My Words Have Fled

What does it mean to be a disciple? Is being a disciple as good as the Bible states? Disciple is an education term for student. This student volunteers to learn from the Master, because of the greatness of the Master's teaching and results. An artist may commit themselves to certain "school" of art and try to paint, sculpt or draw in the form of the original Master. This student's goal is not to reproduce the work of the Master, but to make it their own.

The man described from the four accounts of Jesus' life, compels one to follow or forget. Jesus obviously lived in power. Folks flocked to him for healing, freedom, sight and inspiration. He delivered them all in ways beyond imagining. The aching woman at the well described in John 4 held no plan to be made acceptable to her village or God again. Jesus brought her both. The woman caught in the act of adultery was not destroyed but spared and encouraged to live healthy and whole. The rich young ruler was challenged to invest his wealth in others to be free to follow Jesus as a disciple. Net pullers could become fishers of people.

Jesus lived in poverty. He possessed no house, but slept on the ground or with friends. He ate from the kindness of others. He spoke to the wealthy and the wanton from the position of a poor traveling preacher. No economic status is necessary to follow this teacher. He doesn't promise instant wealth and live in greatness of stuff. He promises treasure in heaven, a life after life cash in.

Jesus stepped through the dance of life with grace. A woman plagued by bleeding, weak and forlorn, spun with Jesus in the crowd and received public healing. A teacher desperate for more on the inside handed questions to Jesus and he returned the secret to the spirit filled life. Jesus did a turn with Pilate, a jaded Roman official, and left him convinced that Jesus might know the way to truth.

Frankly, his beat doesn't naturally sound in me. Poverty feels like an enemy, not a companion and power is a bill I pay every month. So how do I choose to follow his teaching and life so many centuries removed from His world?

Jesus made this situation part of His final prayer. In John 17:20-23 John, his disciple, records that we are to be unified with each other and Him in a way that is so profound, others cannot deny it. This unity with Jesus and each other will continue through the centuries as a witness that Jesus is unified with God and can make others the same.

My words have fled at that idea.