Are you a student or a disciple?

What's the difference?

A student wants to know what his teacher knows. A disciple wants to be who his rabbi is.

I wanted to take a quick break to present this to you as it opens up a lot of Scripture for our Americanized 21st-century minds.

In Jesus' day, most of Judea was not that educated. Girls did not go to school. Many boys did not go to school and were illiterate. However, Galilee, where Jesus spent most of His earthly ministry, was very educated. Both boys and girls went to school.

Boys were to memorize the Torah (the first five books of the Old Testament) by the age of 12. Girls were to memorize Psalms, Proverbs, and Deuteronomy. Some, probably most, of you have a lot of catching up to do. If a boy had successfully memorized the Torah by 12, he continued studying the Hebrew Scriptures until he was 15. During this time, he also learned his family's trade. Girls were expected to be married during this period.

Once a boy reached 15, he would seek out a rabbi and ask, "May I follow you?" He was really asking, "Do I have what it takes to become like you?" If the rabbi approved of him, he would accept him and the boy would become his talmid, or disciple. He would follow the rabbi everywhere, very carefully observing everything the rabbi did, so he could be just like him. The rabbi would teach him how to interpret the Scriptures. If the boy progressed, then when he turned 30, he could become a rabbi himself.

Now, there were two types of rabbis. Most of our translations refer to the first type as "teachers of the Law." These were the Torah teachers and they had students. Torah teachers towed the party line, so to speak. They could not introduce new teaching, and relied on the other type of rabbi.

The other type of rabbi was a rabbi s'mikeh. We find this in Matthew 7. The people said that Jesus did not teach like the other teachers of the Law, Torah teachers, but as one "having authority", s'mikeh. A rabbi s'mikeh had the entire Tanakh memorized. He could introduce new teachings, "you have heard it said... but I say unto you..." He also was the only rabbi with disciples. This is the type of rabbi that young men sought out when they wanted to become disciples. S'mikeh had to be given to such a rabbi by two other rabbis with s'mikeh.

How did Jesus get s'mikeh? He was the Son of God, of course. But, remember, that according to Philippians 2, He emptied Himself. He was fully God, but He was fully man. In His humanity, He did the work to memorize the Tanakh. From whom did he get s'mikeh? Who else had disciples?

John the Baptist also had s'mikeh. What did John say when he saw Jesus coming to the Jordan? "Hey, look! God's Lamb! For the world's sins!" (literal Greek) He baptized Jesus, and then Mark's gospel records, "immediately, coming out of the water, He saw the heavens parting and the Spirit descending upon Him like a dove. Then a voice came from heaven, 'You are My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.'" Jesus received s'mikeh from John and from God. Jesus is the only rabbi s'mikeh in all of history to ever get His s'mikeh directly from God.

Also different, Jesus chose His own disciples.

Consider what this means about the age of the disciples. They weren't old, bearded men like you see in the movies. They were teenagers:

When they came to Caper'na-um, the collectors of the half-shekel tax went up to Peter and said, "Does not your teacher pay the tax?" He said, "Yes." And when he came home, Jesus spoke to him first, saying, "What do you think, Simon? From whom do kings of the earth take toll or tribute? From their sons or from others?" And when he said, "From others," Jesus said to him, "Then the sons are free. However, not to give offense to them, go to the sea and cast a hook, and take the first fish that comes up, and when you open its mouth you will find a shekel; take that and give it to them for me and for yourself."

Matthew 17:24-27

What is this half-shekel tax? It's from Exodus 30:13-14:

Each who is numbered in the census shall give this: half a shekel according to the shekel of the sanctuary (the shekel is twenty gerahs), half a shekel as an offering to the LORD. Every one who is numbered in the census, from twenty years old and upward, shall give the LORD's offering.

Jesus provided the tax for Himself and Peter. Why not the other disciples? Why did only Jesus and Peter have to pay? Only Jesus and Peter were over twenty years old!

Read through the gospels again and you'll notice, over and over, Jesus calls His disciples children. I find this particularly beautiful: After the resurrection, the disciples are out fishing all night and haven't caught anything. John 21 depicts it this way:

Just as day was breaking, Jesus stood on the beach; yet the disciples did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to them, "Children, have you any fish?" They answered him, "No." He said to them, "Cast the net on the right side of the boat, and you will find some."

If you look at it in the Greek, the word is for "sons, little children." So, what He in essence said was, "Boys! Got any fish?"

A modern rabbi has level this criticism at Christianity, "Christians like to speak of being disciples of Jesus, but they are ignorant. How can they be like Jesus if they do not know Jesus. Any Christian who claims to be a disciple and does not read through the Gospels at least once a week is a liar."

There's your challenge.