What makes me a disciple of Jesus? What separates me from the crowd? Just before Jesus begins what we have come to call The Sermon on the Mount we read that large crowds were following him. When he saw the crowds he went up on a mountainside and sat down, and “his disciples” came to him. There is a distinction made between “the crowd” and those who were “his disciples.”
Jesus was in the early stages of his public ministry. He was traveling the land teaching, preaching, and “healing every disease and sickness among the people.” (Matthew 4:23-25) Imagine that – every disease being healed! Of course this was too exciting to keep quiet, so news spread and people came from everywhere bringing those who were sick, injured, and demon-possessed, and Jesus healed them! It’s no wonder that large crowds followed him.
In the crowd we would probably find those who sought some benefit from him. People who were struggling with issues beyond their control and ability to fix would turn to him to be healed. There would also be the curious, those who simply had to get a look at this worker of miracles. There were probably people there who were drawn to his words, finding them interesting and wanting to know more. A disciple would have been someone who was looking for something more than this.
A disciple is one who patterns his or herself after someone else. To follow Jesus as a disciple and not just another one in the crowd is to reject everything we think we know and embrace the totality of who he is, what he teaches, and the relationship he offers us as not just a pattern for living but as life itself! Ultimately a disciple is not interested in his own life but seeks the life that only Jesus can give. To gain that life a disciple is willing, even participates in, the tearing down of their life in order that Jesus can replace it with something new – not just something better.
Today when we take a look at the landscape of all those who follow him, there are some who follow as if they were members of the crowd. Some look for what value he might add to their lives. Others see him as a curiosity, and some follow him because of his celebrity status. An even smaller number follow him as disciples, people who throw off everything in order to embrace what he has to offer.
Am I disciple? The truth is sometimes I am, and sometimes I find myself standing in the crowd. But Jesus is always a disciple-maker, continually extending his grace to me when I have drifted back into the crowd inviting to come back to him on the mountainside.
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