Following Jesus Christ

The New Testament Message of Discipleship for Today

John K. Goodrich, Mark L. Strauss

• Publisher: Kregel Publications
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN: 9780825444999
• eBook ISBN: 9780825474569
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Biblical Studies

A Comprehensive Guide to Discipleship in the New Testament and Today's World Although the concept of discipleship is an integral part of New Testament teaching, it has largely faded from discussion in both the academy and the local church. To revive and reclaim this teaching for believers in the twenty-first century, editors John Goodrich and Mark Strauss have assembled an expert team of scholars to uncover what every New Testament book teaches about discipleship, providing a comprehensive, biblical picture. In addition, other contributors explore discipleship in the context of the local church, spiritual formation, and the life of the mind. Together, these essays point the way forward for becoming more like Jesus Christ, and helping others do the same, in our personal and corporate lives."An impressive roster of scholars who have addressed a vital but often neglected topic in both the church and in the academy.... Rich with insight, Following Jesus Christ represents a major advance in this essential area of study." --Craig A. Evans, Houston Baptist University"We are treated here to a survey of what discipleship means in the New Testament from experts in the field, and we also see some of the wider dimensions of discipleship in this important work. All those wanting to understand discipleship will find this to be a valuable resource." --Thomas R. Schreiner, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary

PART 1

The New Testament Message of Discipleship

CHAPTER 1

Living Out Justice, Mercy, and Loyalty: Discipleship in Matthew’s Gospel

Jeannine K. Brown

MATTHEW’S THEOLOGICAL MESSAGE

Matthew communicates that Israel’s God is inaugurating the kingdom in Jesus the Messiah. Jesus teaches that the arrival of God’s reign involves the restoration of justice, mercy, peace, and wholeness (5:7–10); and Jesus enacts this vision in his compassionate ministry of healing for Israel (in Galilee; chs 8–9, 12, 14–15). Matthew portrays Jesus as Messiah (1:1; 16:16), as God’s very presence (1:23), and as Israel’s representative (chs. 3–4). As the embodiment of faithful Israel, he stands in for his people; and in his death and resurrection he brings forgiveness and life to them (1:21; 26:28; 27:53) and ushers in these gifts for all the nations (28:19).

Understandably, Matthew’s focus is on Jesus and therefore on Christology. In addition to the Christological contours already mentioned, which each have discipleship implications, Jesus is also characterized as Torah embodied and as Isaiah’s servant of Yahweh. Jesus not only obeys God’s law and is its consummate teacher; he is Torah enfleshed (11:2, 19, 28–30). As his followers pursue relationship with him and loyalty to him, they are on the path to covenant faithfulness through their obedience to Jesus’s own commands (see 28:19–20). In this way, they will find that Jesus’s yoke is easy to carry. As servant of the Lord, Jesus acts as a ransom for his people, thereby providing the consummate example of service for them (20:28). In these and in many other ways, Matthew’s Christology points toward his view of discipleship. “Matthew’s Gospel envisions and shapes its readers toward faith and obedience; they are to be true followers of Jesus and his teachings.”¹

THE CONTOURS OF DISCIPLESHIP IN MATTHEW²

A. The Relational Basis of Discipleship

Although Matthew’s emphasis, in terms of sheer amount of teaching, is upon expectations or obligations for disciples, there is a strong basis of covenantal relationship for these expectations. Early in his Gospel, Matthew affirms that Jesus is “Emmanuel,” God’s presence with Israel (1:23). He confirms this theme at the very end of the narrative, when Jesus promises to be with his followers to the very end of the age (28:20). This inclusio (or bookend) accents the centrality of this theme for his understanding of Jesus’s relationship to those who follow him. The theme is echoed in Matthew’s Community Discourse (ch. 18), where Jesus’s words about his church are the focus. At a key hinge of the chapter, Jesus promises to be “in the midst” (ἐν μέσῳ) of his people as they together live out values of protection of the most vulnerable and lavish forgiveness (18:20).³ This subtle but crucial motif of “Jesus with us” provides a firm anchor for the relational basis of Matthew’s vision of discipleship. The person of Jesus is at the center of the life of discipleship.

We can also see this relational emphasis in the first major teaching block of Matthew’s Gospel—the Sermon on the Mount. While the Sermon certainly focuses on covenant obligation in the time of the kingdom’s arrival (e.g., 5:20; 6:1; on the use of δικαιοσύνη, see below), there are important indications that in this inaugural sermon Jesus is communicating that God is the one who initiates restoration and redemption, placing the focus of covenant faithfulness on relational responsiveness (rather than on only legal obligation). This is clear if we seek to understand the Jewish background to Matthew, especially related to how the Torah was understood as a gift for Israel to know how to live in relationship with their redeeming God (see Exod. 19:1–6; 20:2).⁴

The way the sermon begins also signals that God is initiator of restoration, and that Jesus’s followers are to respond in faithfulness. The first four Beatitudes announce blessing upon those most experiencing the underside of life—the (spiritually) impoverished (5:3), those whose deep losses cause them to mourn (5:4), people of lowest status (5:5), and those who are “starved for justice” (5:6).⁵ Jesus is able to announce blessing upon the most unlikely candidates because God’s kingdom is arriving with its anticipated reversals and God is bringing mercy and justice to the earth (6:10). It is from this place of restoration that Jesus offers the second set of blessings on those who commit to joining God’s work of restoration by showing mercy (5:7), pursuing wholeness and integrity (5:8), working for peace (5:9), and being willing to experience persecution for bringing justice to those who need it (5:10).⁶ Besides the opening blessings, we could also note that the theology proper of the sermon points to a God who is indiscriminate in love and so “complete and whole” (5:45–48). This is a God who is quick to hear and answer prayer and lavishes good things on those who ask (6:7–8; 7:9–11). All of this provides a significant covenantal (i.e., relational) basis for discipleship in Matthew.

B. How Matthew Communicates Discipleship

Before considering our central question of what discipleship looks like in Matthew, it will be helpful first to explore briefly how Matthew communicates discipleship, or, if you will, how Matthew shapes disciples. Matthew, as he tells the Jesus story, draws on several narrative devices to shape his ideal or implied reader, or the reader who “fulfills the goals of the text.”⁷ And “the implied reader represents (or stands in for) a community who lives out the call to follow Jesus faithfully, empowered by the presence of Jesus in their midst.”⁸ In particular, the narrative devices of characterization—of Jesus, of the disciples, and of others who respond to Jesus in various ways—and dialogue, most often in Jesus’s teachings, prove foundational to Matthew’s vision for discipleship.

One of the most obvious ways Matthew inculcates discipleship is through his focus on Jesus’s teachings. For the evangelist, the words of Jesus are to shape the reader and hearer toward authentic discipleship. And the teachings of Jesus in Matthew are gathered together primarily in the five great discourses of chapters 5–7, 10, 13, 18, and 24–25. These five discourses shape the reader to live out Matthean discipleship. In the Sermon on the Mount, the reader is shaped to pursue covenant faithfulness in light of the arriving kingdom (5:1–7:29). In the second discourse, the reader is guided to emulate Jesus’s mission which has focused on enacting God’s reign (cf. 4:23; 9:35), even if persecution ensues (10:1–11:1). Matthew’s reader is encouraged to respond in faith to the kingdom as an “already” reality, as well as something that is “not yet” (13:1–53). In the fourth discourse, the reader is directed away from status preoccupation and toward care for the marginalized (“little ones”), protection of the purity of the community, and lavish forgiveness (18:1–35). Finally, the fifth discourse focuses the attention of the reader on the importance of living in ways that are prepared, faithful, merciful, and just in the face of the future realities of the temple’s destruction and the reappearing of the Son of Man (24:1–25:46).⁹ When, after his resurrection, Jesus directs his followers to “disciple the nations” (28:19) by “teaching them to obey all that I have commanded you” (28:20), it is these five great discourses that come most quickly to the reader’s mind.

Another important way Matthew highlights discipleship is by pointing to what Jesus does, since Jesus is the exemplar for disciples to follow. When Jesus, after arriving in Jerusalem, teaches about the qualities of justice, mercy, and covenant loyalty (23:23), the reader already knows what these virtues look like since Jesus himself has lived them out. In the earlier narrative, Jesus has shown mercy to the many from Israel who have come seeking healing (8:1–4, 9:1–8, 18–34; 12:22–23; 14:34–36; 15:29–30; 17:14–20; 19:1–2). And his Galilean ministry has been described as characterized by justice (12:18, 20). In all this, Jesus acts as the Servant of the Lord from Isaiah, who brings justice and mercy to the nations through his embodiment of Israel’s vocation (12:18–21).¹⁰ And while Jesus is certainly unique in certain facets of his ministry—as in his representative death that brings about restoration and life, the shape of his life is to be a template for the lives of those who would follow him. As Howell puts it, as Jesus does, so “disciples must do.”¹¹ Kierkegaard speaks eloquently of the importance of Jesus’s example for discipleship:

Christ came to the world with the purpose of saving the world, also with the purpose—this in turn is implicit in the first purpose—of being the prototype, of leaving footprints, for the person who wants to join him, who then might become an imitator; this indeed corresponds to “footprints.”¹²

Besides Jesus, other characters in the narrative become foils or examples for those who follow Jesus, showing positive or negative aspects of discipleship. The Jewish leaders, and particularly the Pharisees, provide a significance contrast to Matthean discipleship, as they are portrayed as hypocritical rather than people of integrity (15:1–9; 23:13–36; cf. 6:1–18). They and others are “examples of what not to do” in discipleship.¹³ On the positive side, various seekers who come to Jesus for healing are characterized by faith (e.g., 8:10; 9:2, 22, 29; 15:28), including some Gentiles who exhibit great faith (8:5–13; 15:21–28). Other positive discipleship qualities that are highlighted in various characters and that the reader is to emulate include faithfulness to Jesus (the women at the cross and tomb; 27:55–56; 28:1) and worship of Jesus (the Magi; 2:1–12).

The twelve disciples fall somewhere in between these foils and models; they are portrayed as those who leave all to follow Jesus (4:18–22; 9:9), yet still struggle to understand (e.g., 16:8) and fully trust Jesus (8:26; 14:31; 16:8; 17:20). Given that the Twelve are those who follow Jesus most closely in his public ministry, they are the most likely candidates for an exploration of discipleship. Yet they exhibit a mixed portrayal in Matthew, and so they function as exemplars at some points and foils at others.¹⁴ Or as Kingsbury has framed it, they provide for the reader both a point of identification and a place for distancing.

Because the disciples possess conflicting traits, the reader is invited, depending on the attitude Matthew as narrator or Jesus takes toward them on any given occasion, to identify with them or to distance himself or herself from them. It is through such granting or withholding of approval on cue, therefore, that the reader becomes schooled in the values that govern the life of discipleship in Matthew’s story.¹⁵

C. What Matthew Communicates about Discipleship

Given the story Matthew tells about Jesus, who gathers twelve apostles to him (10:1), we can highlight following as the central discipleship metaphor or activity. This image of journeying with Jesus has a strong relational cast to it, especially as we consider language used in the passion narrative to suggest the relational reality of Jesus “with” his disciples (e.g., 26:18, 29, 36) and the expectation that they are “with” him (26:38).¹⁶ In fact, Peter’s denials that he has been “with Jesus” (μετὰ ᾽Iησοῦ; 26:69, 71) appear to be a fundamental negation of the essence of his call to follow Jesus (4:18–22; cf. 10:1).

Since Matthew’s basis for discipleship is thoroughly relational, it is important to lay accent on the call to “follow Jesus.” In other words, the emphasis is more so on the person than the action of following, although I would suggest that for Matthew these fit together hand in glove. This relational kind of following—or the following of the person of Jesus—comes through clearly in chapter 11, where Jesus takes on the persona of Wisdom and invites people to take on his comfortable and sustainable yoke. Much like Wisdom in various Jewish texts (e.g., Prov. 8:22–31; Sir 24:19; 51:26–27), Jesus gives an invitation to come to him and put on his “yoke.” The yoke image was used in Judaism for living within the Torah’s covenantal obligations. In 11:29, Jesus describes his “yoke”—his teaching—as “easy” and “light.” And Matthew portrays Jesus as the embodiment of Wisdom (see 11:2, 19); as Jesus speaks with the voice of Wisdom (11:28), the relational nature of discipleship derived from the personification of Wisdom in these various Jewish texts is retained and heightened. For Matthew, Torah and Wisdom are now a person—they find their climactic expr...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Contributors
• Abbreviations
• Preface
• Introduction: Following Jesus Christ Today—John K. Goodrich and Mark L. Strauss
• Part 1—The New Testament Message of Discipleship
• Part 2—Discipleship Today