Follow Me

As I mentioned in my last post, Jesus’ disciples were a mysterious lot. Some are barely mentioned apart from collective references to “The Twelve.” But we know that each of them was called to follow Jesus, and each one did so. And the Gospel stories suggest that these life-changing decisions were made on the spur of the moment, with two brothers dropping their fishing nets in a flash and a tax gatherer leaving his collection booth with scarcely a look back.

I’ve always found these stories puzzling, especially when I try to picture them in today’s terms. Sometimes I imagine Jesus passing a construction site or wandering through a maze of cubicles in a high-rise office building. “Follow me,” he calls to selected individuals. But I can never envision someone dropping a sledgehammer or pushing aside a keyboard to tag along, leaving behind their careers, car payments, and gym memberships at the drop of a hat (well, maybe the gym memberships, which they probably weren’t using anyway).

Intriguing as Jesus and his invitation might be, wouldn’t the called ones have a few questions about the proposed travel itinerary and the availability of health insurance? I know I would. But maybe these modern-day scenarios do not offer a fair comparison. These are the things I wondered about heading into New Testament Survey at Golden Gate Seminary.

The class was taught by the intimidating Dr. M, who opened each class by reading from the Greek New Testament, translating to English on the fly. During the first half of the semester, Dr. M dealt with the origin of the Gospels, including the famous “Synoptic Problem” surrounding the first 3 Gospels. Matthew, Mark, and Luke follow the same basic structure and, at some points, agree verbatim with one another. So how did this come about? Did God just happen to inspire them to write certain portions of their books identically, or did the authors start with a common source and add their own material?

Such questions introduced an undercurrent of tension to the classroom, as some students felt that we needed to focus on the Gospel texts themselves instead of a bunch of “hypothetical mumbo-jumbo.” I shared these concerns only to the extent that I hoped to get some answers on the disciples. And eventually, I got a few. Toward the end of the semester, Dr. M talked about the common practice in biblical times for a rabbi or sage to travel with a group of hand-picked disciples. He felt that Andrew, Peter, John, and the rest had probably heard of Jesus—perhaps even met him—before being asked to fill culturally recognizable roles.

That made sense, but it also took some of the romance out of the whole thing. So I preferred to believe that 12 crazy gamblers saw at first glance that Jesus might be a man worth following to God-knows-where. Travel itineraries and health insurance be damned.