STAYING CLOSE
‘Follow me!’ With that short and simple challenge, Jesus invited ordinary people to become part of a life-long, world-shaping adventure; a journey that would surprise them with each new turn of the road.
Eduard Schweizer, writing about the relationship between Jesus and his disciples explains that:
‘…..the disciples walk with him, eat and drink with him, listen to what he says and see what he does, are invited with him into houses and hovels, or are turned away with him. They are not called to great achievements, religious or otherwise. They are invited as companions to share in what takes place around Jesus. They are therefore called not to attach much importance to themselves and what they accomplish or fail to accomplish, but to attach great importance to what takes place through Jesus and with him’.
Authentic Christianity is not learning a set of doctrines. It is a walk, a supernatural walk with a living, dynamic, communicating God. Thus the heart and soul of the Christian life is learning to hear God’s voice and developing the courage to do what he tells us to do.
A first century talmid (student of a rabbi) wanted to be like their teacher - to become what the teacher was.
A talmid followed their rabbi everywhere, every day, and every hour of the day – often without knowing or asking where he was going - with one simple goal; to imitate him. Many scholars believe that this best explains Peter’s brief walk on water: When Jesus (his rabbi) was seen walking out on the lake, Peter (the ‘talmid’) felt the need to imitate him (Matt. 14:22-33).
By the end of a day of walking in the dirt directly behind their rabbi, the students would have the dust of his feet all over them.
A talmid rarely left his rabbi's side for fear that he would miss a teachable moment. He watched the rabbi's every move, noting how he acted and thought in any given situation. On ancient documents records what a man, Akiva ben Joseph, a disciple of Joshua ben Hananiah what he learned when he watched his rabbi in the toilet!
‘Once I went in after Rabbi Joshua to a privy, and I learned from him three things. I learned that one does not sit east and west but north and south; I learned that one evacuates not standing but sitting; and I learned it is proper to wipe with the left hand and not with the right’.