I finished last week by saying that I believe the restoration of the Jewish lens is not only a blessing for me as a Jewish believer, but vital if God is to bring us to greater fullness and maturity as individuals and as church communities.
For many people, the Covid pandemic has been tragic and difficult and I wouldn’t want to underplay this or be insensitive to the suffering people have experienced and are experiencing. Yet, in the midst of it all, I think there is a challenge for the church to examine and redefine itself, so that it can rise up and bring healing and transformation. And I believe that restoring the Jewish (biblical) context for our faith lies central to this.
I do not think it is about the widescale adoption of rabbinical Jewish customs, or of Gentiles desperately trying to ape Jewish rituals to squeeze the magic Jewish juice from them! In both my roles as a teacher/preacher in this area, and in a leadership capacity in church, I have found a fair amount of damage has been done to this cause through overzealous, unbalanced, or misguided efforts along these lines. Whilst we must not throw out the baby of learning with the bathwater of legalism, this is not my aim.
It is much simpler than that, thankfully.
REWIRE – Read without religion
When I was writing the book, The Jewish Jesus, I felt God show me that the key is not in putting layers on, so much as taking them off. It is layers of religious tradition and ritualised ways of thinking that have obscured and covered over the true biblical context for our faith. The church has robbed itself of vital truths and life enhancing practices through this.
And the greatest way to begin this process is what I call REWIRE – Read Without Religion! To try and read the Bible without the lenses of our inherited traditions that can cause us to switch to autopilot without realising. Instead, these truths we are talking about are clearly there in the text, hidden in plain sight as it were.
I like, from that point of view, to call the truth I want to bring ‘Re-caf’: like caffeine, it was there in the first place, then stripped away because people thought it healthier, and is now being restored to create the authentic version! In short – you don’t have to be Jewish to follow Jesus, but that doesn’t make him less Jewish!
If we restore the Jewish model of discipleship to Jesus’ words and ministry then we are a long way towards where we need to be as a church.
So what does God want to do? To a large extent I would sum this up by one word: discipleship. If we restore the Jewish model of discipleship to Jesus’ words and ministry then we are a long way towards where we need to be as a church. This applies to Jewish and Gentile believers equally.
The Jewish model of discipleship
The rabbinic model of discipleship that Jesus adopted involved some keys that can help us today. This week we will look at three: discipleship as process, the importance of dialogue, and the need for groups.
It is a learning process
Discipleship – not just salvation – was at the heart of Jesus’ ministry, and of the commission he gave his followers. "Go into all the world and make disciples." The context for this was not simply making converts, but was a process and a context known to all the Jewish followers of Jesus.
Salvation is the start line to becoming a disciple, not the finish line. Discipleship is messy not neat. Jesus offered people the chance to become disciples, not to join a new religion called Christianity. The students of a rabbi understood that there was a cost and they were forsaking all else. It entailed leaving family and home, so was not to be undertaken lightly.
We must always remember that to become a follower of Jesus is not a label or brand choice. It is about entering a lifelong process of learning, growing, dying to self, and discovering what it means to truly become like our rabbi – Jesus.
The students of a rabbi understood that there was a cost and they were forsaking all else.
Gentiles have been joined to the covenants promised to the Jewish people. They are called Israel from the name God gave Jacob after he had wrestled with him all night – God knew it would be a wrestle. To become a disciple is to commit to a learning process through the journey, however messy.
The commitment of a disciple does not depend on someone else creating the right conditions, the ideal programme, preaching the sermon we think is good enough, or picking the worship songs that will hit the right note for us. The true disciple has forsaken all else and made a lifelong pursuit of becoming like the rabbi (Jesus) their primary purpose.
They do not need to be cajoled or corralled into learning because they are not unwilling children in a classroom. They are mature believers who have chosen their path, whatever the circumstances and whatever anyone else decides to do.
Traditionally a rabbi was supposed to say no initially to those who wished to become their disciples, the idea being to dissuade those who were not fully committed. The Jewish context for discipleship recognises that to become a disciple is not the path of least resistance. It is the path of greatest fruitfulness but also of greatest change and sacrifice.
It involves discussion not just teaching
Sunday services can teach people but that isn’t making disciples. Jewish discipleship involves an environment of questions and discussions. It wasn’t just because the disciples were somehow stupid that we read the dialogue between them and Jesus. Jesus invited and encouraged this, as all rabbis did. We have to find a way to do the same. This is why initiatives such as Alpha are so successful and effective.
Jewish discipleship involves an environment of questions and discussions.
A traditional model – preach a message on Sunday and people go away and try harder to believe – is not a model of discipleship on its own. Jesus preached to thousands but one hundred and twenty were left and he only fully trained twelve. What is recorded in the training is a constant dialogue between them all, plus learning on the go. We must embrace this kind of interactive, apprenticeship type model rather than a more traditional information based or didactic approach.
It works best in groups
Discipleship is not just individual – the Jewish context for discipleship is not just studying in a room/class, nor just at home alone.
Study and accountability in a group (even if it is on Zoom during lockdown) accelerates the process of learning, change and, above all, application. It forces us to answer the question – are we living this out with those around us? The aim of the disciple was to follow, or, literally, walk in the dust of their rabbi – this meant to be close to them at all times, both as individuals and as a group. It was 24/7 and involved travelling and living with them; relationship and contact through normal daily activities were a big part of this.
Relationship is fundamental to discipleship. "You know ... my manner of life" (2 Tim 3:10) was what Paul said to Timothy.
The letters written to the churches were written to Jesus’ early disciples, not organisations. The verses about how to walk together, all those ‘one another’s, the wrestling with what a community looks like – these are all part and parcel of what it means to be a disciple, or rather disciples together, not separate instructions about how to run churches. Our quiet time is worked out in practice in community. Solitary discipleship was an alien concept to the New Testament believers.
Restoring a Jewish framework for leadership also places a high bar for this very reason – because it is incarnational and exposed, rather than informational and hidden. A leader’s first responsibility, whatever their role, is not to preach a message, or organise or create a programme but to model and provide an example.
The Jewish thought process of a leader is first ‘What am I becoming?’ and then ‘Follow me’, rather than pointing towards a goal and saying ‘head that way’.
In summary, for this week, restoring the Jewish framework for discipleship means us proactively committing to the lifelong, messy journey of learning and transformation. And it means committing to work this out with other believers and in groups, rather than simply growing in knowledge alone.
Next week we will continue to look at how restoring this Jewish model of discipleship and ‘church’ can help us become the people we were created to be and answer the call to be a light to the world and serve our generation.
Notes
David and his wife form part of the team responsible for the spiritual oversight of Citycoast Church, Brighton. In David’s weekly resource 52 Sabbaths he unwraps a different aspect of the Sabbath each week, and looks at how we can apply it to our lives. Anyone can sign up for free. His book The Jewish Jesus is available at www.thejewishjesusbook.com as well as most major booksellers.
