“You cannot be my disciple” (Sunday, 8 Sept 19: Holy Spirit Chapel – St-Jean Garrison)

 

Scriptural commentary: “You cannot be my disciple”

(Sunday, 8 Sept 19: Holy Spirit Chapel – St-Jean Garrison)

     “You cannot be my disciple.  You cannot be my disciple.  You cannot be my disciple.” “If you don’t ‘hate’ the members of your family, and even your own life… If you don’t pick up your cross and follow me… If you don’t renounce all your possessions, you don’t qualify to be my disciple.”  Jesus is starting to sound a bit like a MCpl.  These are harsh things to say.  We, just like the people who heard Jesus that day, might have a number of different reactions: Who does this guy think he is?  How can he possibly claim that being his disciple is more important than me remaining alive?  Why would being his disciple require me not to own anything? Maybe I don’t want to be his disciple. What is a disciple anyway?

     Jesus was a popular character; in many ways, he was a celebrity.  As we saw at the beginning of today’s Gospel, it was usually pretty easy to know where Jesus was – just follow the crowds. There are stories in the Gospels of crowds of people surrounding Jesus’ house – holding him captive in a sense – and of Jesus not having the time to eat a meal because so many people wanted him to heal them of various diseases or set them free from demonic forces. Even most skeptical scholars who reject what the Church says about Jesus admit that the historical evidence clearly shows that Jesus of Nazareth had a reputation for being a healer. And then there were the times when Jesus miraculously fed large crowds with very little food. Jesus was offering very practical solutions to very real problems. Why not join the crowd? Good things happen when Jesus is around.

     Then again, compared to other “religious leaders”, Jesus was different. He welcomed absolutely everyone, even the most hated and despised members of his society – the prostitutes, the government bureaucrats (they were called “tax collectors” and they collected the taxes for the Roman occupying forces), all those people who were considered to be “sinners” – Jesus didn’t reject anyone. In fact, Jesus was often to be found sharing a meal with people whose lifestyles were obviously contrary to the way of life that was taught in God’s law. We might think that’s no big deal, but in Jesus’ culture, to share a meal with someone meant that you considered that person to be your equal and worthy of your respect. Those people who tried really hard to follow God’s law were scandalized by what Jesus was doing. They would often confront Jesus in public and argue with him and accuse him of going soft on what God had told his people about how they should live. To them, Jesus looked like a dangerous upstart, playing fast and loose with the commandments that identified them as God’s people.

     So, in many ways, Jesus appeared to be a popular leader of a religious movement. But just when we might have the impression that Jesus was an easygoing, laissez-faire, “hakuna matata” kind of person, we come across a passage like today’s Gospel. In today’s Gospel, Jesus makes demands which are much more severe than the strictest religious teacher of that time. While the other teachers might have told you to count the number of steps you took on the Sabbath day, or to make sure you washed your hands properly before eating, Jesus demanded your very life. As Dietrich Bonhoeffer – the German pastor who was executed for resisting the Nazis – said, “When Jesus calls someone to follow him, he calls that person to come and die.” That is precisely what “pick up your cross” means – the only people who carried crosses around where those who would soon be nailed to them and left to die. Jesus knew where his path was leading him; he was on his way to the cross, and those who wished to be his disciples would have to follow him there. The invitation to become a disciple of Jesus is not an invitation to have a religious experience (though there’s nothing wrong with religious experiences); it’s not an invitation to add some spirituality to your routine; in fact, the invitation to be a disciple of Jesus is an invitation to dedicate your entire existence to going wherever Jesus goes, to follow him always, even if he leads you to a cross.

     But why did Jesus want people to commit themselves to him in this radical way? What does it mean to be a disciple of Jesus, as opposed to simply someone who is following him in order to get something out of it – a healing, a free meal, perhaps for the kind of excitement that people get out of following their favourite artist around the world, from concert to concert – just being around a very charismatic person can be a kind of drug (maybe that’s why people send so much money to TV preachers). As we read the Gospel stories about Jesus, we often find Jesus trying (unsuccessfully) to hide from the crowds, to get away in order to be able to pray in solitude. Jesus remained on the move, not wanting to get associated with any one area or any one village. The fact is, Jesus wasn’t interested in popularity. Jesus was interested in turning people into disciples. A disciple is an apprentice, someone who imitates a master. Think of a Jedi padawon and you’ll be getting closer to understanding what a disciple is. In that sense, recruits could be called the disciples of their instructors. The instructor’s job is to teach you certain skills and to model what a capable member of the Forces looks like – and to make you do squats and push-ups. Boot camp is rarely easy, and as we see in today’s Gospel, being an apprentice of Jesus is no easy thing. People have different reasons for joining the Forces, but most recruits think that the difficulties of basic training are worth the prospect of a career in Canada’s military. But why would anyone want to be a disciple of Jesus?

     The Bible portrays Jesus as the only person to have lived a truly authentic human life – the only one to have really lived life to the fullest. Sometimes it’s easy to get the impression that Jesus’ purpose was simply to give us instructions on how to go to heaven when we die. But as we read the Gospels, we discover that Jesus spent a lot more time talking about how to live, how to “do life”. Jesus’ mission was to show us how to live and to set us free from the guilt of our sin so we can live free. That’s the thing with sin – it’s not that God just happens to like rules and making people obey them; the reality is that sin is all those things that prevent us from experiencing true freedom, true joy and real life. As we read the Gospels, we see that as far as Jesus was concerned, people didn’t have a clue as to where true life was to be found. That’s why today’s reading sounds so strange to us – surely the basics of a good life are family, taking care of yourself, and getting as much stuff and as much money as you can? Jesus says NO! True life is only to be found by becoming my disciple, by following me to the cross – by following me to the moment when the one true human being will confront all the lies, all the fear, all the pride, all the hypocrisy, all the hatred, not only of those people who will actually condemn and kill me, but of all humanity, from the very beginnings of our species to the end of time. Jesus says “forget everything you thought you knew about what life is about – let it all go and follow me, imitate me.”

     For those who heard Jesus’ words and followed him around Palestine 2,000 years ago, to be his disciple was a radical thing. For those watching from the sidelines, the disciples of Jesus looked like crazy people. No one had tried to live this way before. But the fact is, people who take Jesus seriously enough to actually try and do what he said and allow him to change their lives end up impacting their environment and sometimes even changing the world. Example: Jesus said to love your enemies, to not retaliate when people insult and attack you. Jesus said to pray for your enemies and to always forgive. (You thought today’s Gospel was tough…) Did you know that Ghandi’s successful campaign of nonviolent resistance to British rule in India was inspired by the words of Jesus? It has always required tremendous courage to take Jesus seriously. It takes guts to live life, not motivated by fear and selfishness, but rather by trust in God and love for everyone around you. G.K. Chesterton, a British Catholic author from the early 20^th century said that the Christian ideal has not been tried and found to be inadequate; it has been found difficult and left untried. Jesus’ challenge is still waiting for those who will take it seriously, who will take their courage in both hands and dare to attempt to live it out. What will that look like for you? I don’t know. You know, we have a name for those women and men who accepted the challenge to become disciples of Jesus – we call them the saints. The thing about the saints is that no two of them are the same – among the saints are warriors, widows, mothers, monks, missionaries, preachers, popes, children, revolutionaries, scholars and people who spent their lives in the streets. The good (and scary) news is that anyone can become a saint. Anyone can become a disciple of Jesus. If you dare, you can be a disciple of Jesus. Amen.