The Reckless Love of God by Alex Early

Author:Alex Early [Early, Alex]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: REL012000, REL067000, God (Christianity)—Love
ISBN: 9781441269348
Publisher: Baker Publishing Group
Published: 2015-07-30T00:00:00+00:00

Four Groups

The gospel writers arranged the lists of disciples in groups. Group 1 always has Peter at the head of the list, followed by Andrew, James, and John. Group 2 has Philip first, followed by Bartholomew, Matthew, and Thomas. Group 3 is more distant, and its members are rarely mentioned. The only member of this group we know much about is Judas Iscariot—because of his betrayal of Jesus. Though there were twelve apostles, only three seem to have been intimately related to Jesus. The others seemed to have somewhat lesser degrees of personal familiarity with him.

Although Jesus was considered a rabbi, or great teacher, he did not follow all of the traditional customs of the day to a T. Rather, in significant ways he blazed his own new path toward making disciples. Here are a few examples of this rabbi who transcended the customary boxes of the day:

Rabbis usually had one disciple. Jesus had twelve.

Typically students would go through a lengthy application process that most could not pass.4 Jesus sought out his disciples instead of waiting for applications.

Rabbis leaned on others’ authority for teaching. Jesus spoke on his own authority and strongly impressed the learned religious community.5

Those that pursued discipleship often came from the upper echelon of the religious society. Jesus’ disciples differed. In fact, what is remarkable is that—contrary to what television documentaries and stained-glass windows portray—these twelve are not known for their superior backgrounds, miracles performed, or great faith and unwavering trust in God.

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