The life of discipleship: Changing our world by doing what Jesus did

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Luke 5:4–6, 8

When [Jesus] had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into deep water, and let down the nets for a catch.” Simon answered, “Master, we’ve worked hard all night and haven’t caught anything. But because you say so, I will let down the nets.” When they had done so, they caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to break. . . . When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus’ knees and said, “Go away from me Lord; I am a sinful man!”

Mark 14:38

Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.

Every Advent, somebody draws our attention to Isaiah 9:6,7. Although we are thoroughly familiar with this text, it deserves another look. “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders.” It goes on to list the names by which Messiah will be called.

Then it says, “Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever.”

Isaiah is saying that when the Messiah comes, he will establish his kingdom. Yet we know by reading the newspapers, watching television, or just looking out our window that the kingdom does not appear to be established yet. Can it be established on this earth, or was Isaiah’s prediction for some kind of millennial period?

Of course the kingdom of God will never be fully established until there is a new heaven and a new earth, but is there any possibility that some of what Isaiah foresaw could be realized in the world now? Doesn’t Christ’s presence recreate us as persons who are pervaded by the positive realities of faith, hope, and love? And shouldn’t that transformation bring about some degree of peace, justice and prosperity, the very things God’s kingdom should establish? Can we actually expect things to be any better?

If discipleship – following Jesus – changes us, that change ought to have some impact on our world, and if enough of us are changed, the impact might be profound. God’s kingdom may not be established fully on this earth, but it will certainly increase.

This whole series of articles has been designed to suggest that if we take the time to know Jesus, we will be deeply changed. If we do what Jesus did, following his example in life, using spiritual disciplines to give God an opportunity to do what he wants to do in us, we should see a difference.

How can I suggest that? The Bible tells me so.

Take just one example. Peter was an experienced fisherman. Jesus used Peter’s boat for preaching one morning (Luke 5), and after the sermon Jesus wanted to pay a little rent. So he told Peter to put out into deep water (verse 4) and drop the fishing nets. Peter wasn’t eager to go because he knew the fish weren’t biting. He and the other fishermen had been out all night and they hadn’t caught one fish.

A transforming realization

But Peter did what Jesus asked, probably only out of respect, and the catch was phenomenal. For perhaps the first time in their acquaintance, Peter suddenly realized the “otherness” of Jesus. Peter began to be transformed. “Go away from me, Lord,” he said. “I am a sinful man” (verse 8).

Peter’s transformation may have begun that day, but it was by no means completed. Discipleship doesn’t mature anyone in a single day. So let’s pick up Peter’s story at a later place.

As Jesus moved steadily towards the cross, he informed his friends of his future. He told them that he would be arrested, and that they would desert him and run. I wonder if he told them this so that, when they reflected on it later, they would know that he understood them completely and accepted them anyway.

Peter insisted that he would not desert Jesus – never, even if the others did. He was better than they were.

But Jesus knew Peter exactly and told Peter exactly what would happen. “You will deny me before the rooster crows,” he said.

But Peter stood his ground, refusing to accept Jesus’ description of him.

Later, when Jesus went to the Garden of Gethsemane, he invited Peter and two other disciples along, asking them to “watch and pray.” But, “exhausted from sorrow,” they fell asleep.

Jesus analyzed the case with surgical precision: “The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak” (Mark 14:38). Jesus knew that their spirits were aligned with God, but their bodies were not. (We’ll come back to that sentence in a moment.)

When the soldiers came, Peter awoke, jumped up and grabbed a sword and started swinging it. Then Peter and the disciples did exactly what Jesus had said they would do. They fled. Peter did follow at a distance, but only, as Matthew says, “to see the end” (Matthew 26:58 KJV). Even there, when confronted by people accusing him of being with Jesus, Peter denied it vehemently. When the rooster crowed, he went out, weeping bitterly.

Intentions not enough

Here’s the point: Peter’s good intentions could not withstand the automatic impulses of his body. He didn’t want to fall asleep in the garden, but he did. He didn’t want to run away when Jesus was arrested, but he did. He didn’t want to deny Jesus at the high priest’s house, but he did. In each of those situations, he wanted to do the right thing, but in the heat of the moment he didn’t do it. His spirit was willing, but his flesh was weak.

Fortunately, Jesus was not yet done with Peter. Peter saw his good friend die, but he encountered the living Christ beyond the grave, and Peter was given a commission to feed the sheep. Fifty days later, Peter, along with 119 others in “the upper room,” received the Holy Spirit.

Peter was transformed. Before, he had fallen asleep, run away, denied. But then he stood up in the midst of the apostles and preached a sermon to which 3,000 people responded with a profession of faith. Peter became a rock, suffering beatings, imprisonments, and even, as tradition says, execution by being hung upside-down.

What was the difference? His spirit had always been willing. Jesus said that. But now, Peter’s flesh was no longer weak. His natural responses had been changed from habits of sleeping, running, and denying, to habits of boldness, power, and passion.

What accounts for that change? Without question, the presence of the Holy Spirit had a powerful transforming impact. Acts 2 makes that clear. But if, as we have been saying throughout this series, we as believers have a part in our own discipleship, then it seems reasonable to suggest that Peter also practiced the things he had seen Jesus do, things we have called spiritual disciplines.

I believe that Peter, as he reflected on the life of Jesus, began to do in his own life those things that Jesus had done: practices of solitude, silence, fasting, study, worship, fellowship, and prayer. Those practices, done in the body, gave the Spirit of God the opportunity to work his transforming will.

We live in an evil world, and the only way to deal with evil is for the righteous to live righteously. As we live a disciplined life, doing what Jesus did, we will find our own experience similar to Peter’s. Like him, we will be transformed.

For reflection

• Trace the work of transformation in your life. Have you had experiences like Peter’s?
• In what areas is your spirit willing, but your flesh weak? What practices of Jesus are you making a part of your life in order to live righteously?

Jim Holm is president of Mennonite Brethren Biblical Seminary, Fresno, Cal.

Thanks: Thanks to Jim Holm for his inspiring six-part Bible study on the life of discipleship. Watch for another Bible study coming to the pages of the Herald in the fall.

—ed.