Following Jesus
by JM · 16 May 2008

In The Call to Discipleship, an excerpt from Karl Barth's Church Dogmatics, he quotes Dietrich Bonhoeffer:

Anywhere else in the world where commands are given, the situation is clear. A father says to his child: go to bed! The child knows exactly what to do. But a child drilled in pseudotheology would have to argue thus: Father says go to bed. He means you are tired. But I can also overcome my tiredness by going to play. So, although father says go to bed, what he really means is go play. With this kind of argumentation, a child with its father or a citizen with the authorities would run into an unmistakable response, namely, punishment. The situation is supposed to be different only with respect to Jesus' command. 1

Barth then clarifies Bonhoeffer's statements thus:

The command given to a person by Jesus is not given to the one who receives it in such a way that he may freely distinguish between what is meant and what is willed, between the implicit content and the explicit form, the former being accepted but the latter provisionally ignored. It has its content only in its specific form. Only as it turns to the latter can it keep seriously to the former. Again, it is not the case that in obedience to the call of Jesus we can and should and even (in all prudence) must postpone a full inward and outward rendering of it until we find a favourable opportunity and situation; the psychological, historical, economic or political situation indispensible to its integral achievement. To be sure, we for our part have not to create a situation of this kind. But we have to realize that the command of Jesus given us itself creates the situation and all the conditions of the situation in which we have to obey, so that there is no place for any further waiting for a developing situation or suitable moment, nor for any further consideration, appraisal or selection of different possibilities, but only for instant obedience. In obedience we are not about to leap. We are already leaping.2

"Follow Me"

Both Barth and Bonhoeffer stress "simple obedience" to Jesus in discipleship. They stress that being a disciple of Jesus is always an action, implied or explicit, in the Greek of the New Testament. We often use it, claims Barth, in a conceptual sense. We talk of discipleship as if it is something we can divorce from the forward propulsion of Jesus' call and command. We treat it as if there is a separation between the 'content' and the 'form' of discipleship. Yet, both argue this is not so.

Most people I talk with about discipleship are confused about the term. Everyone seems to be sure that we need it and that it is desperately important to have it in abundance within the Church. Yet, we struggle to speak about our following Jesus in the present. We want to leap into the future and plan our discipleship activities, or to look backwards and see where we have grown in our walk with Jesus.

When Jesus calls us, says Barth, the call creates the specifics of the situation. We cannot manufacture the conditions, though we make every effort to do so. Discovering our strengths or gifts or talents may offer us insight into the way that God has uniquely crafted us and therefore shed light on the opportunities before us, but such exercises may equally lead us to conclude that what Jesus wants us to leap into is not something we were "made" to do. We can easily overlook the role of God's sovereign purpose in His call to us. Follow me, He says. And we weigh our perceptions of the situation so as to "follow" in a way that "honors" the resources (materials, gifts, talents, skills, ambitions, personality, spiritual or emotional IQ, etc.) we "possess". It seems to me this is dangerously close to the situation described in Luke 9:57 and following:

As they were walking along the road, a man said to him, "I will follow you wherever you go."

Jesus replied, "Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head."
He said to another man, "Follow me."
But the man replied, "Lord, first let me go and bury my father."
Jesus said to him, "Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God."
Still another said, "I will follow you, Lord; but first let me go back and say good-by to my family."
Jesus replied, "No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God."

Considering that the Great Commission in Matthew 28 contains the imperative command, "Make disciples of all nations", can we take these thoughts lightly?

  1. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Discipleship. Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works 4 (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2001). German ed. 1937.
  2. Karl Barth, The Call to Discipleship, Fortress Press Facets Edition, 2003. This volume is an excerpt from: Karl Barth, Church Dogmatics, vol. 4, pt. 2: The Doctrine of Reconciliation, translated by G. W. Bromiley (Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1958). The original edition is Die Kirchliche Dogmatik, vol. 4, pt. 2: Die Lehre von der Versöhnung (Zolikon: Evangelisher Verlag, 1956).

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Safe Returns
by JM · 13 May 2008

Although I returned safely on 7 May, I have had very little time to send any updates. I am still sharing details about the forum with my wife, Danielle, and hope to get some time to reflect in writing and in person with some of my readers. I am grateful for your prayers.

The photo here is from an afternoon trip that a group of us took to Mercy Ministry, a drop-in center for "rugby boys" (so called because of the brand of solvent they inhale to ward off hunger pains). The man between the two older boys is Pastor John, who moved his wife and two children into the center in order to minister more effectively to them. They hope to be able to open the center overnight, but the ministry has many government regulations to satisfy before they will be allowed to do so. John explained that the reason for such regulations is that some places that are opened to street children are really fronts for child trafficking. Although we didn't do much more than meet some of the kids and hear about the ministry, John said our presence blessed these kids because they often feel unwanted and unnoticed. Hearing John's heart for these children was a great blessing to me.

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Finishing in Manila
by JM · 06 May 2008

The International Leadership Forum has been a whirlwind of information, stories, worship and connections. It has been a good week, but I am looking forward to being home with my family. In what little time I have had so far to reflect on the forum, I have thought mostly about the relationship between family and ministry.

One couple I met who are Americans working among churches in Sydney, Australia told me that whenever they move as a family for mission, they ask for input from their children, so that they can at least voice concerns, excitement and such. They also have always told their children that it is not "Daddy's job" but "the life God has called their entire family into".

I am leaving at 3:00 AM PHT for Japan and then home again.

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