Becoming a warrior begins with becoming a disciple
Being a disciple of Jesus today should look like what was exemplified by Jesus and his disciples during his ministry on earth. Jesus chose his disciples, and he is still giving that invitation today. When Jesus invites, however, what does that look like? What does He expect? What do we expect? Many people comment that we now live in a world that is extremely self-centered. While that appears to be true, I would submit that according to the gospels and the letters of the New Testament, the flesh has been always been the flesh. We want what we want. It’s always been that way and always will be. Church and human history bear that out.
In spite of our human innate sense of want and self-preservation, Jesus selects disciples. While many people followed Jesus during his ministry years, the word disciple identifies those who followed and learned from Jesus. There is another group of disciples, who were called apostles. What is the difference? A disciple is a learner who is under the discipline of following Jesus and learning from him, putting into practice what he teaches. An apostle is another designation given to the 12 he chose. This is explained in Luke 6:12-16. “One of those days Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray, and spent the night praying to God. When morning came, he called his disciples to him and chose twelve of them, whom he also designated apostles: Simon (whom he named Peter), his brother Andrew, James, John, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James son of Alphaeus, Simon who was called the Zealot, 16 Judas son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor.
The word apostle means “one who is sent.” The difference then between being a disciple and apostle is that while a disciple follows closely as a learner, an apostle also learns but is sent with a message for others. So then all of the apostles were also disciples.
For our context and understanding we will dedicate this study to the understanding of what a disciple is and does. What about these disciples that followed Jesus? As we can see from scripture, all of them had issues and Judas Iscariot became the antithesis of a disciple. When the selection was completed though, it was clear: Jesus led, and the disciples followed. And, they all made calculated, personal choices to do so.
In the early learning of being disciples, the 12 often asked naive questions like the one James and John asked Jesus,“Let one of us sit at your right and the other at your left in your glory.” Mark 10:37) What a grandiose request! In effect what they were saying was, “Forget the other 10, we want the top spot… ” Jesus’ response included another question, kind of a condition: “Can you drink the cup I drink or be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with? Mark 10: 38 (Mark 10:38) Again, their naive response was, “We can.” They had no clue what he meant. His cup was the cup of his suffering. Scripture and history records no worse treatment than Jesus Christ’s beatings and crucifiction. The baptism he was to be baptized with? His baptism, the immersion into being chastised and humiliated by a sinful world that would seek to annihilate him and any who follow him. Jesus affirmed though, they would indeed drink his cup and be baptised with his baptism as well. History shows that James was the first martyr of the early church. John, historically, was placed in a vat of boiling oil in order to kill him. He did not die, but was then banished to the prison island of Patmos. During their lives Jesus disciples endured much in following Jesus. I believe if we truly want to follow Jesus as his disciple, the is much ahead of us that will be filled with joys and sorrows, just as the early disciples experienced. We can expect, as Jesus’ disciple, that he will lead us where we will have the opportunity to be changed more and more into his likeness. We really don’t emphasize this enough, but when Jesus invites us into discipleship, he is inviting us to follow him – no matter what the cost.
What can we expect? to learn his will for our lives and how to cancel our will for our lives. What does Jesus expect? Our trust for every moment of every day – every event – to follow and obey, knowing it’s for his glory we live and for the greatest love we could ever know.