Following in Discipleship

John 1.35-39a

This Bible study is based on a series of reflections about the meaning of discipleship by John Leach, an Anglican priest and discipleship adviser in the Diocese of Lincoln, which were first published in 2017 by the Bible Reading Fellowship. Where appropriate, I have given them a Methodist twist.

There has often been a view, for which John Wesley is partly responsible, that becoming a Christian is a one-off, static thing, a single episode rather than a process. We are saved, to use John Wesley’s terminology, we can know that we have been saved, and we are saved to the utmost. Wesley even believed that it was possible for a disciple to become a perfect Christian, perfect in faith and morals at any rate, although modern psychologists might doubt that.

If we are talking about becoming a Christian, crossing the line between belief and unbelief, doubt and conviction, then Wesley might be right. We can know that we have become believers and some of us can know exactly when it happened. Sometimes it happens more than once. People cross and recross the line, but it is still a static line that they are crossing.

But discipleship is dynamic. It’s a journey, a pilgrimage. It can begin tentatively, with faltering steps, and grow gradually more confident. It can meander a little. It can last a lifetime and the horizon can be forever changing as we journey on. It’s exciting, challenging, an adventure.

This is the sense in which we follow a career path, follow someone’s example, follow a team, follow a route to our destination, follow through on an idea or follow a school of thought.

The disciples did indeed follow Jesus on a physical journey, beginning when they left their nets and followed him up the mountain to be chosen to be his apostles, and continuing as they followed him around Galilee, to Jerusalem, to the cross, to the empty tomb and to the ends of the earth. St Peter is supposed to have ended up in Rome and Thomas in India.

But it was also more than a physical journey. It was a spiritual awakening as well. They set out not really understanding who Jesus was and ended it acknowledging him as their Lord and God.

In today’s Gospel reading Jesus’ two new disciples weren’t even sure who they were following, or where they were going, or why. They were following him only on the recommendation of their previous leader, John. The only thing they had been told was that Jesus was destined to be the Lamb of God, but they didn’t understand yet what that would mean. His invitation to them was to ‘come and see’. It was an invitation to a journey of discovery.

What does that mean for us? It means, I think, that we can be disciples without having all the answers, without a great many certainties, despite our doubts and hesitation. It means we are challenged to embark on the journey, or continue it, without knowing precisely where we are going, either as individuals or as a church. It means - despite what John Wesley may have said - that we don’t need to become perfect or do the perfect thing, but we do have to try.

Discipleship means seizing opportunities, living in the moment, accepting God’s guidance and - above all - being prepared to follow in a really dynamic and faithful way.

Based on ideas by John Leach in Guidelines, July 2017, Bible Reading Fellowship

QUESTIONS for reflection

1. How do you feel about the idea of discipleship as ‘an invitation to a journey of discovery’? 
2. Where do you feel you are on the journey?
3. What aspects of discipleship do you find exciting or challenging?
4. The first disciples had no idea where they would be going with Jesus or why. What is your understanding of where discipleship is taking us and why?
5. What does dynamic and faithful discipleship look like today?