Discipleship

Matthew 9: 14-17; Mark 2: 18-22; Luke 5: 33-39

Matthew 9

¹⁶No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old cloak, for the patch pulls away from the cloak, and a worse tear is made.

Establishing the life of discipleship is difficult. We all make resolutions to read the scriptures pray and fast our hurts, habits and meeting our needs our own way; but for some it does not last and soon we are back in our old ways. Lasting change? Now that’s difficult! The disciples of John the Baptist and some Pharisees asked this sort of question of Jesus; How can the change you teach about be made permanent if you don’t practice ‘praying and fasting’ like us? Jesus obviously did not insist on these contemporary religious rituals be practiced in order to be a follower of Him. In fact Jesus teaches a break with the religious ritualism of His time and space. Why? Because that for which the people were supposed to be praying and fasting had come! The new has arrived; the old ways of fasting and praying were for a time of promises still to be kept; now it’s time for something new; the prayers of promise the faithful prayed have been answered. Jesus disciples did not need to fast and pray the old way because they were in Jesus very presence; the answer to their prayers. This radical realisation affected their entire lives; they needed to learn how to live a new way. This is the problem; we try and practice the teachings of Jesus into an old perhaps a reformed way of life and then we wonder why it does not last.  The early disciples changed their way of life totally; physical, social, environmental and psychological lives all changed; but how? They heard the words of Jesus and put them into practice. This is how Jesus sums up the Sermon on the Mount; lasting change is achieved by practical application of the teachings of Jesus. Our faith is demonstrated by this obedience, our obedience increases through extending the practice of this faith. Faith is obedience and obedience is faith.  This is the new cloth and new wine that requires a new life and results in a new life.  The Sermon on the Mount is where we must turn to learn our part in this Jesus inaugurated story.