THE DIVINE STORY
Bible readers are interested in spiritual anthropology, as it were, because we’re looking for the right people to model; those who claim to imitate Jesus. From a general 30-ft. birds-eye view, and aside from the Greco-Roman population of pagans, the New Testament gospels depict three types of mono-theistic (one God) people groups.
First, and in no particular order, there were the Pharisees and other like-minded religious law-keepers. They were prideful, skittishly territorial, and most vehemently rejected Jesus. “If we let Him go on like this, all people will believe in Him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.” (John 11:48) “See, this is getting us nowhere. Look how the whole world has gone after Him!" (John 12:19)
Secondly, was the non-descript people group, the “crowd.” I picture the Peanuts Christmas cartoon, a closely arranged group of wide-mouthed carolers, void of any other facial characteristics. The crowd in Jesus’ day was curious and self-serving. They, like the wide-mouthed carolers, were like little birds, beaks open like little birds, anticipating and seeking the next miraculous fish sandwich and free ER services but Jesus had a deep heart of compassion for them, nonetheless.
“When He saw the crowds, He had compassion on them because they were troubled and scattered, like sheep without a shepherd.” (Matthew 9:36) The crowd moved in and around the Galilean Basin looking for Jesus because, for them, it became Christmas every day. They were more apt to believe who He said He was than the religious Pharisees. However, at their core, they wanted the stuff.
“And the news about Him spread rather so, that crowds of people came to hear Him and to be healed of their sicknesses.” (Luke 5:15) Jesus responded, “I tell you the truth, you are looking for me, not because you saw miraculous signs but because you ate the loaves and had your fill.” (John 6:26)
Jesus was on to them, and He knew of their hungry hearts. While He remained a safe, arms–length from the crowd, it was the twelve disciples whom He called to Himself to train as His imitators. "And He went up on the mountain and summoned those whom He intended, and they came to Him.” (Mark 3:15)
The rest of my Divine Discipleship story unfolds within this frame of people group. I dare say, their faith-pattern alarmingly reflects my own. Born into the steep tradition of High-Church religiosity, my family and friends cut a wide path from anyone who smelled like a Jesus-Freak to a non-denominational church in my mid-thirties. There I learned about a generous Jesus who could nearly double for Scrooge’s Ghost of Christmas Present because salvation from Jesus came with a bounty of fringe benefits! My membership in the curiously following crowd was secure.
Later earning a master’s degree in New Testament Biblical Studies, my bank of Bible knowledge returned a pious sense of stature, but light started to shine in that darkness of pride when I began a doctorate in Christian Spirituality in my mid-fifties. I was introduced to a prayer method, lectio Divina, Latin for Divine Reading. I can testify of its life-transforming properties and biblically sound foundation, a combination of:
John 14:26 “But the paraclete, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, He will teach you things and bring to your recollection all that I said to you.”
John 4:23-24 “But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers. God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and in truth.”
The Apostle John had an unmatched understanding of the Divine nature, the intimacy and the availability of the Holy Spirit, which boils down to the spiritual nature of ‘O Logos (the Word). Learning as a student under the tutelage of the Holy Spirit elevated my educational and spiritual experience. So much so that I merged out of the crowd and into the gospel's third people group, a training disciple.
Lectio taught me how to spiritually receive teaching from God’s Word rather than Cognitia Humana. Don’t try to look that up, it is not even in the Urban Dictionary: I made it up. It means ‘human cognition,’ a person’s own mental attempt of acquiring knowledge. My doctoral experience taught me that there was a whole world of untapped spirituality. Now, I’m much less about Cognitia Humana and more about sitting at the feet of Jesus, like Mary, sister to the worker-bee, Martha.
This is the background to the ‘Divine’ of Divine Discipleship, learning from and spending time with the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. So now you may ask, how does ‘Discipleship’ fit in to the story? It is irony at its best. Over the course of 2020, while practicing lectio every morning, the Holy Spirit showed me three verses that will forever gird my understanding of discipleship:
1 John 2:6 “The one who claims to dwell in Him is indebted to walk just as He walked.”
Matthew 28:20 “Therefore go train disciples…and teaching them to keep strict (or guard closely) everything whatsoever I commanded you.”
John 15:8 “It is to my Father’s glory that you produce much fruit.”
If one is indebted to walk (operate in life) just as Jesus did, one must first explore, dig and hungrily excavate the biblical text to find out just how Jesus walked, His lifestyle. Six characteristics emerged from that deep dive to become what is now known as the Jesus-Walk: Truth, Humility, Righteousness, Compassion, Justice and Mercy. Detailing the Jesus-Walk could easily fill a full semester seminary course.
In simultaneous fashion, Matthew 28:20 emerged to find its place in Divine Discipleship, “... and teaching them everything whatsoever I commanded you.” Extended and more demanding prayer led me to Matthew's report of Jesus' twenty Greek imperatives (English commands) which are located in The Sermon on the Mount, chapters 5, 6 and 7. Keeping strict these Twenty Commands coupled with the Jesus Walk is unstoppable and transformative. Obedience to the commands automatically and organically prompts the imitation of Jesus, but for what purpose? Now we have reached the part where 'much fruit' comes in.
Paul records in Galatians 5:22-23 that fruit, that spiritually rich production that can only emit from a training disciple: "generous concern (love), joy, peace, clemency (patience), kindness, goodness, faithfulness (faith), benevolence (gentleness) and self-restraint." Jesus said, "The kingdom of God is within you." Every time I choose to keep strict one or more of the Twenty Commands, powered by my Jesus-Walk, I produce sweet-smelling fruit that, for a brief moment, reveals the Kingdom of God to a lost, dark world.
Divine Discipleship is a new world, a journey to the center of Christ's Humility, a place, I dare say, where not many have gone before. But, the one who humbles herself/himself will indeed be exalted. (Luke 14:11)
Divine Discipleship gives method to 2 Peter 1:4, partaking in the Divine Nature of God. You, too, can experience your own daily Divine-human encounters. We don't work from scratch. Bring with you what you have learned so far. Just come renounced, ready to raise a cross and learn to imitate Jesus. That is the call to discipleship (Matthew 16:24).
From the words of one training, “I won’t ever reach the perfection of Jesus, but I will train like it’s possible.”
