Word for the day by Christian Education Forum

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CALL OF DISCIPLESHIP
Mathew 4: 18-22

And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” (Vs.19)
Three words are important here in this call narrative of St. Mathew: call, command, and promise. These three categories are important in the sense they define the content, challenge, and hope of discipleship. Christian discipleship is a call, command, and promise.
Discipleship as a call: Invitation to discipleship comes to Simon peter, Andrew, James and John as a call. What is this call that gives us meaning in life? We live in a world where we hear many calls: the call of materialism, the call of market, and the noises of media. These are the calls sometimes distract our lives, divert our goals, and deform our values. We need to be vigilant to listen to “the sheer voice of God” which does not come to us as a noise but as a call or as secrete.. Dietrich Bonheoffer (The Cost of Discipleship, 68) rightly said: “Discipleship is not an offer man makes to Christ. It is only the call which creates the situation.”

Discipleship as a command: Jesus’ call is a command. “Follow me” is the command for them to become disciples. The command “follow me” comes to us with irresistible authority of Jesus. This authority of Jesus is a relative authority which is accountable to God the father and responsible for the one who follows it. Authority of the call is not something essential or given, rather; it is derived from the infinite responsibility of God to human beings. This divine command demands the radical obedience from human beings. It demands a creative response from those who follow the call. Discipleship as a command asks you where you are going and whom are you following. The discipleship as a command comes to us as an eruption and rupture. It a dangerous command!

 Discipleship as a promise: “I will make you fishers of men?” What kind of promise it is? It is a promise for the people who are willing to renounce everything for a creative response to the call.  It is a promise that demands a radical obedience. It is a promise who dares to be different in thought, word, and deed. It is a promise who listen the sheer sound of divine call in their daily occasion of life. It is a promise who follows the “call,” lives in the “call,” and lives for the call. Jesus promises those fishermen a re-imagined vocation, which is always angled towards the call of discipleship.

Jesus calls us to be his disciples, ie, continue to be in tune with his voice, commands, and promise. Inviting others into this call does not give us any preferential option or special privilege, rather; we become closer to the radical meaning of the call.

Prayer: Lord, our master, thank you for your call to be your disciples. Grant us the grace to be like you. Amen.

 Rev. Y. T. Vinayaraj, Chicago

 

 

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