A Homeless Peasant Born in a Feeding Trough

Preston Sprinkle

The following post is the opening paragraphs of my forthcoming book, Go: Returning Discipleship to the Front Lines of Faithhich is due to release on September 15th. 

He was an unmarried peasant who was executed by the state for treason. Many of his friends were criminals, sinners, thugs, and misfits. Few of them were religious. He got kicked out his home church (or synagogue) after saying things that offended the status quo. He spent most of his time with drunks, gluttons, fornicators, and thieves. He was so close to “sinners” that the religious leaders thought he was one. And nearly everything he said and did made religious people mad. Like when he told them to turn the other cheek, love their enemies, and give their money to the poor.

Jesus—the Jewish prophet-king from Nazareth—was dangerous. He wasn’t tame. He wasn’t predictable. He wasn’t safe.

Even though he befriended immoral people, he upheld a moral standard that was so impossible to obey that he walked out of a grave for us to attain it. He wasn’t very sensitive to those seeking to follow him. He never eased anyone into the kingdom or said things that people wanted to hear. Jesus was a hard-hitting, enemy-loving, harlot-embracing, wild-eyed Messiah, who resisted doing things the way we’ve always done them. The biblical Jesus hits us between the eyes with truth and embraces us with tears when we disobey that truth. Jesus demanded that “if anyone would come after me”—that is, become a disciple—“let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me” (Luke 9:23). As Dietrich Bonheoffer used to say, “When Jesus calls a man, he bids him come and die.”

In this book we will explore what it means to become like Jesus, which means it’s a book about discipleship. When we talk about “becoming more like Jesus” we’ve got to slam our clichés on the operating table and dissect them to see if they’re biblical. And this book is going to serve as the surgeon. When we talk about discipleship and becoming more Christ-like, we’ve got to keep asking: What does it mean to become like Jesus?

The Moral Jesus of Therapeutic Deism

As we’ll see, discipleship means becoming more like Jesus. This doesn’t necessarily mean we should sell our homes and walk around the streets as homeless peasants. But I do think we need to take a fresh look at the scandalous nature of becoming Christ-like.

If I can be completely honest, I’ve never had a huge desire to write a book about discipleship (don’t tell my publisher). I just figured that all the pastors and churches in America are doing a pretty good job. And if it ain’t broke, why write a book about it?

But then I read the recent Barna study The State of Discipleship, and my desire to write this book was ignited. In 2014, the international outreach ministry The Navigators commissioned The Barna Group, a Christian research firm, to perform an extensive survey of adult Christians, Christian scholars and influencers, and ministry and church leaders about their understanding and practice of discipleship. Some of the results of that study were informative; others were encouraging. But many of the results were depressing. We’ll unpack some of the depressing details in due time, but to sum it up: The American church is not doing very well at discipling its people. Which is a bit problem since discipleship means becoming like Christ.

The State of Discipleship revealed that our methods of making disciples are broken. Whatever we’re doing, it’s not working. Few churches and Christian leaders are effectively helping people become more like Jesus. Reading the results of that study really fired me up to want to write this book. Once I realized that our methods of making disciples have proved ineffective, that’s when I decided to peek behind the curtain to see what was going on.

  • Share this story:

RELATED BLOGS

podcast-image
Sexual Self-Knowledge

How We are Formed by Christ in Being Aware of our own Sexual Desires As a professor of theology at...

Read Story
podcast-image
The Cultural Context for the Hair Length/Style vs. Head-coverings Debate in 1 Cor 11: The Meaning of Kephalē part 12

In my previous post, I analyzed the linguistic arguments concerning whether Paul is talking about hair style/length or head-coverings in...

Read Story
podcast-image
Paul’s Language of Hairstyles or Head-coverings in 1 Cor 11: The Meaning of Kephalē Part 11

Introduction  1 Corinthians 11:2-16 is an exegetical minefield. Almost every line is subject to debate. Some even seem downright heretical,...

Read Story
podcast-image
Lucy Peppiatt’s View of 1 Corinthians 11: The Meaning of Kephalē Part 10

I don’t know how many of you read endnotes, but in the last post, I buried a comment in note...

Read Story
podcast-image
A Complementarian Reading of 1 Corinthians 11:2-16: The Meaning of Kephalē part 9

Introduction  This post is part 9 of my ongoing series on the meaning of kephalē (“head”) in Paul’s letters, where I’m trying...

Read Story
podcast-image
Orphan Care Journey: Calling Revisited

By Brandon Stiver. Learn more about Brandon here and get help to transform your orphanage here. This blog post is the last in...

Read Story
podcast-image
Orphan Care Journey: Experience

By Brandon Stiver. Learn more about Brandon here and get help to transform your orphanage here. This blog post is the second in...

Read Story
podcast-image
Orphan Care Journey: Calling

By Brandon Stiver. Learn more about Brandon here and get help to transform your orphanage here. This blog post is the first in...

Read Story
podcast-image
What Does “Head” (Kephalē) Mean in Paul’s Letters? Part 8: Ephesians 5:23

Introduction We come now to the first of our two highly anticipated texts in Paul. (The other being 1 Corinthians...

Read Story
podcast-image
Why Abused Voices and Taboo Questions Belong in the Church

By Brenna Blain. Learn more about Brenna here, or follow her on Twitter and Instagram. “Come on up, Brenna!”  I...

Read Story

SIGN UP FOR THE NEWSLETTER