What is a Disciple?

Luke 5:1-5:39

Last week we had a glimpse, through Luke 4, of the life of Jesus after his fasting and temptation experience in the desert. He was now going from town to town, teaching with astounding wisdom and authority, and miraculously healing people. He was becoming more and more well known, and whenever news spread that Jesus was back in town, the crowds left what they were doing to find Him and listen and watch.

One day as Jesus was standing by the Lake of Gennesaret, with the people crowding around Him and listening to the word of God, He saw at the water's edge two boats, left there by the fishermen, who were washing their nets. He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little from shore. Then He sat down and taught the people from the boat. – Luke 5:1-3

Have you ever been in a crowd that is so tightly packed that it is hard to keep your “comfort space” – where you can’t really control where you end up? The Greek word here for crowding around describes something like this. Picture the situation – because it is not that easy to hear, people are pushing and pressing on, trying to get closer so they can hear. It is not a comfortable situation, and might even become dangerous.

Jesus saw two boats at the edge of Lake Gennesaret (also known as the Sea of Galilee), and so He went into one of them and asked the owner, Simon (later known as Peter), to go out a bit from shore. Peter did this, and Jesus then sat down and taught the people from boat. How did this affect the crowds? They no doubt spread out along the shore. Now a much larger group of people was able to see Jesus as He taught, and so the pressure of the crowd dissipated, resulting in a much safer situation.

If you wonder what the boats were like, I need to tell you about something amazing that happened in 1986, just 22 years ago. That year there was a major drought in Israel, and the water level of the Sea of Galilee fell to the lowest level anyone could ever remember, much like our current situation in Lake Hartwell and our other lakes. The low level of water revealed many things never seen before, including a plank sticking out of the water. The plank turned out to be part of a boat, a boat now dated to about the time of Jesus. The boat had been made out of used wood from other boats, and the wood was dated to about 40 BC. This boat is the only example of a fishing boat from that era that we now have. The picture above shows this boat. It is about 27 feet long, and could either be rowed or propelled by a sail. The boat has been nicknamed the “Jesus boat.” The picture below is a recreation of what people think boats like this looked like in their prime.

Luke does not reveal to us what Jesus taught on this occasion. Instead, he tells us what happened when Jesus’ teaching was over.

When He had finished speaking, He said to Simon, "Put out into deep water, and let down the nets for a catch." Simon answered, "Master, we've worked hard all night and haven't caught anything. But because you say so, I will let down the nets." – Luke 5:4-5

Now Simon and his partners were professional fishermen. The types of nets they used were probably trammel nets. These were large nets, perhaps about 100 feet long, tied together and let down in deep water. A modern trammel net consists of two or three layers of netting with a slack small mesh inner netting between two layers of large mesh netting within which fish will entangle. They are kept nearly vertical with floats on top and weights on the bottom. When the nets are lifted out of the water, the fish must be quickly disentangled from the nets. Between catches, the nets are cleaned and, if needed, repaired.

Simon and his partners had fished all night, Luke says, and gotten nothing. What was Simon thinking here? Did he think Jesus should stick to preaching and leave the fishing to the professionals? Perhaps. But he decides, for reasons we aren’t told, to agree to Jesus’ request and go out one more time.

When they had done so, they caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to break. So they signaled their partners in the other boat to come and help them, and they came and filled both boats so full that they began to sink. – Luke 5:6-7

What happened? Simon and his partner were amazed! The nets were absolutely filled with fish! They couldn’t disentangle the fish quickly enough, and all the thrashing was starting to destroy their nets. So they shouted or in some other way got the attention of their partners in the other boat, and they came out to help. There were so many fish, piles and piles of fish, that their weight was too much for the boats!

This was not just a really good fishing day. Simon was a professional fisherman. Not only had he never before in his life had a day like this, he had never heard of anyone ever having a day like this. The only way to describe what was happening here was to say that it was a miracle of God. And the only conclusion to draw was that this Jesus person knew it would happen, or He caused it to happen. Either way, Simon Peter had just come face to face with the fact that God, the holy creator of the Universe, was right now paying close attention to Simon Peter, as was this Jesus person, His servant. What was Simon’s response?

When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus' knees and said, "Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!" For he and all his companions were astonished at the catch of fish they had taken, and so were James and John, the sons of Zebedee, Simon's partners. – Luke 5:8-10a

His response was similar to that of Isaiah. Recall what he had said: "Woe to me!" I cried. "I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty."- Isaiah 6:5

Simon felt the same way. As he became acutely aware of God’s power, he felt like he too had seen the Lord Almighty – this Jesus person was not a regular man. And he felt like he too was ruined. For how can a sinful man stand in the presence of the Lord and live?

Then Jesus said to Simon, "Don't be afraid; from now on you will catch men." So they pulled their boats up on shore, left everything and followed Him. – Luke 5:10b-11

It is interesting to me how Jesus’ response is like that of the angels: Don’t be afraid. That simple message is at the heart of the gospel. We too stand before Jesus; we too become aware of our sin when we do this. But Jesus does not condemn us; because He has paid the price for us, because He has redeemed us, we should not be afraid. Instead, we should respond like Simon and his partners: become His disciples. For that is exactly what they did when they “left everything and followed Him”; they became His disciples.

What does it look like to become a disciple? This verse describes two actions: leaving everything and following Him. If we are to be disciples ourselves, we have our first two lessons: Disciples leave things behind. Disciples follow Jesus. How does this apply to us? What should we leave? Are we supposed to quit our jobs and just read our Bibles all day? No, but I believe all of us are called to leave something behind. For most of us I believe it involves giving up some things that were part of a self-centered life and replacing them with things or activities that focus on others. Following Him includes listening to Him to learn what those things are that we are to leave behind, and listening to Him describe to us what we are to do instead. This is not something we just do at the moment of salvation. It is a lifelong process. As time goes on in our relationship with the Lord, He will bring up new things to leave behind and new ways of following Him. Being a disciple means learning to listen and then choosing to follow.

And Jesus also says this astounding thing: From now on you will catch men. The word for "catch," zogreo, means to capture alive, similar to the fish that were caught alive in the nets. It is used in only one other place, 2 Tim. 2:26, which describes people who oppose Timothy as people whom the devil has taken captive (zogreo) to do his will. I would say that everyone is captured alive. Each person is either captured alive by the love of Jesus, or they are captured alive by the hate of the devil. As disciples of Jesus we too are fishermen. Disciples fish for men. We are to “capture alive” men, in some sense stealing them out of Satan’s nets.

While Jesus was in one of the towns, a man came along who was covered with leprosy. When he saw Jesus, he fell with his face to the ground and begged Him, "Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean." Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. "I am willing," He said. "Be clean!" And immediately the leprosy left him. – Luke 5:12-13

We are not sure exactly what the Bible meant by leprosy. It probably referred to a number of diseases of the skin – but a commonality was that the diseases were infectious, that they could be spread from one person to another. Leviticus 13 goes into a great deal of detail about skin diseases, their diagnoses and response. One thing it says is this:

The person with such an infectious disease must wear torn clothes, let his hair be unkempt, cover the lower part of his face and cry out, 'Unclean! Unclean!' As long as he has the infection he remains unclean. He must live alone; he must live outside the camp. – Lev. 13:45-46

Imagine you lived in Biblical times and had such a disease. What would life be like? Horrible! You would be shunned, and would have to draw attention to yourself wherever you went to make sure that you were shunned. You would be alone. If you had had a family, you would have had to leave them. Would you have hope for a cure? No. There were only two cases of cures of leprosy in the Old Testament: Miriam, who only had it for a week (a result of her speaking against Moses, in Numbers 12), and Naaman, who was cured of it by bathing in the Jordan river seven times, as told to do so by Elijah. It had been about 700 years since anyone had been healed of leprosy! And yet, this man, who doesn’t just have a little leprosy, but is covered in it, violates the rules of keeping his distance and shouting “Unclean!” but instead bows to the ground before Jesus and says, “Lord, if You are willing You can make me clean.”

The leper could be beaten or even stoned for violating the rules of his condition. He must have known Jesus’ reputation as a healer, and so he takes the risk and asks to be healed. The man has great faith! Although it has been 700 years since anyone has been healed of leprosy, he has faith that Jesus can do it, if He simply wants to. Does Jesus want to? Yes! “I am willing,” He says. “Be clean!” And just like that, instantaneously, his sores are completely gone.

Did you notice that Jesus touched the man before he was healed? How do you think that simple touch affected the leprous man? It had to be a powerful experience. It had probably been years and years since anyone had touched him. That touch was as healing to his soul as it was to his body. For us disciples, I believe this is an important lesson for us as well. We should not hesitate to touch the untouchable. When I was a volunteer at the Salvation Army homeless men’s shelter in Illinois back in graduate school, a good number of the men were clearly suffering from AIDS. Simply shaking their hands had a powerful effect. This was never natural for me to do – each time I did it, there was a short battle within me that ended with me telling God I trusted Him. As we minister to a hurting world around us, let us not be afraid to touch.

Then Jesus ordered him, "Don't tell anyone, but go, show yourself to the priest and offer the sacrifices that Moses commanded for your cleansing, as a testimony to them." Yet the news about Him spread all the more, so that crowds of people came to hear Him and to be healed of their sicknesses. But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed. – Luke 5:14-16

Leviticus 14 gives detailed instructions for someone who has been healed from leprosy. How often did this happen? Just about never. Jesus tells him to go do the things this chapter says to do, as a testimony to them. No doubt the temple records showed that this man was a leprosy sufferer. To go back and ask for the cleansing rituals and sacrifices to take place would be quite a shock! The priests probably would have to look up the instructions in Leviticus 14 themselves, since they were never used. No doubt this would have a profound effect on the priests.

Jesus wants the man to tell the priests, but not to tell anyone else. Why? I think one reason was because of the crowds, which were already, as we saw in the beginning of the chapter, getting out of control. More publicity will make it difficult for Jesus to travel anywhere or do anything. In addition, Jesus was following the Holy Spirit, and God had a specific timing for the events that were going to happen. It was too early for Jesus to be identified as the Messiah and be crucified because of it. He still had a critical task to do: make disciples! They were not yet trained to be fishers of men. There was much they needed to learn and understand. Do you realize that making disciples was Jesus' primary task for the next few years?

Did the man obey Jesus’ instructions about keeping quiet? It doesn’t look like it. It is possible that word spread from other eyewitnesses, but regardless, the crowds grew larger and larger wherever He went. The demands on Jesus’ time grew and grew. Did He become like we often become, overworked and overstressed? No. He often withdrew to lonely places and prayed. As His disciples, this is a powerful lesson for us. Disciples should place a priority of alone times with God over the business of daily life.

One day as He was teaching, Pharisees and teachers of the law, who had come from every village of Galilee and from Judea and Jerusalem, were sitting there. And the power of the Lord was present for Him to heal the sick. Some men came carrying a paralytic on a mat and tried to take him into the house to lay him before Jesus. When they could not find a way to do this because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and lowered him on his mat through the tiles into the middle of the crowd, right in front of Jesus. – Luke 5:17-19

Try to picture this situation. First of all, it is important to understand that the typical house had a flat roof designed to be able to carry people’s weight. There was usually a ladder from the outside of the house to the roof. There was also a low wall around the roof so people wouldn’t easily fall off. An example of such a house built sometime between 200BC and 900BC is shown below.

This design goes all the way back to Deuteronomy:

When you build a new house, make a parapet around your roof so that you may not bring the guilt of bloodshed on your house if someone falls from the roof. – Deut. 22:8

Of course this structure also explains the famous passage in Proverbs:

Better to live on a corner of the roof than share a house with a quarrelsome wife. – Prov. 24:5

Back to our passage! These friends of the paralytic, a man who was paralyzed and could not walk, wanted to bring him to Jesus, but the crowds were too large. They then came up with the brazen idea of going up to the roof, making a hole, and lowering their friend down through the hole! If I didn’t know better I would say these guys must have been college students.

Imagine the scene from the point of view of those listening to Jesus in the house below. First they hear some noises on the roof. They hear the sound of tiles being moved. Then they hear scraping sounds as the mixture of mud and straw that makes up the substance of the roof is removed. Probably pieces of dried mud are falling down in the room below. What a distraction! Did Jesus continue to teach? Eventually a hole appears, and it gets bigger, and bigger, and bigger.

What did the owner of the house think? Did he look frustratingly towards Jesus? Did Jesus motion for him not to get upset? How would you feel if it was your house? Eventually down from the hole comes the paralytic, lowered down carefully on his mat right into the middle of the crowd, right before Jesus.

When Jesus saw their faith, he said, "Friend, your sins are forgiven." The Pharisees and the teachers of the law began thinking to themselves, "Who is this fellow who speaks blasphemy? Who can forgive sins but God alone?" Jesus knew what they were thinking and asked, "Why are you thinking these things in your hearts? Which is easier: to say, 'Your sins are forgiven,' or to say, 'Get up and walk'? – Luke 5:20-23

Whose faith did Jesus see? Their faith. This must include the faith of the friends of the paralytic, and apparently it includes the faith of the paralytic himself. But rather than healing him, Jesus says something that He knew had to provoke and challenge the Pharisees and teachers of the law: Friend, your sins are forgiven.

The Pharisees actually were thinking correctly when they asked, "Who can forgive sins but God alone?" Exactly! By calling this blasphemy, they were thinking one correct conclusion: Jesus was claiming to be God. But they were unable or unwilling to entertain an even more challenging idea, that perhaps Jesus was God. They just couldn’t mentally go there.

Jesus reads their thoughts and asks them, which is easier to say? “Your sins are forgiven”? Or “Get up and walk”? What is the answer? Anyone can say “Your sins are forgiven,” but who can tell if they really are? On the other hand, to say “Get up and walk” will immediately show you to be either a phony or the real deal.

"But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins...." He said to the paralyzed man, "I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home." Immediately he stood up in front of them, took what he had been lying on and went home praising God. Everyone was amazed and gave praise to God. They were filled with awe and said, "We have seen remarkable things today." – Luke 5:24-26

Jesus is the real deal. Immediately, the paralytic can walk! The whole place erupts, praising God for this incredible miracle. But how many of them contemplated what had happened just before? Jesus had just proven that He was a man blessed by God, the real deal. He had just said He had the power and authority to forgive sins. After this miracle, who could doubt it? What about the implications that Jesus must somehow be God? Deal with it! Unfortunately, later evidence shows that they, by and large, were not willing to deal with it.

After this, Jesus went out and saw a tax collector by the name of Levi sitting at his tax booth. "Follow Me," Jesus said to him, and Levi got up, left everything and followed him. Then Levi held a great banquet for Jesus at his house, and a large crowd of tax collectors and others were eating with them. – Luke 5:27-29

Think about the people Jesus is spending time with in this chapter. First some simple, uneducated fishermen. Then a leper. Next, a paralytic. Now, a tax collector! Although Jesus will allow the educated Pharisees and teachers to come hear Him, they have to come to Him. In contrast, Jesus goes to the fishermen and the tax collector, and He heals the leper and the paralytic. Jesus is not impressed by those that the world is impressed by, and He is not particularly concerned about impressing them.

Regarding tax collectors, there were several different kinds. Those who had booths, like Levi, often had their booths on trade routes and had the task of collecting taxes on goods being transported. As I have explained in previous messages, tax collectors were free to extort and collect more than they were entitled; the excess was pure profit for them. Tax collectors, specifically, Jewish tax collectors, were also hated because they were seen as traitors. They served Rome instead of serving their own people. Tax collectors made a good living, but they did so at the cost of any kind of respect. Decent people would have nothing to do with them. A modern analogy might be a strip club owner.

Jesus chooses a man like this, and says, "Follow Me!" If you are wondering who Levi is, who he becomes, he becomes an apostle, the apostle also known as Matthew, the tax collector. Why did he do it? Why did he give up dishonest tax collecting? Why did he leave his booth right then and there to follow Jesus? Part of it had to be simply how Jesus spoke to him. Matthew was a universally hated man, almost as much despised as the leper. Sitting in his booth on a prominent road, everyone knew him by sight. And yet Jesus invites him to come follow Him.

This wasn’t all; it wasn’t enough. The Holy Spirit had to be at work in his heart, telling him that this was no ordinary man. Matthew probably hated his life, even though it had brought him wealth. Here was a second chance. There would probably never be a third. Matthew took it.

He liked Jesus, and decided to throw a huge banquet at his nice house for Him. In the Greek, it is a mega party. Who did he invite? He invited his friends. What do you think they were like? What type of friends do you think a strip club owner has? You get the idea. These were other people rejected by the pious Jews. Some of them simply chose not to follow the Jewish laws. Some probably didn’t believe in God at all; others just saw the hypocrisy of the Pharisees and decided to worship God in their own way, apart from the synagogues. The thing they had in common is that the Pharisees didn’t like them and branded them as “sinners.” And at this party, in the middle of this group, having a great time, making friends with many of them, is Jesus.

But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law who belonged to their sect complained to his disciples, "Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and 'sinners'?" Jesus answered them, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." – Luke 5:30-32

Doctors would love for us to visit them once a year for a regular check up, but how many of us do this? Most of us wait until we are sick. It has always been this way. Jesus’ answer of course, is barbed. Are the Pharisees and teachers righteous? No. They are just as much sinners as everyone else. In fact, they may be held even more accountable, given their positions as religious leaders. Do they get this? Probably not. But we do.

Is there a lesson for us disciples? You bet. One of the best places to find fish is in the murky water. As fishers of men, we should never look at someone and presume that he or she will not listen to the gospel. Remember Levi! Disciples look for fish everywhere.

They said to him, "John's disciples often fast and pray, and so do the disciples of the Pharisees, but yours go on eating and drinking." Jesus answered, "Can you make the guests of the bridegroom fast while he is with them? But the time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them; in those days they will fast." – Luke 5:33-35

What is Jesus saying? He is saying that now is the time to celebrate, not fast, because He is with them. But He also hints at His future death with the last comment. Jesus’ purpose is not to teach His disciples to fast, but to fish.

He told them this parable: "No one tears a patch from a new garment and sews it on an old one. If he does, he will have torn the new garment, and the patch from the new will not match the old. And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the new wine will burst the skins, the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, new wine must be poured into new wineskins. And no one after drinking old wine wants the new, for he says, 'The old is better.' " – Luke 5:36-39

What does this parable mean? Let’s start with the garments. Matthew and Mark, in their parallel accounts (Matt. 9:16, Mark 2:21) describe the new garment as agnaphos, unshrunk cloth. What will happen if you sew an unshrunk cloth onto a already-shrunk cloth? When you wash it, the new patch will shrink and the patch will not line up. It will be wrinkled mess. And of course, cutting a hole in the new cloth wastes and ruins that cloth as well.

What about the wineskins? In the warm weather of Israel, grapes would begin to ferment almost as soon as they were picked. For a first stage of fermentation, crushed grapes would simply sit in vats. The new wine would then be separated from the solids in the vats (i.e., strained) and poured either into clay jars lined with pitch or into animal skins (wineskins).

Wineskins were often made from whole tanned goatskins. The legs and tail were cut off and the holes sealed. The wine was poured in, and then the neck was sealed. As fermentation continued, carbon dioxide gas would be produced, and the skins would expand almost to the breaking point. Job uses the image of a puffed up wineskin in his writings:

For I am full of words, and the spirit within me compels me; inside I am like a bottled [plugged]-up wine, like new wineskins ready to burst. – Job 32:18-19

The wine would be kept in the skins for several months, at the end of which, the fermentation process would be complete. The leather would no longer be able to stretch, its resiliency gone. What would happen if you put new wine into an old wineskin? It wouldn’t be able to stretch with the fermentation process and would burst.

So with the word pictures of garments and wineskins, Jesus says, don’t try to mix the new with the old. What does He mean by this? What is Jesus bringing, something new or something old? Something new! The gospel is new news! Go back to verse 30; the Pharisees asked, “Why are you hanging out with these losers? Why are you partying with them? Why are you not acting like the Pharisees or even John’s disciples?”

Jesus’ answer is, “Don’t try to mix the old with the new.” The gospel is like a new cloth or a new wineskin. To use the picture from John, it is a new birth. Don’t try to attach it to the old!

So what about Jesus’ final comment? No one after drinking old wine wants the new, for he says, “The old is better.” Here is my understanding of this somewhat cryptic comment. Does Jesus mean that the old is better? No! Jesus is explaining the attitude of the Pharisees, not saying that it is right. Jesus is saying that the safe, comfortable ways of man-made rules and man-made definitions of righteousness are hard to leave behind.

But we need to leave them behind! For us disciples, Jesus final message is this: Disciples do not try to stick the reality of new life in Christ into man-made legalistic rules. We have an incredible freedom in Christ! We are not called to look holy, but to be holy. Real holiness includes hanging out with “sinners.” Real righteousness involves loving God and loving our neighbor, not pleasing our critics. The old wine may taste good, but it is not for us.