Disciples

The Passage

John 1:35-51

"35 Again, the next day, John stood with two of his disciples. 36 And looking at Jesus as He walked, he said, "Behold the Lamb of God!"  

37 The two disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus. 38 Then Jesus turned, and seeing them following, said to them, "What do you seek?"

They said to Him, "Rabbi" (which is to say, when translated, Teacher), "where are You staying?"

39 He said to them, "Come and see." They came and saw where He was staying, and remained with Him that day (now it was about the tenth hour).  

40 One of the two who heard John [speak], and followed Him, was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother. 41 He first found his own brother Simon, and said to him, "We have found the Messiah" (which is translated, the Christ).  42 And he brought him to Jesus.

Now when Jesus looked at him, He said, "You are Simon the son of Jonah. You shall be called Cephas" (which is translated, A Stone).

43 The following day Jesus wanted to go to Galilee, and He found Philip and said to him, "Follow Me."

44 Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. 45 Philip found Nathanael and said to him, "We have found Him of whom Moses in the law, and also the prophets, wrote--Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph."

46 And Nathanael said to him, "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" Philip said to him, "Come and see."

47 Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward Him, and said of him, "Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom is no deceit!"

48 Nathanael said to Him, "How do You know me?" Jesus answered and said to him, "Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you."

49 Nathanael answered and said to Him, "Rabbi, You are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!"

50 Jesus answered and said to him, "Because I said to you, 'I saw you under the fig tree,' do you believe? You will see greater things than these." 51 And He said to him, "Most assuredly, I say to you, hereafter you shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man."

A Little Background

Discipleship was not unique to Jesus.  The Greed word for “disciple” is mathetes, and means pupil or learner.  Ancient teachers attracted disciples who learned from and followed them.  Plato was a disciple of Socrates and Aristotle was a disciple of Plato.  Pious Jews discipled under well-known rabbis.   This passage tells us that John had disciples.  Jesus had many disciples who followed him throughout his ministry.  In Luke 10:1 Jesus sent out seventy disciples to minister.  However, Jesus Himself chose out twelve to follow Him.   Eleven of these were to be the foundational apostles[1] who would establish the teachings of Jesus in laying the foundation of the church (Eph. 2:20).  We are here at the very beginning of Jesus’ earthly ministry, but we can take a peek, jumping ahead to the end of His life on earth in John 17.  In verse 6 we learn that it was God the Father Who gave these twelve disciples to Jesus.  Jesus prayed for them just minutes before His arrest, “I have manifested Your name to the men whom You have given Me out of the world. They were Yours, You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word.”  John 17:6

Some Explanation

In John 1:35-37 we see John again pointing out Jesus, “Look!  The Lamb of God!”  In essence, John was releasing his disciples to follow Jesus.  One was Andrew; the other disciple is not named.  Since it is characteristic of the disciple/apostle John to anonymously reference himself in the Gospel of John, it is not out of bounds to consider that the second disciple of John the Baptizer here might be the Apostle John himself, the writer of this Gospel.  Since these two were John’s disciples, it is also reasonable that they would likely have witnessed Jesus’ baptism.  If so, they would also have witnessed heaven opening, the appearance of the Holy Spirit alighting on Jesus, and God’s voice from heaven proclaiming God’s identification and favor on Jesus.

They asked Jesus where He was staying and Jesus invited them to “come and see”.  I cannot help wondering how Jesus must have felt calling these first disciples to Himself.  There must have been some excitement as He shared about Himself with them that day.  They recognized that they had found the Messiah.  Andrew quickly found his brother, Peter, whom Jesus called by his Aramaic name, “Cephas”.  Both of these mean stone or rock.

The next day Jesus wanted to go to Galilee.  It seems like Jesus is purposeful in His intent—to find Philip.  Philip, in turn, found Nathaniel.  We often recognize Peter’s impetuous and bold nature.  But here we see a similar trait in Nathaniel.  Jesus commented that Nathaniel was unique among the Jews because he was a man who had no guile.  This did not mean he was sinless.  Jesus simply recognized that Nathaniel did not hide what was really in his heart.  He was forthright and honest.  He spoke exactly what he was thinking.  He said, “What? Can anything good come from Nazareth?”  Perhaps Nathaniel was thinking that the Messiah should come from Jerusalem or another more notable city.  Nazareth was small and insignificant. 

Jesus’ told Nathaniel that He saw him “under the fig tree”.  This is apparently a phrase used by rabbis to describe one who is in meditation on the word of God and prayer suggesting that Nathaniel was a devout man studying the Scriptures.  Nathaniel was amazed that Jesus saw him.  It isn’t clear why this amazed Nathaniel.  Perhaps the setting was not in an open place, but private.  The fact that Jesus “saw” him would indicate Jesus’ omniscient nature. 

In any case, Jesus told Nathaniel that it was a small thing—for Nathaniel would soon see “the heavens open and the angels ascending and descending on the Son of man”.   That phrase was in reference to Jacob’s dream of a ladder with angels going up and down between heaven and earth.  Most commentators see Jesus’ statement revealing that He would be the ladder that would provide the way to heaven.  Other commentators remind us of John 20:30, 31 and 21:25 which says that it is not possible to record all of Jesus’ works while on earth, and that it is possible that Nathaniel and the disciples may have seen such a vision. 

Observations and Insights

Discipleship isn’t often talked about today.  Mentorship is much trendier.  Is there a difference?  Are the two words synonymous?  (Before I answer that question, I want to say upfront that I am “old school” and the older I get, the more I often feel like an old fuddy-duddy!  So if you think I sound curmudgeonly, you are probably right.  But also, the older I get, the more I see how different the visible church today looks from 30 years ago.  Not all the changes are good, in my opinion.)

The results of a google search of “discipleship vs. mentorship” are interesting.  Most of the results stated either that discipleship and mentorship were basically the same thing or that mentorship was an extension of discipleship or “the next level” of discipleship.  In every case, any distinction made between the two was opinion or experience-based; no dictionary definition or technical source was given.    

Does it really matter?  Am I nit-picking?  The answer to that question is exactly the point that I want to make, so please bear with me while I take a slight rabbit trail; I hope you’ll soon see my point.   Thefreedictionary.com defines nit-picking as “minute, trivial, unnecessary, and unjustified criticism or faultfinding”.  That is exactly how we most often use that phrase.  But when I typed it (admittedly, perhaps the first time ever) I realized something interesting.  What is a nit, and why would anyone want to pick it?  Nits are nasty creatures—the egg or young of lice.  Eeeww!  I don’t know about you, but if I became infested with lice, I would certainly WANT someone to pick my nits!  (Sorry to be crass—but who wouldn’t want to get rid of every single disgusting creature?)  So how did the use of the term get twisted around?

English is a dynamic language.  Words change in meaning.  Sometimes those changes are incidental and inconsequential.  Sometimes the changes are purposeful and agenda-driven.  Social scientists use a concept known as the dialectical process to engineer change in human behavior.  The dialectical process is a way of bringing two opposing ideas into agreement.  In other words, it is possible to take a concept that once was wrong and gradually over time make it right.  In the dialectical process darkness becomes light, up becomes down.[2]

Back to discipleship...in my very unscientific google research, I noticed that none of the distinctions between discipleship and mentorship contained any Biblical reference.  Perhaps that is because the word mentor is not found in the Bible!  Mentor was a character from Greek mythology dating back many centuries before Christ.  Since Greece was at one time Israel’s oppressor, and our New Testament was written in Greek, why wouldn’t Jesus use this term to describe His relationship with His followers?  The answer may be rooted in pagan mythology.  The mythological goddess Athena transformed herself into an old man named Mentor in order to advise the character Telemachus in Homer’s Odyssey.  Wikipedia states, “Because of Mentor's relationship with Telemachus, and the disguised Athena's encouragement and practical plans for dealing with personal dilemmas, the personal name Mentor has been adopted in English as a term meaning someone who imparts wisdom to and shares knowledge with a less experienced colleague.”   One website also sites An Encyclopedia of Psychic Science describing a spirit entity called Mentor who possessed a psychic medium in séances.  His purpose was to step in and explain areas of confusion. [3]  Both of these examples describe Mentor as a spirit guide.

The point that I am trying to get to is this: Jesus gave explicit instructions to His followers when He left earth, “Go and preach the Gospel.  Make disciples, teaching everything that I taught you.” (Mark 16:15; Matt. 28:19-20).  When believers look to someone to mentor them, they are looking to become like that leader; they want an example to follow.  In my own personal experience and in every case where mentorship is defined and encouraged, mentoring focuses on a human leader to model behavior.  But the Bible tells us to make disciples by teaching believers to be like Jesus.   I won’t say that the shift from the Biblical term discipleship to the secular term mentorship is agenda-driven; however, I do believe that the difference is significant and makes sheep more prone to error.[4]

The idea that mentorship is an extension or “the next level” of discipleship is equally troublesome.  Again, it has no basis in the Bible.  The lure of climbing up levels of spirituality is Gnostic in nature.  Jesus taught that those who would be the greatest in the kingdom would be servants.  There is no Biblical structure to ascend to levels of spirituality.  We are, of course, to grow in our faith, but that is not the same as levels of spirituality.

We would agree that certainly Jesus imparted wisdom and shared knowledge with His disciples.  There's nothing wrong with that.  But this old fuddy-duddy sees that the subtle dialectical shift over the years from discipleship to mentorship is making fewer converts and less Biblically-knowledgeable believers.  So, while my argument may sound like my fault finding is minute, trivial and unnecessary, I would rather think of it as picking out nits that are infesting the body of Christ. 

When I started reading a harmony of the Gospels, I began to enjoy a new faith in my walk with the Lord.  I began to love Jesus more.  I noticed areas that I had strayed in my thinking.  As I am reading through now this second time, I am enjoying sharing insights with you.  My goal is to focus on Jesus.  As we begin now to see Jesus’ ministry unfold, we also walk with Him in discipleship.  I don’t know about you, but my tail is wagging.  I’m ready to follow my Great Shepherd!

Next:   John 2:1-12

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[1] ...with Paul following later.  Judas who betrayed Jesus hanged himself leaving eleven.

[2] For an excellent discussion of the dialectical process see:   http://tinyurl.com/diaprax

[3] http://herescope.blogspot.com/2005/10/what-does-word-mentor-really-mean.html

[4] The writers at the herescope blog express that the term mentorship became popular in the late 90’s with the Promise Keeper’s movement.  Also during this time, the emphasis was less on Biblically-based teaching and preaching and more on experience.  Today’s most popular pastors preach leadership models rather than being under-shepherds who feed the flock.  One very famous pastor states that we should stop using the word “shepherd” to describe a pastor.  It is supposedly culturally irrelevant and was no longer used after the book of Acts.  This is patently false.  1 Peter 5:2 is a command to feed or shepherd the flock of believers.  There is a very dangerous shift happening in the church today.  See: http://www.christianitytoday.com/le/2007/may-online-only/cln70528.html