Last week I wrote about “The Humble King,” the immortal God who humbled himself and became a human being, conceived in and born of a woman. He took the form of a servant, walked among us like a peasant, and was baptized by a disheveled, hippy-type character in the muddy Jordan River.
Living among us, he chose a cross instead of a crown, suffering instead of ease, and shame instead of honor. Nevertheless, he was the Son of God, the Messiah, and the King of Glory. He did not choose to accomplish his mission of bringing the Kingdom of God to earth by himself; instead, he chose and trained other men whom we call the 12 Apostles to propagate his Kingdom.
After his baptism, Jesus began his public ministry not by calling a press conference and telling the world that he was the Messiah, but by disappearing into the wilderness where he fasted and prayed for 40 days and was tempted by the devil.
When Jesus was returning to society from the wilderness, John the Baptist saw him walking along. John grabbed two of his followers and said in effect, “Look! Look! There he is! The Lamb of God!” (cf., John 1:35-39). With this encouragement, the two guys trailed Jesus. He noticed them and asked why they were following him. They asked him where he was setting up camp. He invited them to come and take a look.
They accompanied Jesus to his campsite and never stopped following him! One of those men, Andrew, brought his brother Simon, and Jesus invited him to follow him. Jesus renamed him Peter, the Rock (John 1:40-42).
The next day, the four men broke camp and went to Galilee, where Andrew and Simon Peter found their friend Philip, who also accepted Jesus’ invitation to be a disciple. Philip then found his friend Nathaniel, who became another follower of Jesus. Before he ever worked a single miracle, Jesus invited a group of men to be his followers. He invited each of them to become world-changers, ushering in the New Creation.
Can you name one world leader who did anything even close to this? What are the names of Buddha’s disciples? Gandhi’s? George Washington’s? Apart from a few history buffs none of us can, but the names of Jesus’ 12 apostles are familiar to us all. Jesus shared his glory with them. He said, “I have given them the glory that you gave me” (John 17:22, NIV).
Before the disciples could become apostles and do the work of Christ, they had to learn the ways and teachings of the Master. This was not always easy — they were a hard group to teach.
Once, in the privacy of a boat, Jesus instructed them to beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and the Sadducees. They began to debate among themselves what Jesus was talking about, thinking that Jesus was talking about their shortage of bread. It was a huge jump in logic to go from talking about the spreading fungus of the Jewish leaders to concern about what they were going to eat for supper.
Jesus upbraided them when he reminded them that his ability to provide supper was not the problem, for he had recently fed 5,000 families from five small loaves of bread, and 4,000 families from seven loaves. There were even baskets full of leftovers (Matthew 16:5-12).
No, the problem was not the lack of bread, it was the teachings of the Jewish leaders that did much to promote soul-rotting religiosity and were a major hinderance to spiritual life and an actual relationship to God. Time and time again, the disciples had trouble catching on to Jesus’ teachings, but he was humble enough to patiently teach them, correct them, and help them change.
Jesus is humble enough to invite each of us less than perfect people to follow him. If we accept the invitation, he will be patient with us and teach us what it means to be part of the Kingdom of God while we live in the kingdom of this world. He invites us to radical transformation. He invites us to be world-changers and to carry his message of salvation and hope into the dark recesses of the world.
If we accept his humble invitation and follow him, even the gates of hell itself will not be able to withstand our onslaught. Jesus will use us to overthrow the realm of evil. He will use us to bring light into the darkest places in the hearts of our fellow human beings.
Dr. Dan Darby is a retired United Methodist pastor.
