Luke Part 2 - Follow the Leader

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Everything I ever needed to know about discipleship I learned from Peter Pan.

 …well, ok, not really.

But I can’t deny that Walt Disney was onto something here. I mean, it doesn’t get much simpler than that, does it? “We’re following the Leader, wherever He may go.” If we break this statement down, there are two characters. Leader and Follower.

I think we’ve already established who the leader is in this scenario, right? Just in case not (or in case you brought a friend who’s new to the Jesus thing like you were supposed to):

Which brings us to the next category of players: the Followers.

Jesus is picking up people left and right who follow Him around to see what He’s going to do next. And around chapter 5, Luke shows us that these are no longer just people who follow Jesus around because they like what He has to say. When Jesus calls Peter, James, John, and Levi/Matthew, He is calling them to be like Him. To watch His every move carefully and do like He does.

As Jesus continues His ministry, He has now developed such a following that He is able to break down this massive crowd of people into “concentric circles”[1]. They bust down like this[2]:

Time and time again (whenever Jesus speaks, in fact) Luke distinguishes between when Jesus is addressing The Crowd, which are the people who are really only interested in the magic show and/or what THEY can get from Jesus, and when He is addressing His disciples. His “mini-me’s”. For the crowds Jesus often speaks in Parables. For His disciples, He teaches and explains and answers their questions. He instructs. He nurtures. He encourages. He gives them examples. He points them in the right direction.

Case in point: Luke 6:17-49.

When Jesus addresses the crowd, He ministers to their needs. He heals the sick and wounded, He casts out the evil spirits and allows Himself to be touched by the hurting who are in need of His healing power. He meets their immediate needs, which is incredibly important. But notice the shift in audience around verse 20:

“Looking at His disciples, He said…”

 

Jesus sows into His disciples. He feeds not only their physical needs but their spiritual needs. This is what sets the disciples apart from the crowd. They are seeking Jesus out to be like Him in their spiritual life, whereas the crowd too often only seeks Jesus out to get their immediate fixes. Jesus, being the awesome and merciful God that He is, meets all of those needs. But it’s clear to see that He sows into His disciples something much deeper, something intended to last much longer than just the temporal circumstances.

Chapters 6-8 of Luke showcase Jesus’ teaching style in two critical points: Jesus telling, and Jesus DOING.

So what does it take to be a disciple of Jesus? Well, we’ve learned that it’s a journey that can’t be walked alone. It just flat doesn’t work if we don’t have to answer to anyone but ourselves.

More importantly though, we have to spend significant time with our Teacher. Look at the text: Wherever Jesus was, His disciples were not far behind. Whatever He did, they did. Whatever He said, they took note of and asked questions when they didn’t understand. Sometimes they had to obey when it didn’t make sense.

Do you think the disciples would have followed Jesus without knowing Him at all?

Nope…I don’t think they would have, either.

What does that mean for you and for me as disciples? It means we need to spend some significant time getting to know our Teacher, so we can do like He 

does and be like He is.

How do we do that? Well, we have to get our noses in the book for that part.

(1) Learn about who He is. It’s His CHARACTER we’re trying to emulate, right? Well, that starts with getting familiar with His character.  

(2) Learn about His priorities and how they differ from yours. Because, you and I both know that most of the time our priorities are different than Jesus’. This was an exercise I had to sit down and force myself to do, and it was rather humbling:

(3) Pray for God to show us how to become more like Him. I’ve learned that I don’t function well without specific instruction. But I have to be willing to LISTEN to that instruction. When I recognize that my priorities are off the radar from God’s priorities, I find myself praying through Psalm 139:23-24.

“Search me, O God, and know my heart. Try me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensiveness in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”

Search me. Try me. See me. Show me. Lead me.

Be prepared though…when you ask God to do stuff like that, He’s more than happy to oblige, and more often than not…it’s kind of a painful process. Rewarding, but painful.

(4) Recognize this truth that Jesus Himself tells His disciples:

“A student cannot be above his[/her] teacher, but everyone who is fully trained will be like his[/her] teacher.” LK 6:40

Confession: I struggle with the sin of perfectionism. If I can’t be as good as Jesus, often times I give up and don’t try to be like Him at all, because I feel set up for failure. If I can’t get something done perfectly, I’d rather not try at all. Failing to live up to my own expectations hurts. That’s my sin. Yaaaay being human.

But Jesus makes it very plain and very clear that His expectations are not perfection. I as a student will never be above my Teacher. I will never be as smart at Bible as my pastor, John Correia. I will never be as skilled at working on my car as my Dad. I will never be as literature-savvy as my English Lit. professor[3]. That’s just the way it is. These teachers in my life have years and years on me in experience. Even if I can keep up with them someday in their field of expertise, I will never surpass them. That doesn’t make my efforts any less valuable. When I get caught up in trying to “best my teacher”, I totally miss the point. The point isn’t to one-up my teacher, it’s to be like my teacher.

Same thing with Jesus. I will never be perfect like Jesus. I’ve already sinned WAAAAY too much to even come close to that caliber of holiness. BUT. He isn’t asking me to BE Him. He’s asking me to be LIKE Him. They’re different. And in this one verse, Jesus makes it very safe for me to fall short sometimes because I’m a student. I’m learning. So are you.

I’m going to try and compile a simple-for-you-to-view-but-kind-of-complicated-for-me-to-put-together picture series on this concept, which I will post in the near future. It’s based off of something I learned at a leadership workshop in high school, and now that I’m going through this text it is remarkably similar to Jesus’ model of leadership and discipleship.

Try not to burst at the seams with anticipation.

Until then, stay classy, folks!

NEEEEXXXXTTTTT!

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[1] Concept learned in Gospels class, Prof. John Correia, Fall 2011

[2] Note in the picture how the closer the circle is to Jesus, the lighter it is…the farther out from Jesus, the darker it is…booyah, color symbology…

[3] Professor Kimsey is my literature professor…and listening to him analyze literature makes me feel like I should go back to reading Dr. Seuss…