Discipleship Is Jewish

Posted at 20:46h in Messianic Messages by John 6 Comments

This is one of the most well-known passages in our Gospels. It’s the passage that every
missionary organization speaks about and uses to inspire people to action. In fact, it is
these words that our Master left us with before His ascension to the Heavenlies! It
reminds us of Jacob’s last words to his sons before He left to sleep with his fathers. He
wanted to leave them with very important, weighty words that they would take with
them throughout their generations. And here in Matthew, Jesus is doing the same. This
is His last chance to speak into the lives of His disciples in such a tangible way. What
would he say to us? Would He speak to us of the value and character of love? Would
He give us final eschatological instructions before the rough times come? No. Rather
He spoke to us of a very Jewish concept—the institution of discipleship.

Throughout the last 2000 years, we in the Christian Church have extended the message
of the Gospel into much of the known world. We’ve traveled into the farthest reaches
of the globe to share a message about Jesus of Nazareth to the various tribes and clans
that we know of. We’ve gone in groups of two or three. Some of our forefathers even
carried the message alone. We’ve held services in stadiums with tens of thousands of
eager ears listening to the words of a preacher. By the millions people, have heard the
message, believed the message and given their hearts to this Rabbi from Israel. Often
times, in the wake of these events, you’ll hear the cry of lament that we don’t have the
resources to properly disciple these many new converts. These converts have had an
internal change, yet they are left to themselves and more often than not, the world’s
pressures pull them right back into the same lifestyle that they were formally living.

We feel the need for discipleship. After all, Jesus didn’t tell us to go and make
converts; He told us to make disciples! But unfortunately, to many of us, making
disciples means leading converts through a 12-week course on the elementary principles
of our faith. We look at Jesus’ teachings on love and forgiveness. We talk about the
necessity of reading our Bibles and spending personal time in prayer every day. We
touch on subjects like the life of the Spirit vs. legalism, the fruit of the Spirit vs. the
works of the flesh, love of God vs. love of the world, etc. And these are all important
and necessary subjects to talk about with new believers, but is it quite fulfilling Jesus’
intent to make disciples? I don’t think so.

You see, discipleship is an institution specific to the Jewish culture. It was designed by
Jews and passed down by Jews. Outside of a Jewish context, it loses most of its
sense. But when we look at Jewish discipleship as it was understood within the context
of Jesus’ first century setting, we’ll begin to understand just what Jesus was demanding
that we do among the nations. So let’s do that—let’s look at discipleship from its
original Jewish perspective.

History of Discipleship
From the days of Moses, Israel has held a tendency to stray from God’s ways and turn
to the imaginations of their own hearts. Over and over again, we read in the Scripture
about Israel committing idolatry and being oppressed by and enemy for
chastisement. The Prophets were sent to call the people to repentance. And there were
times when Israel responded in heart-felt obedience, but too often that return was short
lived. Eventually this stubbornness on Israel’s behalf gave way to exile among the
nations. The northern tribes, the House of Israel, was exiled under the hand of the
Assyrians; the southern 2 tribes, the House of Judah, was taken captive by
Nebuchadnezzar, the King of Babylon.

The captivity of the House of Judah was not as resolute as the exile of the northern
tribes. Judah’s captivity, according to the prophet Jeremiah, was to last 70 years, in
order to give the land time to catch up on its sabbatical years. Many of our stories are
connected to this time of captivity.

• Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach and Abidnego were among these exiles, living in the
King’s court, refusing to eat his food. It was in Babylon that Daniel interpreted
the dreams of Nebuchadnezzar concerning the upcoming world powers. Toward
the end of this allotted exile, the Medo-Persian forces conquered Babylon and
Daniel befriended the new king.
• We know Darius, a Median King, as the king who regrettably had to throw
Daniel into the lion’s den, and then ran out the next morning to see if he was
sparred.
• Cyrus, a king of Persia, gave the decree that Israel could return from Babylon to
their ancestral land and rebuild their city.
• Later on we read the story of Esther, who through God’s providence married yet
another King of Persia—Xerxes.

But we also know of Nehemiah, Zechariah, Ezra and Haggai. These men, under the
governorship of Zerubabel, lead a zealous remnant to rebuild Jerusalem and the Temple
on a quest to restore the Divine Presence of God back in the Land and among His
people. The stories from our books of Nehemiah and Ezra are touching accounts of this
revival among the remnant of Judah. Faced with enemies all around, they would build
the walls of the Holy City holding trowels in one hand and a sword in the other! Ezra
discovered a copy of the Torah and read it to all the people, who, when they heard it,
prostrated themselves and wept.

Among this generation of men grew a leadership that came to be known as the Men of
the Great Assembly. This leadership assembly recognized that the exile of Israel wasn’t
a result of a weak military strategy, or faulty foreign policy; but rather, it was a result of
forsaking the commandments of God’s Law. In their newly restored state, they
understood that God’s protection would be a result of righteous living, and they sought
a means to cultivate that among Israel. In the Mishnah, an early rabbinical work, we
find this statement in the section called the Sayings of the Fathers:

“Moses received the Torah [God’s Law] at Sinai and transmitted it to Joshua, Joshua
transmitted it to the elders, and the elders transmitted it to the prophets, and the prophets
transmitted it to the Men of the Great Assembly. The Men of the Great Assembly used
to say three things: Be diligent in justice, raise up many disciples, and make a fence
around the Torah.” (m. Avot 1:1)

These Shepherds of Israel developed this 3-winged approach to thwart any future
exiles. The first instruction was to “be diligent in justice”. Injustice is a major concern
of Adonai in the Scriptures. He speaks about justice all throughout the Torah and the
prophets. This was one of Adonai’s chief complaints against Israel—their judges were
taking bribes and making self-serving decisions! The elders of the Great Assembly
instructed that this had to stop! The judges of Israel should be diligent to investigate
matters and judge righteously among the people.

Another instruction was to “make a fence around the Torah”. Originally, this
instruction was given with good intention. Rather than seeing how close we can get to
transgression without stepping over the line, let’s make boundaries that will serve as a
buffer so that we don’t break the commandments of God’s Torah. So when God’s
Torah says not to work on Shabbat, the rabbis developed a list explaining what work
was. When God’s Torah instructed the priesthood in its level of holiness in the Temple,
the rabbis began to apply these same standards to all Jewish people. Eventually, this
heaped up an insurmountable weight of extra manmade commandments that made the
instructions of the Torah burdensome. It was these manmade doctrines that Jesus so
often criticized in His teachings and berated the Pharisaical leadership for. But
originally, the intent was to stay far away from breaking God’s Laws and hence head off
another exile.
Raise up many Disciples
According to some traditions, the Men of the Great Assembly, under the leadership of
Ezra, designed the synagogue system that we find in the Gospels. This would explain
why we don’t have synagogues in the Hebrew Scriptures (often called the Old
Testament), but they’re everywhere in the Gospels! The word synagogue is a Greek
word. In Hebrew, it’s called the Beit Midrash—the House of Study. It was a place
where people could come to hear the Torah read and teachers would explain its
meaning. Back in Ezra’s day, the farmers from outlying areas would travel to the cities
to barter and trade. According to tradition, Ezra designed a Scripture rotation where the
Torah was read on Tuesdays, Thursdays and on the Sabbath. On the Sabbath, Israel
would gather in their local Beit Midrash (synagogue) and they would hear the Law and
the Prophets read to them.

Ezra and the Men of the Great Assembly believed that in order for Israel to live
righteously as defined by God’s Law, they would have to know God’s Law. And if they
were to understand God’s Law, they would need teachers. And in order to raise up
teachers, those teachers would first have to be disciples!

So the Sages and rabbis of Israel began to take men under their arms and make them
into disciples, or students. All of the great Sages had disciples. History tells us that
Hillel, one of the most famous Sages of Judaism, was said to have 70
disciples. Yochanon ben Zachai, one of Hillel’s disciples, had 5 main disciples. Rabbi
Akiva, also had 5 main disciples, but also is described as having thousands who
followed him to learn Torah. As you know, our Rabbi Yeshua HaNatzerim [Jesus of
Nazareth] raised up 12 main disciples, but also had thousands (and maybe tens of
thousands) that followed Him to hear His teachings on the Torah!

The idea was that a disciple was to become just like his teacher. In Luke 6:40, our
Rabbi Jesus said, “Every disciple, after he has been fully trained, will be like his
Teacher.” This is the essence of Jewish Discipleship. Discipleship is the art of
imitation!! When the disciple was fully trained, he became the teacher himself. He
then passed on the teaching to disciples of his own, who in turn, when fully trained,
became teachers and raised up disciples of their own. It was far more involved than just
learning some elementary principles in the faith. The Jewish disciple strove to become
just like his teacher. There was no accusation of plagiarism in a disciple toward his
Master; in fact, quite the opposite was true. A true disciple was expected to be able to
repeat his Master’s teachings word for word!

Here’s how it worked. In the days of Jesus, all young boys were taught the Torah and
the Prophets beginning at age 5; meaning that at age 5, they began to memorize the
Torah and the Prophets! Every day they would rehearse the Scriptures until it came to
them by rote. At the age of 12, after 7 years of memorizing the Bible, boys were
apprenticed to craftsmen. Some became carpenters, some stone masons and others
farmers; but those that were exceptional in their studies of the Scripture were
apprenticed to a Sage. His trade was to become a Rabbi. He would leave his home and
move in with the Sage. He studied everything about him! Not just his thoughts on the
Scripture, but He studied the Sage’s marriage, his business affairs, the way he judged
certain cases—everything! It’s the belief of the Sage that the Torah affects every aspect
of life, so the disciple is learning to imitate his Master’s disciplined life in order to
mimic it in every regard! This is Biblical discipleship.

To a disciple, his Master is more than just a teacher. In fact, a disciple’s Master was
regarded more highly than his own father. This is because an earthly father brought you
into this world in which we live, but the Sage was able to usher you into the World-to-
Come, or Paradise. The Sage became the new Father of the disciple, hence we find in
the rabbinic writings references to the “House of Hillel”, or the “House of
Shammai”. The Sage was seen as a Father, and his disciples were his well-trained
sons. It’s not that the disciple’s family was abandoned, but his family loyalties took
second place to his Master. This sentiment is echoed in the words of our Master, Jesus:

“If any man come to Me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children,
and brothers, and sisters, yea even his own life also, he cannot be My disciple.” (Lk.
14:26)

The language of “hate” employed in this verse is not hatred like we generally think of
it. Jesus is using a Hebraic idiom that demonstrates comparative language. In other
words, the love for the Master must be so great, that all familial love (usually our
strongest love) must look like hatred in comparison. Each and every one of us is called
to this radical practice of discipleship! We can’t be disciples of Jesus because our
family has a strong Christian tradition. And we can’t be disciples of Jesus because of
cultural pressures. We can only be a disciple of Jesus if we’re willing to abandon all
other affections to second place, setting Jesus the Messiah squarely in the preeminent
role of our lives!

The absolute dedication and loyalty that disciples held for their Master is unmirrored in
any of our modern institutions of study or in our culture at large. Imagine if, rather than
just hanging out in school and having a good time, you began to emulate your
professor. You memorized his lectures and quoted him at every possible moment. You
followed him to and from his home and often invited yourself to eat with him. You
began to dress and act like him. You sought to absorb every possible nuance of his
behavior. This may be obsessive, but it’s also discipleship! The greatest Sages
produced carbon copies of themselves! “Every disciple, fully trained, will be like his
Master” (Lk 6:40).[i]

In the book King of the Jews, produced by First Fruits of Zion, they mention four main
imperatives of a disciple.

To memorize their Teacher’s Words

The Sages of Jesus’ day didn’t write books like our modern teachers do. There were no
“student manuals” for their disciples to read. To this ancient world, the only written
materials were the Scriptures. The teachings of the Sages were transmitted orally from
generation to generation. Disciples studied by memorizing their Master’s
teachings. Through constant repetition, disciples memorized their Master’s teaching
word for word. We often think of Jesus giving the Sermon on the Mount one great
time, but it’s far more likely that Jesus taught these same ideas over and over again. He
would teach the subject matter of the Sermon on the Mount in Jerusalem, Nazareth,
Capernaum, the Decapolis, etc. Peter, James, John and Matthew would have heard
these sermons over and over again! This is why we may find a particular sermon
mentioned in one location in one gospel, and that same subject matter is placed in a
different setting in another gospel. The sermon was given in both locations! It was this
repetition that allowed the disciples to memorize the Rabbi’s message. Around
campfires at night, students would practice rehearsing these teachings to their Master,
receiving further instruction and clarification at that time. This is where we find the
Twelve often asking Jesus later, “what did you mean by…?” This was their private
instruction time.

The Gospels that we have weren’t written until the later part of the first century. This
means that the parables and teachings of Jesus weren’t written down for the first several
decades of the Messianic Church! In these early decades, the Apostles would have been
sharing the teachings of Jesus with the early believers over and over again. Since the
Gospels and the Book of Acts mostly mention Peter, James and John, we often forget
about the other 8 that were also busy teaching in those early days. These Apostles were
busy making disciples of the early believers by teaching them verbally the messages
that Jesus had taught them. Imagine the convenience we would have if we memorized
Jesus’ teachings. Not only would we know them much better, but even if we didn’t
have a Bible, we could share His teachings with as many people as possible by rote!

To learn their Teacher’s Traditions and Interpretations

The disciple learned how his Teacher kept the commandments and interpreted the
Scriptures. How does the Teacher was His hands? Keep the Sabbath? Fast, pray, give
charity, say the blessing over food, etc.? We find the Apostles covering much of this
material in the Gospels. The disciples transmitted to us our Rabbi’s teaching on prayer,
charity, fasting, washings, etc.! What a wealth we have passed down to us!

The disciple also wanted to know how His Teacher interpreted passages of
Scripture. What meanings did He draw out? What parables did He use? How did He
explain a certain verse or understand a certain concept? Details like this were not
dismissed as trivial—they were vital to understanding and embodying the Master!

As disciples, we should know what Jesus’ stance was on as many subjects as

possible. And not for trivial sake, but so that we can observe those teachings! We want
to be just like Jesus in His stances on various ideas—to properly represent Him in every
area of our lives!

To imitate their Teacher’s Actions

The disciple’s chief aim was to be a perfect reflection of His Teacher. He wanted to act,
to speak and conduct himself the same way in which His Master conducted
Himself. Which sandal did he put on first? What did He do first in the morning? What
did He eat? Where did He go? How did He get there? This is radical, obsessive
discipleship!

To raise up Disciples

A disciple, when fully trained, raised up his own disciples. He created a new generation
of students and transmitted to them the words, traditions, interpretations, teachings,
actions and behaviors of His Master. The goal of discipleship was to pass the torch of
Torah from generation to generation.

Though Jesus had many disciples, He only chose 12 core disciples, who would be
entrusted with the responsibility to transmit His teachings to future generations. These
twelve were to go and “make disciples of all nations…teaching them to observe all that
He had commanded them” (Mt. 28:19-20).

Disciples of Yeshua HaNatzerim

There is one essential difference between our discipleship to Yeshua (Jesus) and the
discipleship of the Sages. We find that in Matthew 23:8-10–

“Do not be called Rabbi; for One is your Teacher, and you are all brothers. Do not
call anyone on earth your Father; for One is your Father, He Who is in Heaven. Do
not be called Leaders; for One is your Leader, that is, Messiah.”

What is Yeshua talking about here? Is He simply abolishing titles? Should our leaders
not be called “rabbi”, “teacher” or “leader”? Is it OK to call them “Pastor”, or
“Reverend”? In the context of Jewish discipleship that we’ve been considering, this
should ring in our ears now. Jesus is telling the twelve that they are not, when they
become fully trained, to raise up disciples unto themselves. He didn’t want to see the
parting of the ways between the eventual discipleship schools that would emerge. Peter
was not to raise up His disciples and teach them His own ways. No, Jesus was
declaring that they had no need to do such things because they only have one Rabbi,
Teacher and Leader—God! In fact, this division among early believers in Corinth,
claiming to be followers of Peter or Paul, Apollos or Jesus (in opposition to the others)
was said to be a sign of carnality! Jesus sent His Apostles out to make more disciples
for Himself!!

The disciples of Jesus are never to assume the role of Master, because unlike the Sages,
Jesus is still alive!! Sometimes we think, “Oh, wouldn’t it be wonderful to walk with
Jesus and hear Him teach. Wouldn’t it be great to have been there and see the miracles
and sit around the campfire with Him?” But He’s not dead! We Christians tend to be
resurrectionists in our theology, but practical agnostics! We act like Jesus died, was
buried, was resurrected and then superglued to the Throne! Someday, we think, God
will cut Him loose and He’ll become active again. Haha! But that’s wrong
thinking. He’s alive and well, not just theologically—but practically! Look at what
Jesus says in Revelation 3:20-22—

“Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I
will come in to him and eat with Him, and he with Me. The one who conquers, I will
grant him to sit with Me on My Throne, as I also conquered and sat down with My
Father on His Throne. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the
churches!!”

Jesus is knocking on the door of believers!! Jesus’ call to discipleship is still going
forward! He wasn’t done when He called the Twelve—He’s calling you! Two-
thousand years removed from the time and culture of the Great Commission hasn’t
changed the mission at all! We are still to become rabid, obsessive disciples of Jesus
the Messiah! We are still expected to learn His teachings and traditions, to imitate His
actions and raise up more disciples for Him!

One of the greatest needs in our day is for teachers who will not be afraid to unearth the
practices of our Master and then do them! Our modern teachers talk a good game, but
they often try to teach before they do. This is not imitating the Master. Jesus didn’t just
talk about the Commandments, He kept them. He didn’t just speak of forgiveness—He
forgave! He didn’t just condemn gossip—He only spoke righteously. We must do the
same.

If, in our study of the Scripture, we find things that are uncomfortable for us, will we
justify our existing actions, or will we submit to the will of our King and imitate
Him? If His word flies in the face of our theology and doctrine, which will we
serve? Will we allow Him the freedom and right to shake in our lives what can be
shaken? Or will we be like the rich, young ruler who turns away sorrowful because He
couldn’t let go?

Jesus still calls you to discipleship. Not to a 10-week course in Bible 101, or to a
Wednesday night class. He doesn’t even call you to a church or denomination. He calls
you to Himself! “Follow Me”, He says. Take the yoke of His Kingdom, submit to His
will—obey Him. That’s the call of discipleship being presented to you.

“If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his own father and mother, wife and children,
brothers and sisters, yes, even his own life, he cannot be My disciple. Whoever does
not bear his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple. For which of you,
desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has
enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to
finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not
able to finish’. Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit
down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes
against him with twenty thousand? And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he
sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. So therefore, any one of you who does
not renounce all that he has cannot be My disciple.” (Lk. 14:26-33)

These are pretty tough words, but they fit right into Jewish discipleship. The
prospective disciple must be willing to leave all that he has and begin a new life
following his Rabbi. Here, our Rabbi Jesus does not lay out before us all the possible
scenarios of our lives and ask us to peruse over them and make a decision. No! The
decision being presented is to decide to follow Him regardless of all the possible
scenarios of life! The decision is hard. There are Christians that have been in church
their whole lives that have never become disciples. But what a life they are
missing! The excitement of following a resurrected Rabbi that expects everything from
us, but promises us more! The more we submit to Him, the more He trusts us
with. There is no limit to His reign within and around us! There is no better life in all
of eternity! We only have to be willing.

[i] This paragraph, though not copied verbatim, was taken from the book King of the
Jews, produced by First Fruits of Zion.