Discipleship

Right now in the Bible study class to which I belong, the university's theologians are leading out in a series of studies on discipleship.

Last week during our study, I learned to my surprise that there were some disciples that I thought had come from poverty, who were actually not poor. Our teacher pointed out that James and John, when Jesus called them, left their father and the hired men behind. A family who owned fishing boats and had hired men would not have been poor.

Furthermore, the gospels record that Jesus went to the house of Peter's mother-in-law when she was ill. A woman in that time and place was expected to be dependent on the men around her, and for Peter's mother-in-law to have her own house meant she was a woman of means.

Our teacher pointed out that Jesus did not choose his disciples for their diversity. They were all men, they were all Jewish, they shared a similar culture and background, and with the exception of Judas they all came from the region of Galilee. In fact, they had accents that betrayed them as being from the Galilee region. People in Judea, our teacher noted, didn't respect the Galilean accent. There's record that tells us Judeans didn't let Galileans read from the Torah in their synagogues, because their countrified accents were offensive to the more "elite" Judeans.

But besides Judas coming from outside of Galilee, our teacher asked, what was different about him from the other eleven disciples? He was Jewish, he shared the same faith, he didn't stand out from the rest of the disciples particularly.

I thought and thought and thought about that question. What was it that ended up separating Judas from Jesus? The disciples were generally critical and quarrelsome, and Judas was certainly critical of the woman who washed Jesus' feet, so he fit right in with the crowd. All twelve followed Jesus around for three and half years. They all listened to all the lessons, and they all went out two-by-two and preached and did miracles, including Judas. What brought him to a different endpoint than the other disciples, all of whom had human flaws and wrong expectations just as he did?

In the end, I came to this conclusion: While each disciple had his own agenda, Judas was the one disciple who was willing to force his own agenda beyond the agenda of his master.

So, if you are a disciple of Jesus, what's your agenda? Are you willing to force that agenda beyond the will and purposes of your Master?