As we journey through life, we are stretched through grief, suffering, and tragedy; we experience joys and wonders that we know we did nothing to earn; we live with our own failure, hypocrisy, and weaknesses; we live with the struggle of knowing that we might not always get the result we want. As we live through these things, we inevitably find that the life of discipleship is not as we thought. And yet, as life unfolds, we find that in all things we remain held in the hands of a merciful God who loves us and is in the business of always making all things new.
In all of this, we often find ourselves challenged by the fact that God does not depend on our efforts for the good news of his kingdom to be known in the world. We are upended when we find that our own personal fulfillment is not at the center of God's bullseye. As long as we are stuck in the narrative that the success of the gospel somehow depends on our abilities to do things, or that our personal fulfillment is where God meets us, we will need relearning.
The journey of relearning begins with Jesus' great invitation in Matthew 11:28-30. It's an invitation to a life of rest and receiving from God. This invitation enters us into a life of learning from Jesus, which Jesus identifies with taking his yoke upon ourselves:
“Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:28-30).
In Eugene Peterson’s Message translation, he puts Jesus’ words this way: “Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.”
Walk with me and work with me – watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace.
__________________________________________
Learning from Jesus isn’t about learning 12 steps to Christian maturity. Following Jesus is not keeping the Ten Commandments -- just read the Sermon on the Mount. It’s not about being coerced to be a better Christian or church member. Learning Jesus' way takes a different approach and gets deeper than commands or following principles can go. And it won’t leave you exhausted or burnt out. But it will change you.
In Matthew’s gospel story, learning from Jesus is like being welcomed into a whole new world (go ahead, sing the song…). In this new life, you find very quickly that you have to ditch all of the assumptions about life that you brought with you from the old world. There’s a new language to learn – a new vocabulary for life, a new grammar and syntax and way of expressing. It's a new way of being human, with new human goals, and new patterns and systems that define flourishing.
All of this means that the learning of discipleship takes time, it goes s l o w l y, and often will seem inefficient. Mostly it's a process of unlearning old ways and relearning Jesus' ways. Which means we will struggle as we follow. Because we want it to be clear, controllable, and scalable.
I’m reminded of the story in Matthew 20, where James' & John’s mother shows up to petition on behalf of her sons that Jesus would find them exceptional and give them special status in his kingdom. After all this time with Jesus, the old world assumptions are still at work.
I can imagine Jesus...Ok...here we go again. It's been a few years. How do they still not get it?....And yet he does not abandon the project. He is the merciful God who loves us.
But, it's not hard to imagine the mentality at work behind James' & John's mother, or James and John themselves. It's our mentality, still, isn't it? But, Jesus, if this following you isn’t resulting in some greatness or status or recognition -- for me or my church -- if it's not going to put us in better position to receive blessing, then what’s the point?
The point is Jesus. That is all. Not Jesus as the way to something, even to God's blessing or heavenly reward. Nope. The point is Jesus. Period. He is the way.
Getting on board with this requires ditching old assumptions. They are no longer operable or useful. The priorities and agendas that drive our broken world do not apply in Jesus’ story. And so we must yield to Jesus and learn from him, and unlearn what we've known. As Jesus says it, "You know that the rulers and people of significance do it a certain way among the nations...but it will not be so among you" (Matthew 20:25-26).
_____________________________________
In Matthew's gospel (and the rest of the New Testament), the theme that keeps coming up is that Jesus did not seek greatness, power, or to exalt himself. Though he was God, he became a slave. This is not just a nice thing Jesus did for us. This is how God works. The pattern is everywhere, defining how Jesus operates.
Jesus' entrance into the world in Matthew's story was pretty much unheralded. There was no royal announcement. The clues were buried in the prophets, and hidden in the night sky. No one cared much, except some astrologers from the east. Luke's story echoes the theme: the announcement of Jesus' birth goes out only to the unnoticed outsiders at night in the desert where no one else would notice.
At a turning point in Matthew's gospel, he quotes the prophet Isaiah to say something significant about Jesus' way:
“he will not try to prove his point and he will not try to make his voice heard; no one will hear his voice in the streets. He will not break a bruised reed or put out a smoldering wick" (Matthew 12:18-21).
In Jesus’ world, if you wanted to be heard, if your message was important, then you made your voice heard on the streetcorners. You debated and you proclaimed out loud so the masses might hear you and be persuaded. So that you might gain more followers.
Jesus wasn’t interested in that way of doing things. When Jesus went about embodying the kingdom of heaven, it was clear that making noise and getting noticed social-media style was not on his agenda. He had no home, considered material wealth and status marginally useful, and did not make his status known. In fact, if you weren’t paying attention, you might just miss him. Talk about social and professional self-sabotage. Making disciples the backwards way. Or maybe Jesus is playing a different game.
Jesus' way was meek and humble. The "bruised reed" and "smoldering wick" stood for those in the world on their way out, the ones that didn't make the cut, that might as well be left behind. The world's methods say break the bruised reeds and put out the smoldering wicks, and move on. They're no longer productive. Discard. No time for them on the way to bigger and better things. Up and to the right, you know?
That was the way of the world. It was not the way of Jesus. Rather, Jesus journeyed with people that the surrounding world cared little about, gave his time to the marginalized, and identified with the poor. Up and to the right was not Jesus' grid.
And Jesus says, "Come to me and learn these ways, my ways. Walk with me; go where I go and do things as I do things."
This is the way of discipleship. Discipleship to Jesus is not the way to something, so that glory happens on the other side. It is just the way. That is all. It is the way of the cross (Mt. 16:24). The way of becoming a slave (Philippians 2:5-11). The way of putting the needs of others above your own (Philippians 2:3-4. For I am gentle and humble in heart...
The story bookends with the unheralded wonder of God among us. Even after the resurrection, Jesus did not do what the assumptions of the Roman world would have dictated. There was no divine announcement of such an earth-shattering event. No parade or celebration. Jesus did not show up on Pontius Pilate’s or Herod’s doorstep and say, “Guess who?” (I would have done that.) If you weren't mourning and weeping among the dead that morning, you might have missed it. Yet, he was there with the weeping and grieving, bringing unimaginable hope. That's where he was first, rather than making his resurrected self known to the masses.
And then he showed up to meet a small group of his followers to reassure them and reunite with them. Some worshipped; some doubted, still struggling with old world assumptions. His appearance to them was no show. It was confirmation that this Jesus, the humble and meek, was indeed Lord. And it is this Lord, the crucified Lord, who had invited them into the life of discipleship -- a life of rest, of walking with him, and learning from him the humble, meek, slave-minded, weak, and foolish ways of being.
And then he said to them: Now you’ve seen me. You’ve learned from me. As you go about your lives, pass it on. Bring people into my life of rest, into learning my ways. So that the world may know and be made new.
In all of this, we often find ourselves challenged by the fact that God does not depend on our efforts for the good news of his kingdom to be known in the world. We are upended when we find that our own personal fulfillment is not at the center of God's bullseye. As long as we are stuck in the narrative that the success of the gospel somehow depends on our abilities to do things, or that our personal fulfillment is where God meets us, we will need relearning.
The journey of relearning begins with Jesus' great invitation in Matthew 11:28-30. It's an invitation to a life of rest and receiving from God. This invitation enters us into a life of learning from Jesus, which Jesus identifies with taking his yoke upon ourselves:
“Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:28-30).
In Eugene Peterson’s Message translation, he puts Jesus’ words this way: “Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.”
Walk with me and work with me – watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace.
__________________________________________
Learning from Jesus isn’t about learning 12 steps to Christian maturity. Following Jesus is not keeping the Ten Commandments -- just read the Sermon on the Mount. It’s not about being coerced to be a better Christian or church member. Learning Jesus' way takes a different approach and gets deeper than commands or following principles can go. And it won’t leave you exhausted or burnt out. But it will change you.
In Matthew’s gospel story, learning from Jesus is like being welcomed into a whole new world (go ahead, sing the song…). In this new life, you find very quickly that you have to ditch all of the assumptions about life that you brought with you from the old world. There’s a new language to learn – a new vocabulary for life, a new grammar and syntax and way of expressing. It's a new way of being human, with new human goals, and new patterns and systems that define flourishing.
All of this means that the learning of discipleship takes time, it goes s l o w l y, and often will seem inefficient. Mostly it's a process of unlearning old ways and relearning Jesus' ways. Which means we will struggle as we follow. Because we want it to be clear, controllable, and scalable.
I’m reminded of the story in Matthew 20, where James' & John’s mother shows up to petition on behalf of her sons that Jesus would find them exceptional and give them special status in his kingdom. After all this time with Jesus, the old world assumptions are still at work.
I can imagine Jesus...Ok...here we go again. It's been a few years. How do they still not get it?....And yet he does not abandon the project. He is the merciful God who loves us.
But, it's not hard to imagine the mentality at work behind James' & John's mother, or James and John themselves. It's our mentality, still, isn't it? But, Jesus, if this following you isn’t resulting in some greatness or status or recognition -- for me or my church -- if it's not going to put us in better position to receive blessing, then what’s the point?
The point is Jesus. That is all. Not Jesus as the way to something, even to God's blessing or heavenly reward. Nope. The point is Jesus. Period. He is the way.
Getting on board with this requires ditching old assumptions. They are no longer operable or useful. The priorities and agendas that drive our broken world do not apply in Jesus’ story. And so we must yield to Jesus and learn from him, and unlearn what we've known. As Jesus says it, "You know that the rulers and people of significance do it a certain way among the nations...but it will not be so among you" (Matthew 20:25-26).
_____________________________________
In Matthew's gospel (and the rest of the New Testament), the theme that keeps coming up is that Jesus did not seek greatness, power, or to exalt himself. Though he was God, he became a slave. This is not just a nice thing Jesus did for us. This is how God works. The pattern is everywhere, defining how Jesus operates.
Jesus' entrance into the world in Matthew's story was pretty much unheralded. There was no royal announcement. The clues were buried in the prophets, and hidden in the night sky. No one cared much, except some astrologers from the east. Luke's story echoes the theme: the announcement of Jesus' birth goes out only to the unnoticed outsiders at night in the desert where no one else would notice.
At a turning point in Matthew's gospel, he quotes the prophet Isaiah to say something significant about Jesus' way:
“he will not try to prove his point and he will not try to make his voice heard; no one will hear his voice in the streets. He will not break a bruised reed or put out a smoldering wick" (Matthew 12:18-21).
In Jesus’ world, if you wanted to be heard, if your message was important, then you made your voice heard on the streetcorners. You debated and you proclaimed out loud so the masses might hear you and be persuaded. So that you might gain more followers.
Jesus wasn’t interested in that way of doing things. When Jesus went about embodying the kingdom of heaven, it was clear that making noise and getting noticed social-media style was not on his agenda. He had no home, considered material wealth and status marginally useful, and did not make his status known. In fact, if you weren’t paying attention, you might just miss him. Talk about social and professional self-sabotage. Making disciples the backwards way. Or maybe Jesus is playing a different game.
Jesus' way was meek and humble. The "bruised reed" and "smoldering wick" stood for those in the world on their way out, the ones that didn't make the cut, that might as well be left behind. The world's methods say break the bruised reeds and put out the smoldering wicks, and move on. They're no longer productive. Discard. No time for them on the way to bigger and better things. Up and to the right, you know?
That was the way of the world. It was not the way of Jesus. Rather, Jesus journeyed with people that the surrounding world cared little about, gave his time to the marginalized, and identified with the poor. Up and to the right was not Jesus' grid.
And Jesus says, "Come to me and learn these ways, my ways. Walk with me; go where I go and do things as I do things."
This is the way of discipleship. Discipleship to Jesus is not the way to something, so that glory happens on the other side. It is just the way. That is all. It is the way of the cross (Mt. 16:24). The way of becoming a slave (Philippians 2:5-11). The way of putting the needs of others above your own (Philippians 2:3-4. For I am gentle and humble in heart...
The story bookends with the unheralded wonder of God among us. Even after the resurrection, Jesus did not do what the assumptions of the Roman world would have dictated. There was no divine announcement of such an earth-shattering event. No parade or celebration. Jesus did not show up on Pontius Pilate’s or Herod’s doorstep and say, “Guess who?” (I would have done that.) If you weren't mourning and weeping among the dead that morning, you might have missed it. Yet, he was there with the weeping and grieving, bringing unimaginable hope. That's where he was first, rather than making his resurrected self known to the masses.
And then he showed up to meet a small group of his followers to reassure them and reunite with them. Some worshipped; some doubted, still struggling with old world assumptions. His appearance to them was no show. It was confirmation that this Jesus, the humble and meek, was indeed Lord. And it is this Lord, the crucified Lord, who had invited them into the life of discipleship -- a life of rest, of walking with him, and learning from him the humble, meek, slave-minded, weak, and foolish ways of being.
And then he said to them: Now you’ve seen me. You’ve learned from me. As you go about your lives, pass it on. Bring people into my life of rest, into learning my ways. So that the world may know and be made new.
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