Unlikely Choices: What DID Jesus DO?
I was sitting in my usual seat in the back of the warehouse–our affectionate term for our church building because of its aesthetics.
The music had ended, and I was preparing for one of our pastors to speak briefly and pray before we headed to the various self-serve communion stations we’ve had set up around our building since Covid made the whole passing of the communion trays a no-no.
I wasn’t surprised to see Missy leave her seat a few minutes earlier, but I was surprised when I saw her pick up the handheld mic and take the stage as the music ended. She spoke briefly and prayed before we were dismissed from our seats for communion.
For the next few weeks, I sat and listened as different folks took the stage and spoke before communion–all sharing short narratives about their experiences with communion, a meditation related to communion, something God had placed on their hearts to help direct our hearts toward the celebration of communion.
Those weeks turned into months which have now turned into years.
Those few minutes before communion have become some of my favorites of our weekly service, as I sit, listen to, and typically tear up from the authenticity and rawness of these folks’ stories.
It’s funny because almost weekly, the individual speaking talks about how one of our pastors, Jason, cornered them, called them, or texted them and asked them to speak before communion. And, almost as often, the speaker laments how they don’t feel worthy, didn’t think they had anything valuable to offer, or wanted to say no.
Rarely does anyone get on stage and talk about how they’ve just been waiting for this opportunity.
I love this for so many reasons.
Having spent the first 25 years of my life in a church where women were forbidden to speak from the stage/pulpit, this does my deconstructionist/reconstructionist heart good.
Hearing the ways God is moving and nudging ordinary people in their everyday lives is so encouraging.
While some people might consider using the people in the odd seats to minister every week is strange, I love that God is still using and calling who we might consider the most unlikely choices.
Most of us are so used to hearing the pastors of our churches that we can easily forget that God is moving in the lives of so many other people sitting in the seats right beside us. We expect the paid staff of our churches to speak truth and healing, but God is in the business of using the most unlikely people in the most amazing ways.
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Unlikely Disciples
I grew up in the church hearing the story of how Jesus chose the fishermen Peter, Andrew, James and John to be his disciples. There were countless sermons on how they went from being fishermen to fishers of men as well as how Jesus chose these normal, working-class folks to follow him.
Luke records this narrative in chapter 5:
On one occasion, Jesus was preaching to a crowd on the shore of Lake Galilee. A vast multitude of people was pushing to get close to Jesus to hear the word of God. He noticed two fishing boats at the water’s edge, with the fishermen nearby, rinsing their nets. Jesus climbed into the boat belonging to Simon Peter and said to him, “Let me use your boat. Push it off a short distance away from the shore so I can speak to the crowd.”
Jesus sat down and taught the people from the boat. When he had finished, he said to Peter, “Now row out to deep water to cast your nets and you will have a great catch.”
“Master,” Peter replied, “we’ve just come back from fishing all night and didn’t catch a thing. But if you insist, we’ll go out again and let down our nets because of your word.”
When they pulled up their nets, they were shocked to see a huge catch of fish, and their nets were ready to burst! They waved to their business partners in the other boat for help. They ended up completely filling both boats with fish until they began to sink!
When Simon Peter saw this astonishing miracle, he knelt at Jesus’ feet and begged him, “Go away from me, Master, for I am a sinful man!”
Simon Peter and the other fishermen—including his fishing partners, Jacob and John, the sons of Zebedee—were awestruck over the miracle catch of fish.
Jesus answered, “Do not yield to your fear, Simon Peter. From now on, you will catch men for salvation!”
After pulling their boats to the shore, they left everything behind and followed Jesus.
Luke 5:1-11 TPT
If you’re like me and you’ve spent any amount of time in the church, you’ve probably heard this story so many times you can recite most of it by heart.
One major thing I’ve learned throughout my deconstruction/reconstruction is that we’re really good at taking archaic narratives from different cultures and attempting to Westernize them with little to no research into the aspects and details of the original culture. Notice I said “we” here because I’m guilty of it too.
This is one of those narratives that has so many layers to peel back, but we typically barely get through the top layer to all the good stuff at the core.
It wasn’t until just a few weeks ago when Jason (the same Jason who gets ordinary people to speak before communion) spoke on the Jewish education system that I began to think about the impact of Jesus’s choice of disciples on his ministry.
I really want to delve into the intricacies of this because they are so cool, but for the sake of my word count and your time, I’m just going to hit the highlights. If you find this as fascinating as I do, then I’d encourage you to check out this article:
https://www.thattheworldmayknow.com/rabbi-and-talmidim
Or, you can watch Jason’s sermon here:
https://www.facebook.com/Crossroads740/videos/298287236602869
Here are the Cliff’s Notes on the Mishnah or Education System of Jesus’s Day:
4 or 5 years old–begin education by learning/memorizing the Torah
10 years old–Reciting the Torah, Interpreting of the Torah while learning the family trade
15 years old–Rabbinic Interpretations/become a student of a rabbi
18 years old–Fit for Marriage
20 years old–Pursuing a Vocation
30 years old–Fit for Authority and Teaching Others
Everyone (boys and girls) went to school during those first few years–what we would consider elementary school. Only the best students went on from there to what we would consider middle school. The majority of students would be dismissed from school to learn their family’s trade instead of continuing their formal schooling. While they would still study with the other adults under the rabbi, they weren’t continuing on with formal education.
Then, only the best of the best, a handful of students would go on into what we would correlate to high school. These students were called talmidim–or disciples, and they would seek out one of the 25-30 rabbis with authority to study under and whose actions and teaching they would emulate.
Even fewer of the talamidim would go on to become one of those very rare rabbis with authority.
Jesus began his public ministry at 30 as a rabbi with authority.
Peter, Andrew, James, and John did not.
They were fishermen who, like most folks, had been dismissed from formal education during their tween or teen years and encouraged to learn and further the family’s trade.
These were not the likely choices of talmidim for a rabbi with authority–a rabbi who typically wouldn’t seek out disciples but be sought out by them.
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Cultural Expectations
Jesus participated in the education system of the day and gained the respect of the Jewish people by becoming a rabbi with authority, yet he turned the system upside down when he sought out and chose common fishermen as his disciples–but he could do this because he was a rabbi with authority who had earned the right to interpret and to teach.
We use the term “disciple” loosely today, but the intensity of a talamid/disciple during Jesus’s day was so much more. Disciples became intimately acquainted with their rabbi as they listened, watched, and imitated him. Their ultimate goal was to know their rabbi so well that they could then become teachers themselves and have their own talamidim/disciples.
And, that’s exactly what we see happen with Jesus and his relationships with his disciples just as that’s precisely what we’ve been called to in our own relationships with Christ.
Is your mind blown yet?
Jesus changed the narrative for all of us by choosing the most unlikely, ordinary, everyday folks as his talmidim. He was a rabbi with authority who could have easily waited for the best of the best to seek him out and apply to be his disciples, but he didn’t do that.
The people of Galilee would have understood this because they would have been intimately familiar with the education system and expectations for a rabbi with authority and likely with Jesus because he was a rabbi with authority at 30 when he began his ministry. They would have flocked to hear him speak, as they would have with any rabbi with authority. What they wouldn’t have expected or assumed was that Jesus would have chosen these everyday fishermen as his talamidim. For Peter, Andrew, James, and John, this would have been an immense honor and one that their culture had raised them to believe they didn’t deserve.
It would have been miraculous enough in and of itself for them to catch the tons and tons of fish they did with Jesus’s intervention. To then be called by Jesus himself and asked to be his disciples would have been an even greater and unexpected miracle for them.
Understanding this helps us peel back the layers to understand Peter’s response and why he felt so unworthy. It also helps us understand why the sons of Zebedee walked away from their dad and their occupations without so much as a second thought.
To be chosen as disciples by this rabbi with authority was an honor and distinction in their culture reserved for only a handful of people, but Jesus made himself accessible to the most unlikely choices.
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Unlikely Disciples Today
It’s easy to be idle in our faith. How easy would it have been for Peter, Andrew, James, and John to stick with fishing–to continue in the every day they knew and had been trained for? They could have made a million excuses–legitimate excuses–and told Jesus to find others who were better trained, better prepared, and culturally more acceptable than they were. That would have been understandable for them and their world.
They didn’t do that, though. They understood they weren’t trained, were unworthy in their culture’s eyes, and were the most unlikely choices, but they followed Jesus anyway.
They accepted their callings.
I can’t help but wonder how many of us are in that same boat as those fishermen:
We feel unworthy.
The church has deemed us “not good enough.”
Our every day is comfortable.
The world expects less of us.
We feel like we have nothing to offer.
But, despite all these things, Jesus chooses us–no matter how unlikely that choice may seem.
Maybe he’s calling you to:
Be that person who speaks before communion
Lead a ministry
Volunteer
Facilitate a small group
Write
Create a support group
But, you feel like the most unlikely choice.
Jesus flipped the script for us. He changed the narrative for us.
If he’s choosing you today, asking you to get out of the comfort of your boat and follow him into a new adventure, I pray today is the day you take that first step–even if you feel like the most unlikely choice.
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Reflections:
How does it change your perspective to understand the cultural implications connected to Jesus choosing his disciples?
What is it that Jesus is calling you to that you feel like you’re the most unlikely choice for?
