This past week the Gospel reading comes to us from
John. It is the story of Jesus calling
Philip and Nathanael to be his disciples.
Now the stories of Jesus calling the disciples have always
been a very fascinating story to me.
You have these guys who are out fishing, because that was
their job. They are fisherman. They are learning the family business from
their dad. And then this guy comes
walking down the beach and says “Come follow me.”
And they do!!!!
Imagine this…you are at work. Doing your job that you get paid to do….and I
go walks up and simply says, “Come follow me.”
Would you give up everything, drop what you are doing; QUIT
your job….just to follow this person…
Taking that story at face value makes it very difficult to
fully comprehend what is really going on here…
To better understand…we have to understand what life was
like in year 100 AD….2,000 years ago…
Let’s go back and take a look…
At this time, one of the most important things was
education. From a very young age,
usually around 5 years old, all Jewish boy would attend school where they would
memorize the Torah. You know, NBD…Just
have a 5 year old memorize the first FIVE books of the Bible. They would spend around 5 years working on
this until they had Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy …all
79,847 words…memorized. This was called
Bet Safar or the House of the book.
After they finished Bet Safar they would be judged. They would take only the best of the best
from Bet Safar and they would be allowed to continue with their education.
The next level of education was known as bet Talmud or House
of learning. In this class they would
continue learning the Bible. Now that
they had the Torah memorized…now that started to memorize the rest of the Old
Testament… the Psalms, all the stories of the prophets, everything. By age 14, these best of the best students
would have the whole Old Testament memorized!
It was more than just a word regurgitation too, they had to
comprehend and understand each verses meaning and be able to answer a question
with a question, while quoting scripture, proving that they understand the
questions and know what scripture the question was referring to, and then
responding using other scripture to respond to the question showing they knew
what scripture was being referenced while not quoting that particular scripture….
I mean…they knew their stuff! Front and back, back and front…all by the age
of 14!
So up until now you have just about all Jewish boys go Bet
Safar and learn the Torah….only the best of the best continue to Bet Talmud….
Then, the best of the best of Bet Talmud…the best of the
best of the best of the best…then continue on to Bet Midrash or your house of
study. This meant they would continue
their studies by becoming a disciple of a Rabbi.
Just like today’s priests, the rabbi’s of the time would
interpret scripture differently. While
one may think a certain passage meant one thing another may think it was
slightly different. Once they had the
Old Testament memorized, they would then continue with their learning from a
rabbi. They would try to learn the way
in which their rabbi interpreted scripture and responded to different
things. Their job was to be like their
rabbi. They would follow them everywhere
with the goal of being just like the rabbi.
The rabbi would quiz and test each candidate to see if they
thought they had what it takes to be their disciple. Many times, the rabbi would tell them to go
home and continue to learn their father’s work, because they were not good
enough to be their disciple.
But sometimes they would either respond by saying “Lech
Acarai” or “Come, follow me.”
The blessing normally given to these disciples was “May you
be covered in the dust of your rabbi.”
This blessing comes from the fact that these disciples would follow
their rabbis anywhere. During this time,
they did not have paved roads and sidewalks.
Roads were dusty. As the rabbi walked,
they would kick up dust and would cover anyone who followed closely
behind. Therefore the disciples would be
covered in the dust of their rabbi.
Now let’s look at these calling of the disciple’s stories… first
we have Simon and Andrew….and they are fishing…
They are not in school, they are not disciples….they are
doing their job of being a fisherman.
They did not make it to Bet Midrash….we don’t know if they
made it to Bet Talmud either….all we know is that they are not disciples….therefore,
they are not the best of the best. They
are merely ordinary average joes. They
were not good enough. They were
rejected. They were not chosen.
And here comes Jesus and he says, “Lech Acharai” “Come, follow me.”
And they do!!!
But why!?
Because Jesus is a rabbi!
Rabbis were the most respected people of the time. The dream job circa 100 AD was to become a
disciple so that you may grow up to be rabbi!
So when Jesus, a rabbi, calls them to follow him…of course they do!
Jesus does not go to the best of the best of the best and
quiz them. He goes to the rejected….the
failures….and calls them! He does not
search for his disciples in the synagogue but out in the normal everyday world
that we live in.
In Matthew 16, Jesus takes his disciples to the region of
Caesarea Philippi. Now, this is not a
great place to go if you were Jewish. It
is a pagan playground!
Now, this passage can have a few different interpretations. The most common one theme is that when Peter
confesses that Jesus is truly the Son of God, Jesus blesses him for this
realization. He then claims that “on this
rock I will build my church” saying that Peter will be the anchor. Other interpretations say that since Peter is
the quota-quote spokesperson for the disciples, that he along with the other
apostles are the rock that the church will be built on.
Now remember, these “rocks” that the church will be built on
are the ones that did not quite make it as being disciples. They are the average joes.
Rob Bell has another spin on this passage. Bell talks about the location that Jesus is
in. Standing on a cliff where at the
base of it, all these pagans are worshipping.
On the face of the cliff was a split that was called ‘The Gates of Hell”
because this was where many believed to be the point at which the spirits would
enter and leave the world.
It is while standing on this rock, looking down at these
people, that Jesus says…this is the rock…
Bell says that it is not the high powered rabbis of the time
that he will build his church on….it is these people…in this place. And nothing not even the Gates of Hell will
get in the way because it is commissioned by God!
When Jesus called his disciples, they left everything to follow
him because they had faith in him…
But before they followed…Jesus called them…Jesus had faith
in them…
Jesus is calling you…
He wants you to be his disciple…
He has faith in you…
Lech Acharai…
May you be covered in the dust of your Rabbi!
