Being a Disciple
They say that “Nothing grows under a banyan tree.” The banyan is a great tree. It spreads its branches, drops air-roots, develops secondary trunks and covers the land. A full-grown banyan may cover more than an acre of land. Birds, animals, and humans find shelter under its shade. But nothing grows under its dense foliage, and when it dies, the ground beneath lies barren and scorched.
The banana tree is the opposite. Six months after it sprouts, small shoots appear around it. At twelve months a second circle of shoots appear beside the first ones, now six months old. At eighteen months the main trunk bears bananas which nourish birds, animals, and humans, and then it dies. But the first offspring are now full grown, and in six months they too bear fruit and die. The cycles continue unbroken as new sprouts emerge every six months, grow, give birth to more sprouts, bear fruit, and die.
There is something unique about the disciples of Jesus. While Jesus had many followers, He devoted His time to those chosen men. He didn’t need men of great influence who were revered and renown like a great banyan tree.
He wanted disciples who realized that like their Savior their time here would be short and the path difficult. Jesus needed disciples who would spawn disciples who would in turn spawn disciples like the banana tree.
Today, I want us to consider our calling to Christ and what He expects of you and more importantly, what you expect of yourself.
What is the best advice you ever received about your work or career? And what is the best advice you have ever given about one’s work or career?
I remember early in my ministry; one older and wiser pastor gave me some sage advice. He said, “Don’t expect too much out of people or you will constantly be disappointed. That way you will appreciate it more when they actually step up and make a difference.”
Now having ministered over half a century, a would-be candidate for ministry asked what my advice would be. That’s when you begin to realize how old you are.
I told the young man this, “If you can do anything else and be happy, do that. But if you can do nothing else and be fulfilled, then you are prepared to make the sacrifices that come with ministry.” That young man chose another profession and I think him wiser for it.
But what about you? What advice would you give a young man or woman who is about to go into the workforce? What wisdom would you share from your own journey?
The latest wisdom from the ‘experts’ who study these labor issues was surprisingly insightful. Here are five of their recommendations:
- Be punctual. Arrive on time to your commitments. Remember that there’s no such thing as being on time. You are either early or you are late.
- Be responsible. Take ownership of the tasks assigned to you and complete them on time and to the best of your ability.
- Dedication: Show commitment to your job and put in the effort to get the job done right.
- Adaptability: Be flexible because it will never go the way you planned it. Be prepared to adjust to the changing work environment.
- Honesty: Whether with your boss or the client, tell the truth and be transparent about what you are doing.
I cut my work ethic on the family garden and a paper route. I lived in a time when people didn’t say much about child labor. My brother and I rose every morning at 4:30 am and rode our bicycles to the local store to pick up the bundled Indianapolis Star. We rolled each paper and spent the next hour delivering the day’s paper to people just getting up. Be it dogs, weather or a cold, people expected their paper at that door first thing every morning.
My brothers and I could then ride to the river and fish till noon but by 1 pm, we were expected to be in the garden weeding and pulling bugs off the plants. Dad was organic before the word was invented but the truth was that dad didn’t want to spend the money on insecticides when a can of diesel fuel and a child could do the same thing.
This morning, I wanted to return to our Lord’s calling of Andrew, Peter, James, and John because it has a lot to say about how the Lord calls us and His expectations for the same.
Now, to be honest, the first thing that captures your attention on the call of these disciples was the swiftness of their decisions to follow Jesus. As we said before, most teachers of that day would go about teaching and would gather followers as they went. But Jesus took a completely different approach.
Jesus sought out those He wanted and chose to keep that number to as few as twelve. We assume this text records the first calling that Jesus made. But the statement that they ‘at once left their nets and followed Jesus’ begs a few questions.
Andrew, Peter, James and John were heirs apparent to a successful fishing fleet on the Galilee and to leave their family and other workers holding the bag must have come as a shock. Or maybe not.
Each of these men were already actively followers of John the Baptist and each were already seeing Jesus as the Anointed One as told them by John the Baptist with Andrew being the most avid of them all.
So, this wasn’t some impulsive decision for the disciples but anticipated by them and their families. As I said, Jesus didn’t allow any wanabes to be His disciples. He was going to handle that decision Himself.
I like to imagine that each of them had this desire and dream to follow Jesus but knew that decision wasn’t theirs to make. So, when Jesus approaches them that morning and calls them to follow Him, they are ecstatic and jump at the opportunity. They literally dropped what they were doing, the nets, and followed Him.
So, what was it that brought these men to the attention of Jesus. In this bustling region of the Galilee, why them, when there were so many to choose from?
We have no doubt in the wisdom of our Lord’s choices, so we give our attention to the characteristics of these men that set them apart from others and offer us a glimpse of what Jesus is looking for in us, His disciples, even today.
The first thing is the immediacy of their obedience. They literally dropped what they were doing. They had been thinking about it and praying about it and when the chance came, they acted on it. Is it any less for us. How many things in your life are you praying about right now? How many decisions have you been mulling over in your life? The question remains. But when an opportunity presents itself for you to do something about all those prayers, will you act or hesitate.
When Jesus said He was going to make them fishers of men, did they have any concept of what He was saying. They understood nets, weather and fish but how was that going to translate into this being ‘fishers of men’? In the years to come, the same tenacity, patience and sacrifice that fishing called for would be important to their following Jesus.
For all of us who have fished, we know there are good days and there are bad days. Some days, they just won’t bite. When the first year of Jesus’ popularity gave way to opposition and threat, that resolve would be tested. You have to wonder how many times Peter would be the one to rally the disciples and step out in faith. He was not always considerate, but you knew where Peter stood.
There was something else that stood out about these first disciples. They had a spiritual hunger. How many times did they ask Jesus to explain something, to teach them how to pray or what He meant by what He said. They loved Jesus but I’m sure the discussions got lively now and then.
Now Jesus would go on to add others to this chosen list, but Andrew, Peter, James, and John would remain the core of this group. Perhaps that is why Jesus called them first. These boys had grown up together, fished together, faced dangers together and thought themselves drowned more than once. When you share such things, it forms a bond that is not easily broken. This bond would keep the disciples together when nothing else did.
The one thing you have to say about these twelve disciples was that none of them were the same. Every one of them brought something different to the table and it wasn’t always good. Peter was the loud voice that was always acting before thinking. Know anyone like that?
Then there was John who was the more introspective and quieter one who was called the one ‘whom Jesus loved. Then there was Thomas who is remembered more for his doubts than anything else. And how about the Zealot named Simon. If there was one who hated the Romans worse, I can’t imagine who it was. Or what about Matthew the tax collector? That must have grated on Simon’s nerves for he considered all tax collectors traitors to their own people by working with the Romans.
So, why chose this set of odds and ends who had very little to share in common. Perhaps it is the most important reason of all: relatability. Simply put, they were as flawed as you and I.
Think about it. How many times would we find the disciples arguing among themselves about who was right or wrong? Jesus needed those three years to teach these men the truth and help them unlearn all the untruths they had been taught.
Jesus like His Father had a penchant for using the lesser to accomplish the greater and this was no doubt one of those times. Who could forget His choice of David over Goliath or speaking to Moses not in the lightning or thunder or earthquake but in that still small voice.
We tend to think of the disciples as giants, but we forget that they were flawed like you and me and what Jesus needed from them was not greatness but faithfulness. That is what Jesus still needs from you and me today.
Let me share the story of one such faithful disciple:
A largely unknown Franz Mohr once claimed, “I play [the piano] more in Carnegie Hall than anybody else, but I have no audience.” Mohr was the Chief Technician for the world-famous piano makers, Steinway & Sons.
Sometimes a string would snap, or a pedal would need adjusting during a concert, and he would step into the spotlight for a moment. But he did much of his work alone, on that famous stage and others around the world. He might have been mistaken for a pianist trying out a nine-foot grand for a recital — until he reached for his tools and began making minute adjustments, giving a tuning pin a tiny twist or a hammer a slight shave.
For years he went where the pianists went. He played before presidents and foreign dignitaries. He also attended to the world’s most famous performers’ personal pianos.
But he never begrudged taking a backseat to the stars. His boss, Henry Steinway, once said, “To understand Franz, one must understand … that his Christian faith is at the core of his being and affects everything he says and does.” Mohr claims that he loved being a “faithful plodder” who strove, in the words of Jesus, to be “faithful in little things.”
That faithfulness was challenged on the most important day of the disciples’ lives when Jesus would be betrayed, delivered to His enemies, and crucified. How did the disciples do?
In the upper room, they debated who among them would be seated by Jesus in the new kingdom and who was the best among them. While Jesus prepared for his death, his disciples argued among themselves.
When they went to the Garden of Gethsemane to pray with Jesus, they fell asleep not once but twice. In the moments of His greatest agony, the disciples couldn’t keep His simplest wish.
Then one of them betrayed Him with a kiss and they scattered like sheep. Even Peter, who swore his allegiance on his life would end up denying Jesus.
And while their Master died, most of them hid themselves lest they be caught as well.
If we spend too much time talking about the disciples, we can miss the most important point of all. They didn’t choose to be disciples, Jesus called them. Ultimately, Jesus’ choice was a divine decision. As He says in John 15:16, “You did not choose me, but I chose you.”
That old mentor was right. Don’t expect too much out of people for they will disappoint you. That way you can appreciate their faithfulness when they step up and make a difference.
Jesus knew what He was getting when He called those disciples. He knew their flaws and lived with it because He also knew what they would be capable of when they were faithful.
In 1940, Clarence Jordan founded Koinonia Farm in Americus, Georgia, as a haven for racial unity and cooperation. In 1954, the Ku Klux Klan burned every building on the farm except Jordan’s home.
In the midst of the raid, Jordan recognized the voice of a local newspaper reporter. The next day, the reporter showed up for a story about the arson while the rubble was still smoldering. He found Jordan in a field, planting seeds. He said to Jordan, “I heard the awful news of your tragedy last night, and I came out to do a story on the closing of your farm.”
Jordan just kept planting and hoeing. The reporter continued his prodding, with no response from Jordan. Finally, the reporter said, “You’ve got two Ph.D.’s, you’ve put 14 years into this farm, and now there’s nothing left. Just how successful do you think you’ve been?”
With that statement, Jordan stopped hoeing. He said to the reporter, “You just don’t get it, do you? You don’t understand us Christians. What we are about is not success, but faithfulness.”
You didn’t choose Jesus. He chose you. And all that He expects, all that He needs of you is just to be faithful. As He put it, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant.”
Benediction: Heavenly Father,
As we conclude this worship service, we do so with hearts filled with gratitude for calling those men so long ago. Just as You called those humble fishermen to be fishers of men, we leave this sacred space with a renewed sense of purpose and mission.
We ask for Your protection and provision as we navigate the challenges of this world, and may Your grace be our constant companion. In the name of Jesus, who called us to follow Him, we pray.
Amen.
eir nets. Jesus called them, and immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him.”