Jesus Summons Disciples
Jesus Summons Disciples
That Jesus actually called disciples to follow him, regardless of the consequences for livelihood and social ties (Mk 1:20; 2:14), suggests a perception of his identity quite different from that of the normal Jewish teacher. Normally disciples chose teachers; only the most radical teachers (here a comparison with Cynics and their ilk becomes more relevant than usual) called their own disciples, with the expectation that the disciples would follow.
While Jesus was a traditional Jewish teacher in some respects,87 he was not merely a traditional teacher.88 As one scholar observes, no one can question that Jesus called disciples;89 but the evidence indicates that, unlike other teachers, he never trained his disciples to replace him in all respects.90
Mark portrays Jesus calling his own disciples rather than waiting for them to come to him (Mk 1:16-20); as we have noted in ch. 12, this call of fishermen probably reflects authentic tradition. Jesus’ activity in this narrative differs from the most common practice, since disciples normally chose their teachers rather than the reverse.91 Early Jewish and Greek tradition most frequently assume that disciples are responsible for acquiring their own teachers of the law or philosophy.92 Despite exceptions, the more radical teachers who, like Jesus, sometimes even rejected prospective disciples (Mk 10:21-22), probably considered the disciple’s responsibility so weighty that many of them would have felt it dishonorable for the teacher to seek out the disciple.
Some scholars thus opine that Jesus’ seeking out disciples himself thus represents a serious breach of custom, “coming down to their level” socially.93 Although discipleship language in the Gospels is roughly the same as in other extant streams of Jewish tradition,94 some of Jesus’ methods mark him out as a radical teacher on the periphery of the more usual social institution. Probably Jesus selects as his model the prophetic way of choosing one’s successor found in 1 Kgs 19:19-21, as at least part of the gospel tradition may have recognized (cf. Lk 9:61-62). As “fishers for people,” their mission was primarily to “win back” the lost sheep of Israel,95 i.e., to serve as the nucleus for Jesus’ renewal movement.