Feb 2: Take the Extra Step

And seeing the multitudes, He went up on a mountain, and when He was seated His disciples came to Him. Then He opened His mouth and taught them, saying: (Mathew 5:1-2)

Jesus was extremely popular for the right reasons. Within a short span of starting his public ministry, He had done some amazing miracles. Converting water to wine at a wedding party (John 2), cleansing a leper, healing a paralytic (Luke 5) and restoring a man with withered hand (Luke 6) – Jesus was on a roll. Here are the words of Mathew his disciple who was witnessing the whole thing: “And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all kinds of sickness and all kinds of disease among the people. Then His fame went throughout all Syria; and they brought to Him all sick people who were afflicted with various diseases and torments, and those who were demon-possessed, epileptics, and paralytics; and He healed them. Great multitudes followed Him—from Galilee, and from Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea, and beyond the Jordan.” (Mathew 4:23-25, emphasis mine)

Can you close your eyes and imagine the scenes? If Jesus walked among us today, it would be easy to find him. Just look at the GPS and see which roads have been blocked by people traffic! There would be police following Jesus trying to manage traffic wherever he went. Another eyewitness report says “And the whole multitude sought to touch Him, for power went out from Him and healed them all.” (Luke 6:19) Jesus was like a live electric line – touch it and get zapped! And voila, all pain and disease gone.

But in today’s scripture verse, there is a minor detail that I think teaches us something deeper on discipleship. Go to your bible and read Mathew 4:23 onwards and when you reach 5:1, slow down and read carefully. It says “seeing the multitudes, He went up on a mountain and when He was seated His disciples came to Him. Then He opened His mouth and taught them saying:” (emphasis mine). A similar verbiage is used to describe this portion in Luke 6:20 which says “Then He lifted His eyes towards His disciples, and said:”. Notice that even though a huge crowd was following Jesus, the author emphasizes that Jesus directed his teachings towards His disciples, after His disciples followed Him there. I wonder why the word ‘disciples’ is used, instead of ‘multitudes’. It is very likely that even though thousands of people followed Jesus to get healed and cured, a much smaller group was keen to learn from Jesus. This was a group that was not just following Christ for benefits, but seemed genuinely interested in what He had to say. They were students with a notepad, eagerly writing down what their teacher spoke.

The teachings in Mathew 5, 6 & 7 are perhaps the most powerful words spoken by Jesus. He brought new light to the ten commandments and revealed that God looked at the heart more than the physical actions themselves (like anger being equivalent to murder, or lust being the same as adultery). His words would become the light of men, and transform them to be more like Him. This new teaching would bring true liberty and freedom to mankind and restore his relationship with God. But all of this happened only because some people took the extra step of following Jesus. Those people were called ‘disciples’.

My challenge for you today is: spend some extra time in God’s presence. Do you normally pray for 10 minutes. Why don’t you try 30? Or 60? And when you pray, take your Bible and a notepad and nothing else with you. Remove all distractions, and start worshipping Him for who He is. Once you are satisfied that you have given God the glory that is due to Him, open the Bible and ask Jesus to speak to you. Then write down whatever is coming to your heart, even if it is a verse that you just read. And see how God will start dealing with you differently as a disciple over someone who follows Jesus only for miracles.