. I’ll be your rabbi, you’ll be my talmid.” After this, Scripture shows that Elisha gave up everything to follow Elijah. He gave up his riches, his prosperous farm, his entire way of life, all to follow Elijah as a talmid. He became Elijah’s servant, following him everywhere and attending to his needs. Like any disciple, Elisha’s goal was not just to study, but to become like Elijah, so he could continue to carry on his ministry. Elisha must have been thrilled at this opportunity, but he still hesitated. He wanted to follow Elijah, but in verse 20, he also wanted to kiss his parents good-bye. So Elijah challenged his commitment. And in response, Elisha sacrificed his 12 pairs of oxen and burned his plow. And verse 21 says he gave it to the people to eat. Now that must have been one giant feast! But in doing this, Elisha was saying goodbye to everything he knew. Elisha didn’t just choose a new hobby or attend a Bible study, but made a full commitment. Jesus referred to this story when responding to a potential disciple who also wanted to follow Jesus, but not right away. In Luke 9:61, a man wanted to tell his family good-bye before following Jesus. So Jesus answered by quoting Elisha and said, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.” Disciples will face difficult times, but also find great joy. We can’t just take the good and leave the bad. We have to accept the cross with the crown. But one reason why many people find this so hard is because they confuse discipleship with discipline. Of course, discipline is important for spiritual life, but the goal of discipleship is not just discipline, but to become like our Rabbi. I mean, just imagine if somebody was to define parenting only as discipline. Yes, children need discipline, but there’s so much more than discipline to achieve growth. If we don’t choose to follow Christ, we’re not finding true life. The Rabbi and disciple are to form a close, personal bond, and unless we purposefully focus upon Jesus, joy can fade, and hope can seem out of our grasp. You know, for someone on the outside looking in, fully submitting to Christ sounds discouraging, almost like being a slave. I mean even Jesus said, “A student is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master” (Matt. 10:24), and, “Why do you call Me ‘Lord, Lord’ and do not do what I say?” (Luke 6:46). But remember who you’re submitting to! You’re submitting to a God of love. A God who forgives, who leads, who guides. A God who wants you so much that His only Son died for you! Surrender isn’t always easy, but you must ask yourself: Whose judgment do you trust more, yours, or God’s? God won’t leave you in the dark or uninformed. Jesus says in John 15:15, “No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not understand what his master is doing. But I have called you friends, because everything I have learned from My Father I have made known to you.” Disciples, talmidim, serve their Rabbi, but our Master is also a servant to everyone, and Jesus calls us to do nothing that He doesn’t do Himself. Disciples are both friends and servants because there are things in life we can only learn by doing and following our teacher. By learning obedience to their rabbi’s directions, a disciple learned reverence for doing God’s will. And it’s by putting oneself into the position of a servant, that we open ourselves to correction so that our conduct can be refined. Furthermore, rabbis believed that humility was needed for learning. As one 1st century rabbi said, “Just as water flows away from a high point and gathers at a low point, so the Word of God only endures with the learner who is humble in his knowledge.” Throughout our life, but paid more attention to during Lent, we’re to give up something to spend more time with Christ. We’re to let go of our past, our old way of life, just like Elisha, and follow our Rabbi. Christ is not just our life; He is the way of life! Rabbi literally means “My master,” and we must never forget that Jesus is our Rabbi, and we’re His talmidim. You know, the Gospels recorded many instances when Jesus instantly healed people’s illnesses. But there’s not even one instance where Jesus simply waved His hand to immediately fix one of His disciple's ugly habits. Instead, He simply kept teaching and correcting them, allowing them time to grow. God still works like this in our lives too. He lets our weaknesses and difficulties drive us closer to Himself so we can become Mercury Christians. Miracles do happen, but the inner transformation we so desperately desire can only be achieved over time. Even the culture around us tries to ‘disciple’ us if we haven’t placed ourselves under the transforming teaching of Christ. So the question we must ask ourselves today is: Who or what do we want to shape our lives to? I wanna say one last thing before we go. A college student was studying to become a pastor at a well-known university when he took the trip of a lifetime to Israel during summer break. One day while walking on a road near Bethlehem, he watched as 3 shepherds converged with their separate flocks of sheep. The 3 men stopped to talk for a while, and while they were talking, their sheep intermingled, forming one big flock. Wondering how the 3 shepherds would ever be able to identify their own sheep, the student waited until the men were ready to leave. The student stood there fascinated as each of the shepherds called out to his sheep. At the sound of their shepherd’s voice, just like magic, the sheep separated again into 3 flocks. Apparently, some things in Israel haven’t changed for thousands of years. Just like those sheep, what distinguishes us is not so much the “pen” we inhabit but the shepherd we follow. Some sheep come running as soon as their shepherd calls, while others struggle to obey his lead, going astray whenever temptation arises. It sure takes a lot more energy to follow a moving shepherd than to be cooped up in a pen. But we are called to be disciples of our Rabbi whose always on the move. One who wants us to follow Him, making disciples to the ends of the earth. So if you haven’t already, I pray that you’ll learn to recognize His voice, to go where He leads you, and to serve and imitate Him as His talmidim, so that we can share His Good News with the world. AMEN