Thoughts for the Day

Now during those days he went out to the mountain to pray; and he spent the night in prayer to God. And when day came, he called his disciples and chose twelve of them, whom he also named apostles: Simon, whom he named Peter, and his brother Andrew, and James, and John, and Philip, and Bartholomew, and Matthew, and Thomas, and James son of Alphaeus, and Simon, who was called the Zealot, and Judas son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor.

He came down with them and stood on a level place, with a great crowd of his disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea, Jerusalem, and the coast of Tyre and Sidon. They had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases; and those who were troubled with unclean spirits were cured. And all in the crowd were trying to touch him, for power came out from him and healed all of them.

(Lectionary, New Revised Standard Version)

Thoughts

What, or who, is a disciple? The dictionaries give us a number of definitions, but the following appeals to me. 'A disciple is an apprentice or student of someone, a learned rabbi or a teacher, and they follow this person absorbing his teaching.' As Luke says later in Chapter 6.40: "A disciple is not above the teacher, but everyone who is fully qualified will be like the teacher." It's impossible to be a follower of someone and not to end up like that person. So it is, for instance, that art historians sometimes have great difficulty distinguishing between the work of a famous painter and those who worked in their studio, and who were allowed to help with some of the greatest of master-pieces.

The passage from St Luke's Gospel, above, is interesting for it speaks of there being not just 12 disciples, but there being a 'great crowd of his disciples'. Twelve men were called by name to follow Jesus, to go where he went, to listen to all his teaching both privately to them as well as to the crowds, also to be harried and threatened, and to experience all that would happen to Jesus to the very end. For three years they tramped the dusty roads, finding food and shelter where they could, and as they did so they became more and more like their master. But outside the twelver were a great number of men and women who supported Jesus, and now and again we come across them in the Gospels.

Those who saw and heard Jesus in his time on earth and who followed him as his disciples were to grow more like him, for to be a follower was to imitate him and become more like the Master. But today we should ask ourselves is this still so for all of us who have been baptised and who are disciples of our Lord.

Lord Jesus Christ,
You call us to follow You
as Your disciples,
to learn from You
and to grow more like You
as we get to know Your ways
and Your wishes for our life.
Help us to be faithful disciples,
ready to do Your work in the world.
Amen.