1: What is a disciple?
There's a certain saying that Jesus frequently used in his teaching. So often, in fact, that it's recorded four times in various forms in three different gospels. So it must be important. Here are the passages I'm referring to:
"A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master. It is enough for the disciple to be like his teacher, and the servant like his master." (Matt 10:24-25)
"A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone when he is fully trained will be like his teacher." (Luke 6:40)
"Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him." (John 13:16)
"Remember the word that I said to you: 'A servant is not greater than his master.'" (John 15:20)
By examining each of these passages in turn, we can start to learn what it means to be a disciple.
Let's begin. We'll keep it simple.
Like his teacher
The Matthew and Luke scriptures give us a simple definition of what a disciple is:
A disciple is someone who is like his teacher.
In other words, being a disciple means being like Jesus.
OK! But what does it mean to be "like" Jesus? In what ways should we try to be like him?
That's a good question. I became a Christian in the days of the Jesus Movement, and back then being "like Jesus" meant young guys wearing sandals letting their hair grow long and walking around with dreamy eyes and a gentle smile on their face. "Hey look, man! That guy looks just like Jesus!"
Of course, that's not what Jesus meant when he told his disciples they should be "like" him. But we'll leave this question for now and return to it in a later chapter.
Fully trained
We now know what a disciple is: someone who is "like" Jesus. But this raises a new question, namely, how does one become like Jesus?
The Luke passage gives us the answer: it involves training. And it's not something that happens overnight; it takes time to become "fully" like Jesus. (A lot of time, actually. And probably more than most of us will ever have in our own lifetimes.)
And the idea that disciples need some form of training is actually quite evident from Jesus' words that a disciple is not above his "teacher."
But if training is needed to become a "fully-trained" disciple, then the question arises of who does the training, and what form that training takes. But that's another question that we'll pass over for now and talk about later. (But I'll give you a hint: it's not you, at least not in the way that you think it might be.)
Servants and messengers
John quotes Jesus' saying twice, which clearly emphasizes how important it is for us to understand its significance. But in the Gospel of John, Jesus expresses his saying a bit differently. Because instead of saying that a disciple is not greater than his teacher, he says a servant is not greater than his master, and a messenger is not greater than the one who sent him. Get the contrast? Disciple vs. teacher, servant vs. master, and messenger vs. sender. What does it mean?
I think what Jesus is doing here is using complementary words to express more fully what it means to be a disciple. In other words, a disciple is also a servant. Which means he has a master. Which means he's supposed to do what his master tells him to do.
And a disciple is also a messenger. Which means he's been given a message to deliver. And it's his responsibility to deliver it clearly, confidently, and without alteration. We're getting closer to understanding what a disciple is, aren't we?
Not greater
Finally, there's one part of these four scriptures that we've overlooked until now. Namely, the bit about "not above" or "not greater." What does Jesus mean by this?
I think what he means is that our *only* goal as Jesus' followers should be to be like him, nothing more and nothing less. It means we should have no other ambition in our life than to simply follow in his footsteps doing his will. "It's enough," says Jesus, "if you become just like me."
So. How does one get started on the path of discipleship? That's what we'll examine next.
---> Go to chapter 2
