The Calling of a Disciple

Mathetes – What does it mean to be called a disciple, or to become a disciple?  Who can be a disciple?

It means literally, student or pupil, but it is not as we view students.  Mathetes  was similar to the Jewish idea of Talmudim – the scribes that would follow a certain Rabbi around everywhere he went in order to learn to live as he lived.  He would learn from practically every single thing that his rabbi did, or taught.

Being a disciple meant a life of radical self-denial.  The kind of lifestyle was not unlike that of a slave.  It was a lifestyle of abandoning life as you knew it – into following this teacher, with no place to stay, no financial security, no idea that everything was going to work out to your advantage, just to learn a whole new way of life.

In the Gospel of Matthew is a story about a life-changing experience involving a certain tax collector who encounters Jesus.[i]

In the first century, there was a tax collector’s booth on the edge of the city of Capernaum.  This city was in the middle of the trade route running from Damascus, in the Northeast, to the Mediterranean Sea, and passed right through Capernaum in the Galilee region.  Rome put a tax on all produce and goods brought into the city by venders.  This tax, obtained by hired tax collectors, worked as sort of a sales tax to the vender.  The tax collector would add a surcharge to that tax and keep it for himself.

So lets say there is this peddler.  We will call him Frank.

Frank sells pomegranates.  He is from the North and is planning on hawking his slightly over-ripened produce inside the metropolis of Capernaum. 

After traveling many miles, Frank pushes his wagon to the edge of the city where he comes to the tax collector’s booth.

In the window is a clean-shaven guy with bags under his eyes and a smug look on his face.  We will call him Morgan.

Morgan holds out his hand to Frank and says, “Two cents per pomegranate, pal.”

Frank, having twenty five pomegranates in his little radio flyer, shells over a couple of quarters while making a smart remark about the tax being a rip off and passes through the little gate to enter the city. 

Meanwhile, Morgan flips one of the quarters into the more-money-for-Rome jar and then drops the other one deep into the pocket of his Outer Tunic. 

At the end of the day, Morgan takes the tax jar to the governor’s office down town, fills out the necessary paper work, and collects his stipend for the days work.  He smiles as he strolls out with a fat check from Rome, a pocket full of change, and the number of the cute clerk behind the reception desk. 

So in the story in Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus comes into Capernaum, which is the town he lives in and heals a paralytic man.  Everyone is astounded. 

Meanwhile, on the edge of the city is a guy named Matthew, a tax collector sitting in his tax collector’s booth. 

Matthew is a Jewish man working for Rome.  He probably reported directly to Herod Antipus. 

For a first century Jewish person to have anything to do with Rome was a terrible offence. 

Matthew probably felt betrayed by his own people, and even worse, he felt like he betrayed them. 

Everyone hates him and his only “friends” are the other tax collectors, like Morgan.

Everyone he sees considers him a traitor to his people.

He is publicly disgraced and probably heard mocking and snickering everywhere he went, along with colorful nouns and adjectives and not-so-nice-non-verbal communication aimed at in his general direction.

So Jesus walks up to Matthew sitting in his tax booth, looks him in the eyes, and says, “Follow me.”[ii]

The Greek words for “follow me” are akolouthei moi.  This means, in the physical sense, “to follow” but the metaphor behind it means, “to be guided by.”[iii]  It is saying, not only follow me here and now as we go, but let me guide the way you live.  This is not a one-time thing.  This is a whole change in lifestyle.  Jesus is saying, “Let me guide you in a new way of life.”

And so Matthew got up from his tax collector’s booth and followed Jesus.

In the very next verse, Jesus is having dinner at Matthew’s house.  It is interesting that Jesus says, “Follow me,” and then they walk over to Matthew’s house.  Maybe Jesus already knew where he lived.  But I like to think that Jesus says, “Follow me,” and then, “Let’s go eat at your place.  Where do you live?”

Either way, Matthew finds himself in his dining room with Jesus of Nazareth and a whole slew of other characters as well.

There is much significance in the idea of eating a meal together in the first century, Jewish culture.  In the Old Testament, it is customary to separate the best portion of the meal and put it on a plate as an offering to the Lord.  The same is true for the priests taking a sacrificial meal together—the best portion of the sacrifice or offering goes to the Lord. 

But even for the commoner, the belief is that God is present in the very act of eating a meal. 

He has a permanent place at the table. 

Now, God is a holy God.

The opposite of holy is unclean, and because God is a Holy God, there cannot be anything or anyone who is unclean at the table.  If there is, then you are in direct opposition to God, and therefore, detestable to him.  Remember, God is at the table.  This is why the Jews in the Bible go through strenuous washing rituals and tedious cleansing ceremonies, especially if a meal was involved.

So here, if we look around Matthew’s table, there is Jesus (a rabbi who the Pharisees are still trying to figure out),

his disciples (who were probably freaking out because they were in a tax collectors house),

the tax collectors and sinners (who were probably more concerned with the food than anything else),

and finally, to make things interesting, a handful of Pharisees.

The Pharisees note the melting pot of people around the table and decide they should inquire to Jesus’ disciples about the shady rift-raff with whom this rabbi is eating.  They have a comprehensive set of rules that explain each of the laws in the Torah in exhaustive detail.  This is called the Talmud, or the Oral Torah.  They are concerned with inappropriate relations and associations because of ritual cleanness and their set-in-stone belief that they cannot be around anyone who is unclean.

They ask the disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with these people?”

The underlying tone suggests that they are, in a round about way, accusing Jesus of being ceremonially unclean because of his close contact with these “sinners.”  For them, this is a very big deal.  And because the disciples’ teacher is doing this, and that they are following him in this, the disciples are involved in this uncleanness on some level. 

Jesus overhears their questioning and responds with this proverbial saying.

“Its not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.”[iv]

I don’t really get sick that often.  This works out for me because I also don’t really enjoy going to the doctor.  Last year, however, I somehow managed to catch some weird version of the flu that completely knocked me out of the swing of normality.  At first, I just felt bad—a dull pounding in my head and my body was achy all over.  I was not that concerned because of my idiotic mindset that I could overcome sickness by using brainpower.  A few days later, I was motionless on my couch with every inch of my body in pain, inside and out.  After trying to convince my wife that I was going to be fine, she loaded me up in the car and took me to the doctor.[v]

Healthy people have no need for a doctor. 

Sick people need doctors.

Jesus’ point, as simple as it is, is that he associates with those who are sick because they have a need to get better.

They will respond to an offer of help. 

Those who are healthy do not seek treatment.

Interestingly enough, those who think they are healthy do not seek treatment or help.

Jesus is saying, “I have come to heal those who want to be healed.  I have come for the sick.  And if you do not have a need to be healed, or if you think you do not have a need to be healed, I have not come for you.”

Then Jesus quotes a scripture from Hosea,

“I want mercy, not sacrifice,”[vi]

and then tells then to go and learn what this means.

Then he tells them, “I have not come to call the righteous, but the unrighteous.”

***

Jesus quotes this same scripture a few chapters later in Matthew’s Gospel.[vii] 

One day Jesus and his disciples walk through a field of grain on the Sabbath.  The disciples are hungry so they begin to eat some of the heads of grain.

The Pharisees see this happen and are outraged.

So they confront Jesus saying, “Look!  Your disciples are doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath.”[viii]

Once again, the Pharisees are referencing a law from the Talmud on what not to eat on the Sabbath.  What the Pharisees are referring to here is the fourth commandment in the Decalogue in Exodus, chapter 20.  Along with the commandment to keep the Sabbath holy, the Jews dedicated a whole section of the Talmud to discussing all different kinds of dos and don’ts of the Sabbath.  It is called Shabbat.  The entire seventh chapter is dedicated to agricultural work.  The Pharisees know the Oral Torah well, and so when they see the disciples’ eat the grain, they see harvesting, which is unlawful to do on the Sabbath.

Jesus cleverly responds to their accusation by using the very thing that the Pharisees pride themselves on—the Bible.

He says, “Haven’t you read the part in the Bible where David and his buddies were hungry?”

Catch the magnitude of this response. 

The Pharisees study the scriptures a lot.  As a kid, they go to school to learn the scriptures and have first five books memorized by the time they are ten years old.  The really smart ones go on to the next level of schooling to learn and memorize the rest of the Hebrew scriptures and grow up to be the Pharisees that Jesus is talking to.[ix]

So Jesus is essentially saying to the ones that know the scriptures better than anyone else,

“Haven’t you read the bible?”

“Haven’t you read the stories about David?  I mean, those are like the most popular stories in the scriptures.  Don’t you guys know those stories?”

“Let me refresh your memory.  David and his buddies were hungry and they went into the house of God.  The only food that was there was the consecrated bread, which was only for the priests to eat.”

This was called the Bread of Presentation and is described in Leviticus 24, which, remember, the Pharisees would have memorized by the time they were ten.

God instructed the priests to bake twelve loaves of bread on the Sabbath and set it on the golden table in the tabernacle in two rows, along with some incense, as an offering to the Lord.  They did this regularly, Sabbath after Sabbath, to represent the covenant between the Lord and the Israelites.[x] 

In the book of Exodus, the writer describes how the tabernacle should be set up.  Chapter 25 describes this table.  God instructs the priests to “put the bread of the Presence on this table to be before me at all times.”[xi]

So the Table of the Lord was a Holy Place—perfectly set up before God.

The table is apart of the tabernacle, the Holy tent of meeting.

It is the place of worship.

It is the place where they meet with God.

So the priests would set out new loaves each Sabbath, and they would eat the loaves from the previous week in a holy place and they were considered sacred. 

And only the priests were allowed to eat the bread.

This was a very sacred, holy thing.

So back to the story in Matthew 12.

Jesus says, “Haven’t you guys read about David and his buddies?[xii]  

“Let me remind you what happened.  David went into the temple to the priest and said, ‘I’m here on official king’s business.  My men are going to meet me at a certain place.  Do you have any food here?  I need some bread.’  Then the priest says, ‘I’m fresh out of regular bread, but there is some week-old Sacred Bread that has been replaced by fresh, hot Sacred Bread.’  Then David takes the Sacred bread to his men and they eat it.”[xiii]

So Jesus is like, “Remember Leviticus 24?  That bread is just for Aaron and his descendents.  And David broke that law so he and his friends could eat.  The priests broke the Sabbath by letting David take the Sacred Bread and they were not guilty of any sin.

“Do you remember that? 

“Or have you forgotten that part?

“If David and his boys can do it, me and my boys can do it.”

Then Jesus quotes Hosea 6:6 for the second time.

“I desire mercy, not sacrifice.”

Then he says, “If you understood what this meant, then you wouldn’t have bashed my boys.  The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.”

Let’s try to understand what Jesus is saying here by taking a closer look at this passage in Hosea 6. 

Hosea is writing to an eighth century BCE audience.  The Assyrian superpower is about to come and wreck shop on Israel.  Hosea warns the people that the Assyrians are coming as the divine punishment for not keeping the exclusive demands of God.

“Come, let us return to the Lord.  He has torn us to pieces but he will heal us; he has injured us but he will bind up our wounds.  After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will restore us, that we may live in his presence.”[xiv]

This is not resurrection language.  “Third day” simply means that in a short time, the Lord will restore his people.  The word, restore, in Hebrew is the word hayah.  This means to restore death to life.

“Let us acknowledge the Lord; let us press on to acknowledge him.  As surely as the sun rises, he will appear; he will come to us like the winter rains, like the spring rains that water the earth.”[xv]

The words, press on, in Hebrew is radaph, meaning to pursue him and his righteousness with everything one has.

So Hosea is calling the people to return to the Lord, saying the Lord will restore us from death to life so we as his people should pursue him and his righteousness.

“What can I do with you, Ephraim?  What can I do with you, Judah?  You love is like the morning mist, like the early dew that disappears.[xvi]

“Therefore I cut you in pieces with my prophets, I killed you with the words of my mouth; my judgments flashed like lightning upon you.”[xvii]

The words, cut you to pieces, in Hebrew are chatsav, and literally means to cut into little pieces.  It is in the prophetic perfect tense, which means it is saying that these events will certainly happen, though they have not happened yet.  The idea is, “I will cut you into pieces,” and, “I will kill you with words.”

And then comes our verse.

“For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offereings.”[xviii]

The word, mercy, is hesed, and means faithfulness, goodness, kindness, mercy, or steadfast love. 

The notion is that God desires obedience in mercy over a worship ritual.  He does not hate the sacrifice.[xix]  But to him, it is not about the object of worship.  It is about the state of mind of the worshipper.  It is not even about the act of worship itself.  It is the heart of the person acting out in worship. 

If the worshiper comes with a repentant, obedient heart, it is a pleasing aroma to the Lord. 

How many of our worship services on a Sunday morning are filled with ritualistic sacrifice? 

Do we not go through the same routines week in and week out?

How easy is it to walk into church, sing the songs, greet those around us with a handshake and a smile, sit quietly taking notes during the three points of the sermon, to finally stand at the end looking around to see if anyone goes down to the front to make a decision?

How much of our “worship” is only a burnt offering sacrificed in pure, apathetic routine?  We worship because it is what we are suppose to do on Sunday mornings. 

God desires hesed. 

He delights in mercy,

in the loving kindness of which we treat him and the people around us,

in the faithfulness we show him,

in the goodness of our hearts,

in the steadfast love that we receive from him.

Being in the right state of being is key to worship. 

It is central to discipleship.

So Jesus says to the religious leaders, the ones who know the Bible better than anyone else,

“If you understood the scriptures when it says, ‘I desire hesed, not your stupid cycle of sacrificing without the right heart,’ there is no way that you could sit there and bash my boys for eating some stupid grain on the Sabbath just because it is the Sabbath.  For I, the Son of Man, am the LORD of the Sabbath.”[xx] 

***

Back to the story about Matthew the tax collector.

Matthew is sitting in his booth one day and Jesus says, “akolouthei moi.”[xxi]

Then he walks out of his booth and follows Jesus. 

They go to his house and have a meal together. 

He follows him and watches him do all of this amazing stuff. 

He hears him teach with an authority that is not of this world. 

He is a mathetes.

A student, a life leaner, a disciple… and then comes chapter 10.

“Jesus called his twelve disciples to him and gave them authority to drive out evil spirits and to heal every disease and sickness.  These are the names of the twelve apostles:

first, Simon (who is called Peter)

and his brother Andrew;

James son of Zebedee,

And his brother John;

Philip

and Bartholomew;

Thomas

and Matthew the tax collector…”[xxii]

Matthew the tax collector was chosen to be one of twelve of an elite group, hand picked by Jesus himself, that would take his message to the ends of the world.  

Matthew went from being hated and alone to one of the greatness. 

Jesus thought he was great.

Thoughts:

Where are you?  Are you like Matthew? 

Hurt?  Broken?  Abandoned by your people?  Or have you abandoned your own people? 

Do you wonder how you’ll make it through the week?  Are you alone?  Stressed? Do you feel like everything is weighing down hard on you??

Jesus is here and is saying to you, “akolouthei moi.”

In no way does Jesus say, “Join me and all your troubles will be over.”

It does not get easier.  In some instances, it is harder.  But isn’t it better to have someone on your side that will say, “Back off my boy, he is mine!  Step away from my girl, she is mine!”

Or are you the Pharisee who is quick to condemn?

You need to hear Jesus when he quotes scripture.  God delights in mercy, not in ritualistic sacrifice.  If all you are doing is being religious, go somewhere else.  I don’t want your worship. I want a repentant heart, a heart of mercy.

Or do you think that you will never amount to anything?  Jesus says, “akolouthei moi, follow me.” 

“I am calling you to something great, something world changing.”

Where are you??

What is God calling you into?

Follow him.