A costly thing

There is a disturbing quality about the urgency of Jesus' call, a shaking of the foundations which those who want a quiet life are bound to resent and resist. (James D.G. Dunn)

Discipleship sounds great from a distance. We can watch in admiration, especially during the good times, and see what we perceive to be wonderful things happening, but the truth is that all of us, by virtue of our baptism, have been called to walk in the footsteps of Jesus, and that means that we cannot be bystanders or onlookers, even if we might want to be.

Even from early childhood, most people can identify the things that are not right about our situations. Sometimes we are lucky enough to be in a postion to do something about it, to correct the injustices, and if we are, we don't really have the choice to ignore the duty that is ours, for the sake of all those who are affected by it.

Discipleship in Jesus' view is not something that should be taken lightly. Once we have heard the call, we can always wrestle with the decision to follow or not, but ultimately, we learn that it's not a matter of moulding God's will to ours, but rather we must learn to allow our lives to be fashioned by Him, so that we may become more like him.

Discipleship is offered to all people, so unlike our present-day hierarchy of privilege, or the perceived herarchy that has existed in recent centuries in the Church, the original vision for discipleship was something very different. Rather than a hierarchy, Jesus' vision of discipleship involved a series of concentric circles. Beginning at the middle of the circles there would be (in expanding order):

• Jesus himself
• the disciples (Peter, James, John etc) and possibly the twelve, which could also include Matthias, Paul, Barnabas, and others who did not have the privilege of being with Jesus when he was alive
• Mary, who was and is perhaps the most faithful of disciples
• the named characters in biblical times, since a name signified a certain degree of importance
• the Pharisees and Saducees, who were also among the Jews, and therefore not outsiders
• the Caananites and others from foreign lands who were among the Gentiles
• the crowds ... a term used to refer to the multitudes who came to hear the words of Jesus

All of these were and are called to follow in the footsteps of Jesus, and each has a task to accomplish which is particulary his-her own.

The call of the disciple is not to disturb as a bull would in a china shop, but rather to challenge the situations in our world which are evidence of injustice, to dare to love the unlovable, to care for the outcast, in short to do torah.