Description

We take Jesus seriously – so what does that mean? It is important to think about Jesus as a human being in order to help us work out how Jesus wants us to live. What does it mean to be a follower of Jesus?

Jesus Christ was a first-century rabbi who taught people how to live on earth. He was entrusted with speaking in the synagogue and at the temple. Let’s look at the calling of the first 4 disciples:

Matthew 4:18-22:

1. As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen.
2. “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will send you out to fish for people.”
3. At once they left their nets and followed him.
4. Going on from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John. They were in a boat with their father Zebedee, preparing their nets. Jesus called them,
5. and immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him.

There are a couple of things to notice about this passage:

1. They were fishermen.
2. Jesus’ sales pitch was “Follow me”
3. 4 grown men left everything they knew to follow a random stranger

Then again in Mark 2:13-14:

13 Once again Jesus went out beside the lake. A large crowd came to him, and he began to teach them.

14 As he walked along, he saw Levi son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,” Jesus told him, and Levi got up and followed him.

Again – the sales pitch is “Follow me” and these grown men are leaving everything to do just that – businesses, family, wives, children - everything.

What is happening here?

In first century Israel, every boy wanted to be a Rabbi – it was the highest honour. But at the end of the day, only the best of the best went on to become a Rabbi. To be entrusted with the title Rabbi was not something that was done lightly – there are only 3 Rabbis mentioned in the Bible – Jesus, Paul and Gamaliel.

In order to be a rabbi, you had to memorise Leviticus by the age of 6. If you did this, you graduated to the next school. The next school was the Bet Sefer – the school of the book – which lasted from age 6-12 and you had to memorise the entire Torah before the age of 12. If you memorised the entire Torah before the age of 12, this qualified you to take the exam in order to progress to the next school. The exam was on your ability to ask questions about the Scripture in order to keep a conversation about God going. Think about the Bible - when Jesus was 12 years old, he was wowing the teachers of the law with his questions. If you wow the teachers of the law with your questions, you then progressed to the next school – the Bet Talmid. Bet Talmid means the school of discipleship and this lasted from 12 years old to 30 years old. The Bet Talmid consisted of 5 stages and you had to graduate from each stage or you were told “I’m sorry, you’re disqualified from being a rabbi, go back and earn a living at your family business”.