Resurrection 9a OK, So You Want to Be a Disciple

[HKHaugan]

Resurrection 9a OK, So You Want to Be a Disciple

Since we have felt the attitudinal thrust of the Sermon on the Mount we need to follow Jesus coming off the mountain and applying His attitude in the valley of human turmoil (Matt.8:1-17). How did He live out His teaching about attitude when confronted by human needs? He had three immediate encounters, one with a leper, the second a centurion and the third a disciple's mother. Each had deep personal need but each also represented a larger picture of brokenness.

The first, a leper whom He met on the way. He stops, heals and instructs him to go to the priest and not tell anyone before he goes. Basically Jesus was saying “Let your healing be your testimony.” The second, a centurion with a paralyzed servant, comes for the healing of his servant which Jesus does because of the centurion's faith. The third, a disciple's mother whose fever incapacitates her.

Really significant are the three different contexts in which they take place. He met the leper while He was on His way. The second was where Jesus set up his headquarters, Capernaum. The third was in Peter's family home. These three indicate that His call to us as witnesses is where we spend our time: on the way, at work and in homes. These are where we are called to be aware, alert to the Spirit's presence and the action we are called to take at any given moment. A disciple looks forward in each.

More significantly is the extended implication behind the three, the larger picture. First, the leper was considered unclean not only because of his physical disease but also because it was a religious conclusion that he was spiritually unclean therefore shunned, alone and hopelessly lost. Where he should have been most accepted he was most rejected. So, as Jesus' disciples, our call is not religious but relational, not institutional but personal, not traditional but spiritual. It's a one-on-one awareness of what a disciple faces unexpectedly in every next moment.

Most significant is the second because of local cultural prejudices. In Judea the centurion was a foreigner in every sense. He was ethnically a Gentile, nationally a Roman, officially a military commander, politically, a Roman oppressor, a hated occupier and, considering his personal perspective, facing the possibility of reprimand by superiors, losing respect among his fellow officers, raised eyebrows among his friends and distrust by the general populace. He was in a very lonely and vulnerable place. Consider the questions he must have thought about on the way, “What's it gonna look like when I go to this low class Jew's house? Will I be in danger by going alone? It's a rough part of town.” All of these barriers he laid aside for the sake of his servant when he appeared on Jesus' doorstep. Now get this---he's there not for a relative or friend but for his servant no less! What kind of a Roman is this? What a sacrificial heart he must have had! Could this be a touch of the Father's love for His Son and us foreshadowed here? No wonder Jesus lifted the centurion's faith up as an example for all to see and hear and then healed his servant in response. How many of us know believers with a faith of that magnitude? What witnesses all of us would make if we took the centurion's example.

Thirdly, Peter's mother had a fever which kept her from being a servant, an active mother and keeper of her home. The mother is the center of the home. When Jesus touched her and she was healed the home was healed and able to function again. Immediately, she was able to fulfill her responsibilities. What fever in our mind, heart and spirit keeps us from being His servant where we are? Is our mind consumed with some idea of being able to secure ourselves without God, our heart held back by some fear and our spirit wrapped in defensiveness? Hey, we're all there at one time or another. We are sinners in rehab with Jesus as our guide and the Holy Spirit as our Counselor.

But there is a fourth part---the last two verses, 16 and 17, in Chapter 8. They are revealing. It starts, “When evening came...” It's always spiritually dark in the world and the spirits and demons that work in the darkness attack in the darkness of sin and the weakness it causes within each of us. The target is people's minds and hearts because they're in the dark, operate in the dark and keep people bound in the darkness. Out of the darkness of infirmity and disease the afflicted come to Jesus. He is the light to which they are drawn. It is spiritual lostness Jesus heals. They come to Him with open hearts and minds finally realizing the hopelessness of their situation. That is, only if they are willing to hear that His call to their hearts is personally directed to them.

Another aspect of evening was when Jesus exposed the devil as was recorded in Matt.4. This is the prince of darkness who commands the spirits that work in the evening, the dark background of this world. Jesus exposed his strategies. Before Jesus, sin and evil were just correctable miscalculations, small excusable errors of judgment or mistakes made with good intention or unidentifiable invisible forces. No! Jesus showed sin and evil are the spiritual energies directed by the devil that steal hearts and separate them from their Creator and one another. Sin is personal and the evil it produces forms a coalition of fear driven hearts living for self satisfaction. Sin causes separation, division, isolation and alienation of every heart that succumbs to the devil's tempting strategies. They are agitated by his spirits of fear, pride, anger, manipulation, greed, lust and a host of others that search for the heart's weaknesses.

These were the conditions of those that came and still come to Jesus from the evening's spiritual darkness for exorcism and healing (Mt.4:16-17). He fulfilled Isaiah's prophecy, “Surely He took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered Him punished by God, stricken by Him and afflicted. But He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities: the punishment that brought us peace was on Him; and by His wounds we are healed (Is.53:4-5).”

As people of the Resurrection, disciples of the risen Lord, we carry the witness and gifts of the Holy Spirit for the healing, recovery and restoration of those in our immediate locale. The work of the Holy Spirit through us was and is the life of Jesus Scripturally displayed. That is, if we just stand faithfully on its truth for mind healing, heart healing and spirit healing.

Now is when the hard part starts. He gives orders to go to the other side of the lake (Mt.8:18). It is not enough just to stay at home, or hear great speakers and rest on having the right belief. He's getting us to be on the move. Jesus was always on the move from one shore to another, one town to another, one person to another. Resurrection people are always on the move. That's the first prompting in being a Jesus disciple, looking forward to the next moment, event and occasion meeting people.

But there are other attitudes as well that need correction. One is the way we want to qualify what is involved if we follow. A teacher of the Law comes up to Him declaring a wordy allegiance probably to get verbal recognition. Jesus, seeing its shallowness, counters that being a disciple means it will demand complete obedience anytime and anywhere without qualification, recognition or acceptance. If he had been serious he wouldn't have said anything. He would just have up and followed Him. It is similar to Peter's lofty rebuke that Jesus should never die. So He tells Peter that his thinking is satanic. He needs to take a step back and consider His calling is to follow Jesus no matter where He leads and what the cost may be.

The same is true for the second disciple who came to Him and said he would follow but he had to bury his father first. There are no qualification, no terms, no bargaining with Jesus. You are either totally committed or not. There is no middle ground. His eyes are on the goal for us, each of us. For Him it would be the Cross. For them and us, the goal is salvation, our spiritual rebirth and return to the Father.

One thing you don't hear very much is this insight; Jesus limited Himself to being a human disciple of His Father. Ponder that for a moment. He became His Father's servant (Php.2:5-11). Remember how He said, “The Father is greater than I.” He chose to become a man and as a man He recognized humanity's Creator God. He had to grow into His role as Messiah which was the ultimate example of discipleship and the Cross was the ultimate act of being a disciple which only He could fulfill. Look how He did it after the 'Sermon.' The major premise of Jesus' attitude was to look forward to serving His Father in every next moment. He was always looking forward to what He could do next. He came off the mountain and led His disciples into the valley where He demonstrated seven definitive principles of 'looking forward' discipleship:

First, His goal; glorify, point to and lift up His Father in everything He said and did.
Second, His method; He made Himself available to everyone while He was on the way.
Third, His approach; He dealt relationally with people according to their uniqueness.
Fourth, His gift; as His disciples He gave us a new identity, eternal children of God
Fifth, His promise; He would always be with us.
Sixth, His sustenance; He lived on His Father's Word prayerfully.
Seventh, His way; complete obedience to His Father's Will. Jesus lived to serve His Father in every next moment.

If you want to be a disciple of Jesus, those seven offer a good start.