Proper 18 – Year C
Sermon Notes from the Church’s Ministry Among Jewish People
RCL Readings[1] – Deuteronomy 30:15-20; Psalm 1; Philemon 1:1-21; Luke 14:25-33
ACNA Readings – Deuteronomy 30:15-20; Psalm 1;
Philemon 1:1-25;
Luke 14:25-33
Seasonal Introduction. This season is often called “Ordinary Time,” a term derived from ordinal, meaning “numbered” or “in sequence.” However, there is nothing ordinary about this time. Rather, it is a time when we may reflect on how God (starting on Trinity Sunday and ending with Christ the King Sunday) has been at work in our own lives, the lives of his people, and how he will continue to work in the days to come. Ordinary Time is a season when we are invited to perceive the mystery of God at work in our daily lives, in the ordinary, in the mundane.
Common Theme. The theme this week is obedience, discipleship, and slavery. Being a disciple is far more than a class once-a-week or an intellectual practice.
Hebraic Context. The word servant in Hebrew is ‘eved’ עֶבֶד. The word shares the same root as the words slave, work and, interestingly, also worship.[2] Slavery is considered an evil (particularly in modernity, but also by many throughout history), so it can strike people as strange that the New Testament describes one aspect of our relationship to the Lord as “Slaves for Christ.” The Hebrew Scriptures do not formally or explicitly condemn slavery. This has caused all kinds of theological conundrums for students of the Bible and has been used both to justify slavery and to accuse the Bible of poor morality.
However, biblical slavery does not carry the same form of servitude enforced on captives in other traditions. In the Hebrew Bible, slavery more often than not takes the form of indentured service. There are no prisons or jails in the Torah. Punishment was enacted immediately after sentencing. If your punishment was financial and you were unable to make the appropriate monetary restitution, you could be forced by the court into indentured service. You would become a slave or a servant and work to pay off your debt.
However, slavery to anything but God was sub-optimal. The doctrine that we can only have one master goes back to Israel in Egypt. God brought Israel out of Egypt not just so Israel would not be the slaves of Egypt, but so that they might become the slaves of God.[3] Therefore, if a debt had to be paid or an Israelite was so poor they had to sell themselves as a slave, they were to be treated as if they were a hired servant.[4] Generally, this should not have become an issue, as the law of hospitality was to be enacted for any who were poor, and food should be sold to them at cost.[5] But, if a debt had to be paid, or a Hebrew was a slave to another Israelite, they were to be released after seven years or in the year of Jubilee.[6]
The Bible harshly accuses both those who take advantage of and those who forsake the poor and needy. Nehemiah heard a court case of Jewish slaves against their brothers.[7] He ruled in favour of the slaves, whereby all of their belongings—the means by which they could provide for themselves—were returned to them.
The Bible does make a distinction between Israelite slaves and foreign slaves. However, Exodus 21:26-27 makes it clear that slaves could not be harmed by the will of the owner (or through an accident) without the full release of the slave—whether Hebrew or foreigner. Thus, while the Scriptures do not explicitly condemn slavery, they understand that it was not the intended style of human relationships.
The relationship between a master and servant was not to be harsh or painful, and it was understood that special bonds of love could develop over time between a master and servant. In this context, the Torah included a provision in which a slave or indentured servant could remain in the employment of his master.[8] Conversely, if the relationship between a master and slave was so bad that the slave ran away from the oversight and provision that a master should provide for those in need, Moses stated that the slave was to be allowed to live in the town of his choice. They were not to be persecuted for having been a runaway slave, nor should they be returned to their master.[9]
Slavery was a fact of life in the Greco-Roman world of the New Testament. Neither Jesus nor the apostles tried to overturn it—even though it was much worse than what the Scriptures allowed for. Instead, they declare that we should be faithful to God regardless of whether we are imprisoned, free, a slave, or a master. Meanwhile, our relationship to Jesus as servants and slaves is grounded in the Hebraic context of love and the desire to remain in that relationship.
Deuteronomy 30:15-20. As the people of Israel prepared for a new life in a new land that God had promised, Moses gave them one of the most iconic entreaties in Scripture: ”Choose life.” On one side stood life, goodness, and blessing; on the other was death, evil, and curses. Given the two options, why would anyone choose death, evil, and curses?
In choosing life, one also chooses obedience to the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob—and Him alone. This isn’t “too hard for you, neither is it far off… it is in your mouth and in your heart, so that you can do it,”[10] yet history repeatedly shows that few desire to obey God. Moses ensured that the people of Israel understood what obedience required: to love the LORD, to walk in His ways, and to keep His commandments, statutes, and rules. To love God is the greatest commandment, but love is to walk in His ways—halachah, faith lived out in everyday actions—and His ways are proclaimed in His Torah.
For the people of Israel entering the land of Canaan, obedience promised not only life but also blessing and possession of the land God had sworn to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The alternative, choosing disobedience, meant not only death but also removal from the promised land for a time.[11] All who heard Moses had seen their parents choose disobedience and face death as they wandered outside the promised land. Solomon also understood that if the people turned from God’s commandments to serve other gods, the same promise awaited Israel in his own time.[12] This does not mean that God’s everlasting covenant was void; if the people humbled themselves, God would restore His blessings upon them—including the land.[13]
Deuteronomy 30:15-20, along with Leviticus 18:5 and Ezekiel 20:11, became incredibly important for the Jewish people—not only in the time of Moses and Joshua, as they entered the land of Canaan, but especially in the Second Temple period leading up to the time of Jesus. The sages noted that observing God’s commands should bring life: “You shall therefore keep my statutes and my rules; if a person does them, he shall live by them: I am the LORD.”[14]
A debate arose between Hillel and Shammai, two Jewish teachers in the first century BC and early first century AD, about whether God’s commandments could be broken to save life. Shammai argued that no command of God should ever be broken, even to save another’s life. The general consensus, however, was that most of God’s commands could indeed be set aside to preserve life—though some could never be broken, even to save another’s life.
Deuteronomy 30:17 is clear that turning to worship and serve other gods brings death. Idolatry, therefore, could not be excused to preserve life. Neither could murder (for obvious reasons) nor adultery.[15] However, another argument was that the life preserved wasn’t life in this world alone, but in the World-to-Come. And so obedience to God is greater than one’s own life. Luke 14 begins with Jesus teaching that healing on the Sabbath was appropriate in order to save life—even to rescue an ox. It concludes with Jesus declaring that a disciple must give precedence to God above even his own life, being willing to bear his own cross to follow Him.[16]
God did not give Israel a command they could not keep. He did not tell them to choose life without providing the means to make that choice. God wanted Israel to choose life: To love God, obey His voice, and hold fast to Him. Occasionally they chose life and called on the name of the Lord. Too often they chose death. While Deuteronomy 30 speaks specifically to the children of Israel as they entered the promised land—linking obedience and blessing to the promises made to their father, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob—God also calls us to abide in Jesus, to be faithful unto death, to overcome. “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.”[17]
Psalm 1. The opening verse of Psalm 1, “Blessed is the man,” sets the tone for the book of Psalms. The Hebrew word translated “blessed” is אֶשֶׁר asher and can more literally be translated as “happy.”[18] Choosing to stand with the wicked, sinners, and scoffers will not bring happiness—as many of the laments speak of the wicked, they are shown to only bring anguish, shame, fear, and anger. So what does bring happiness and blessing? What do the psalmists constantly return to in times of thanksgiving, distress, fear, and praise?
Psalm 1 says that the man who is blessed is the one who delights in the law (torah) of the LORD. Why not simply delight in the LORD?[19] Torah is not God. But it is the guidance of a good God that wants us to trust Him, live according to His guidance, and live. The psalmist borrows from the language of the Sh’ma where, whether we are sitting, walking, or lying down we should meditate on the command of God and teach it to our children: “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.” Psalm 1:1 states that whether we are walking, standing, or sitting, we should turn from evil even as Psalm 1:2 states that we should meditate on the torah of the LORD both day and night.
The phrase, תוֹרַת יְהוָה, the ‘law of the LORD’, along with similar phrases, is used in many Psalms to refer to all that God taught, not only the five books of Moses. Torah, as used to delineate the five books of Moses from the rest of Scripture, is found as early as Joshua 1:8 but generally the word was used to speak of the guidance, instruction, and the commandments of God. The תוֹרַת יְהוָה, ‘law of the LORD’, isn’t simply a book, but the words of God to His people on how to live.
Rabbi Simlai noted that Moses gave 365 prohibitions and 248 positive commands (with several hundred more in the New Testament). David reduced them to eleven commands in Psalm 15; Isaiah made them six (33:14-15); Micah bound them into three (6:8); Do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with your God. Jesus said that the greatest commandment was to love the Lord your God and to love your neighbour as yourself. The law and prophets hang on these two commandments—this is the torah of God.
The law, even of God, is often mocked and denigrated by the world. But, unfortunately, it seems like many Christians also denigrate it. First, they devalue it by their words and then, because they don’t understand its importance, devalue it by their actions.[20] The person who does not follow the ways of the wicked but instead follows the way of God can be confident that he will produce good fruit of faithfulness for God. The last verse reminds us that faith is an action, for God knows “the way of the righteous.”[21] Not only does he know the heart of the believer, but also the path that the believer walks.
The psalmist used the metaphor of a firmly rooted tree with ready access to fresh water to describe the status of blessed man. In obedience there is both fruit and prosperity. The man can be happy in following the God who is faithful and “knows the way of the righteous”. We’ve been burnt too many times by the prosperity gospel and we also know that we cannot earn our way to God through our own works—these are both heresy and a shallow understanding of the faith. But we still should understand that there is a Biblical perspective that physical blessing is tied to obedience.
We should not strip away the physical and material blessings of the here and now because there is something greater in the future. God gave us the torah that we might love Him and live. Surely if we do love Him as He instructs us then that will lead us to being more blessed, more happy—even in this material world where the wicked will persecute those who listen to God.[22]
Philemon 1:1-21.[23] Paul’s short letter to Philemon both addresses and is considered by some to be an insufficient condemnation of slavery in the Scriptures. However, that was not Paul’s goal in writing to Philemon. Paul writes to Philemon, Apphia, and Archippus—fellow workers—as a prisoner for Jesus.
Paul’s reference to himself as a prisoner is literal, likely imprisoned in either Caesarea or Rome. Yet he still gave thanks to God as he received reports of the love, faith, and fruit of the saints and churches he had visited in his journeys. He was also thankful for all the visitors who came to his prison, comforted him in person, provided needed supplies,[24] and delivered the reports.
However, the reason Paul wrote this letter was to make a request of Philemon. Unlike many of Paul’s epistles, he makes no claim to the title of apostle or any other authority; he writes to Philemon as an equal on behalf of Onesimus who, Paul hopes, Philemon will receive as an equal before God.
The reason Philemon comes under criticism is that Paul does not argue against slavery. He doesn’t free Onesimus or tell Philemon to free his bondservant. Instead, he actually sends Onesimus back to his master. Paul doesn’t mention if Onesimus was a run-away slave or if he had been sent to Paul for another reason—as a personal letter to Philemon, all parties would have known the circumstances. What Paul does do is promise to repay Philemon whatever Onesimus owed—perhaps as an indentured servant, runaway slave, or even as a thief.
We know from the Scriptures that servants who obeyed God often remained servants. Prisoners who called on the name of Jesus remained prisoners. Wives (or husbands) who became disciples of God were not to divorce their spouse (barring a few specific circumstances). However, all who come to God are considered equal before Him: rich or poor, master or slave, man or woman, gentile or Jew. However, this does not mean the poor suddenly became rich, a woman became a man, or a slave became a master.
Onesimus seems to have returned to his master of his own free will, even as Paul hoped that Philemon would accept him as a brother. His transformation from someone worthless—and worse, for he seems to have wronged Philemon—would be a witness and encouragement to both Philemon and the church in his house even as Philemon’s love and faith were a comfort to Paul.
Luke 14:25-33. Jesus’ ministry was extremely popular. He was invited to eat with Pharisees and teach in the synagogues, people sought Him in order to be healed, and large crowds would gather from near and far to listen to His teachings. Jesus had many followers—men and women, poor and rich—but only twelve were chosen to become apostles.[25]
In Luke 14:25-33, Jesus warns those who follow Him that there is a cost to becoming His disciple: “Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.”[26] Before that, however, He gave an enigmatic statement: “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.” A handful of theologians throughout history have taken this literally. But in doing so, they ignore common hyperbolic idioms of Jesus’ time, the teachings of Jesus elsewhere, and the whole corpus of Scripture, which teaches us to “Love your neighbor as yourself” and “Honor your father and mother.”
Leviticus 19:18 tells us clearly that we are to love our neighbor. The Torah and the Prophets tell us how to love our neighbors. Jesus and the apostles continue to speak on its importance and inform us who our neighbor is[27]—this must surely include our own parents, our husband or wife, and our children.
Within the Ten Commandments, God commands His people to “Honor your father and mother.”[28] This command is continually emphasized from the time of Moses through the apostles.[29] The Jewish sages noticed a striking pattern in Scripture: the very verbs used to honor, fear, or revere God are also applied to parents.[30] Exodus 20:12 states, “Honor your father and mother”; but Proverbs 3:9 uses the same words to state, “Honor the LORD with your wealth.” As we honor God, so we are called to honor our parents.[31] The same pattern holds true with Leviticus 19:3, each of you should “revere his mother and his father.” Likewise, Deuteronomy 6:13 commands, “It is the LORD your God you shall fear.”[32] Finally, Exodus clearly warns, “whoever curses his father or his mother shall be put to death,” while Leviticus 24:15 warns “whoever curses his God shall bear his sin.”[33]
This connection between honoring and fearing our parents and honoring and fearing God was so strong that the rabbis said “When a person causes his father and mother suffering, the Holy One, Blessed be He, says: ‘I did well in not dwelling among them, for if I had dwelled among them they would have caused Me suffering.’”[34] In light of such teachings, when Jesus declares, “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother,” His words would have been shocking.
Given the wealth of Scripture indicating that we are not disciples of God if we dishonor our parents, it is likely that Jesus was using hyperbole. While still showing full respect to parents, spouse, and family, greater preference and devotion must be given to Jesus by anyone who follows Him. In the Second Temple period, this was less shocking than it might first appear. The sages taught that a son should honor his teacher before he honors his father, for “His father brought him into this world, and his teacher, who taught him wisdom, brings him to life in the World-to-Come.”[35]
Many of Jesus’ followers were unable to accompany Him on all His travels, observe Him in His daily walk with God, or hear His teachings as they traveled together. This included some of His beloved disciples: Mary, Martha, and Lazarus; Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea; and hundreds of others. Were the twelve disciples greater than Jesus’ other followers, including Nathanael, the young child who offered bread and fish to Jesus, or the women who funded His ministry? On the one hand, “many of His disciples turned back and no longer walked with Him” while the twelve remained faithful.[36] On the other hand, Scripture makes a point that many of Jesus’ female disciples were more faithful than even the twelve and Lazarus is specifically called beloved by the Lord.
Love and hate were used in Scripture to illustrate extremes of preference in several places,[37] and here Jesus is emphatically stating that our preference must be God over others or ourselves. Those who continued to work in their hometowns, raised their children in the way they should go, and served their families and communities could still count the cost and choose to follow God. And in following God, we will love and honor our family—for that is also His command.
A disciple of God cannot neglect, mistreat, or abandon their spouse or children to accomplish their ministry. If we do, we are like those who preach but do not practice:[38] “If anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.”[39] Nonetheless, neither our family nor our tribe—our political preferences, nationalities, or any other division—comes before following Jesus.[40] Nor can our own life come before our allegiance to God. God comes first—He must be our first and greatest love.
Hebraic Perspective. Discipleship is a popular term today. New and mature Christians can go to most churches and join a discipleship program. The basics of Scripture are introduced, instruction is given on how to pray and study Scripture, spiritual practices are cultivated, and the students are expected to be transformed. All of this is good, but a better understanding of a disciple in the time of Jesus and the apostles is apprenticeship.
Discipleship cannot be a program.[41] For thousands of years, apprentices moved out of their parents' home and into their master’s house or shop—where they would watch everything their teacher did. Over the course of a few years, the apprentice would learn what tools were used, what materials work best, how to interact with customers, and even what lifestyle is appropriate (or inappropriate) by watching and then emulating their master. In the Second Temple and post-Temple periods, students would follow every part of their rabbi’s life and would often invite their teachers to their own homes.[42]
The biblical disciple, or apprentice, is called to become holy. God is clear that we are to be holy as He is holy.[43] Holiness is both a gift of God and a command—He sanctifies His people,[44] yet also calls them to sanctify themselves. How? “So you shall remember and do all My commandments, and be holy to your God. I am the LORD your God.”[45] God connects obedience to holiness. We look and see what God does. He makes it clear what He expects from us through His instructions and guidance. And we follow Him.
God also gave us others to imitate. Jesus left us an example, so that we might follow in His steps.[46] Jesus called many disciples, but also required much from them—cautioning and refusing those who were not able to commit themselves to be His apprentices.[47] What did the disciples do? They followed Jesus. When He travelled, they travelled. When He taught, they listened. When He rebuked demons, they watched and then tried to cast out demons.[48] They were with Jesus when He was surrounded by friends, family, and enemies. They were with Jesus when He was with the rich and the poor. They quaked as Jesus remained calm[49] and watched as He burned with anger.[50] They not only heard His message, they saw His actions and were told to act like Him as they continued to preach His message.
Sirach 6:34-36 states that we should “Stand in the company of the elders. Who is wise? Attach yourself to such a one. Be ready to listen to every godly discourse, and let no wise proverbs escape you. If you see an intelligent person, rise early to visit him; let your foot wear out his doorstep.” A disciple should always listen, watch, and be in the presence of their teachers. The Thessalonians, Corinthians, and Philippians were to imitate Paul as they watched his day-to-day conduct.[51] Hebrews says that we should imitate our leaders: “consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith.”[52] And the great commission tells us to “make disciples.”
What is the difference between a discipleship program and an apprenticeship? Everyone was expected to go to the synagogue and listen to the word of God read and taught. If Jesus went to the synagogue and told the people to care for the poor, the orphan, the widow, the crippled, and the blind, He would be rightly teaching the word of God. But His disciples watched Him every day and could see who and how He served—or if He was a hypocrite and never actually practiced what He preached.
Jesus warned us of those who were hypocrites—those who “preach, but do not practice.”[53] Jesus was neither the first, nor the last, to recognize hypocrisy. Rabbi Hanina ben Dosa said, “Anyone whose deeds exceed his wisdom, his wisdom is enduring, but anyone whose wisdom exceeds his deeds, his wisdom is not enduring.”[54]
God calls us to be holy as He is holy. We are to imitate Him but also live in such a way that others can imitate us. A mother and father cannot simply preach while their children watch them live out completely separate lives from their message. A pastor won’t be able to disciple his flock without letting them enter into his life and see how he lives—to see if his wisdom exceeds his deeds.
Endnotes
[1] RCL alternate readings: Jeremiah 18:1-11; Psalm 139:1-6 13-18
[2] Avodah, in Exodus 3:12, for instance, is properly translated as both “serve” in some translations and “worship” in others. In Hebrew, either can be conveyed in the same word and, if written, spoken, or acted on in relation to a god, surely the one would automatically be associated with the other.
[3] Leviticus 25:42, 55
[4] Leviticus 25:39-43
[5] Leviticus 25:35-37
[6] Exodus 21:1; Leviticus 25:40
[7] Nehemiah 5:1-13
[8] Exodus 21:5
[9] Deuteronomy 23:15-16
[10] Deuteronomy 30:11-14
[11] Leviticus 18:24-28; Leviticus 26:31-33; Deuteronomy 4:25-27; Deuteronomy 28:36-37, 63-64; Joshua 23:15-16; I Kings 9:6-9; Zechariah 7:11-14
[12] II Chronicles 7:19-22
[13] Deuteronomy 30:1-5; II Chronicles 7:14; Jeremiah 29:11-14; Ezekiel 36:24-28; Zechariah 10:6-10
[14] Leviticus 18:5
[15] The only way adultery could preserve life was under great duress and threat of death. As such, rape was considered analogous to murder and did not preserve life.
[16] Jesus was not flip-flopping on His theology. While scholars still argued over paradoxes and nuance (as they do to this day), paradox was an accepted part of Judaic thought.
[17] John 14:15
[18] When Zilpah gave birth in Genesis 30:13, Leah named the child Asher, for she considered herself happy and was blessed.
[19] Jeremiah 17:5-8 does use this paradigm, “Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD.” In these two passages, Jeremiah 17 and Psalm 1, there is a parallel between the torah of the LORD and the LORD Himself.
[20] This may come from the translation of torah as “law” combined with such as John 1:17, which has been translated “For the Law was given through Moses; but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.” The conjunction “but” sets Jesus and grace in opposition to Moses and the law. However, a literal translation shows that there is no conjunction in the text. Instead, this verse is a culmination of a passage exalting God’s boundless grace towards us—first with his instruction; then fully in His Son. “From the fullness of His grace we have received grace upon grace. For the torah was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.” The Torah given through Moses was grace and the incarnation of Jesus is the fullness of grace—grace upon grace.
[21] Psalm 1 may have been one of the large influences on the concept of walking in the way of God. The walk of faith (or the way to walk out your faith) is called הלכה halacha, derived from the verb to walk. In the Hebraic mind halacha is the practical application of the commandments of the Lord—how we do our faith. The alternative here in Psalm 1 is walking in, or practically applying in our life, the ways of the wicked. Paul (like many of his Jewish contemporaries) used the term “walk” throughout his epistles. In Colossians 1:10 Paul exhorted the community to “walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God”. This is very reminiscent of Psalm 1. And if one is walking, the path (derech, road or way) one walks becomes important. One road is narrow and leads to life, but the other path is broad and leads to destruction.
[22] Genesis 39 states that twice God caused everything Joseph did to prosper. At the time, Joseph was a slave of an Egyptian and then imprisoned by that same Egyptian master.
[23] ACNA includes Philemon 1:22-25
[24] II Timothy 4:13
[25] Luke 6:13
[26] To carry one’s cross is precisely as it sounds—to be ready as a disciple of Jesus to be executed. Plutarch, De Sera Numinis Vindicta 9, “Every malefactor who suffers in his body bears his own cross to the place of his execution.”
[27] Matthew 22:34-40; Mark 12:28-34; Luke 10:25-37; Romans 13:9-10; Galatians 5:14
[28] Exodus 20:12; Deuteronomy 5:16
[29] Sirach 3:1-16; Tobit 4:1-4; Ephesians 6:1-3; Colossians 3:20
[30] Kiddushim 30b.16-31a.1
[31] In practical terms, Judaism taught that one of the ways to honor our parents is monetarily. As they raised us with their work when we were young, we are to support them with our work when they are old. As we honor the LORD with our wealth, so are we to honor our parents with our wealth.
[32] The Hebrew is the same in Leviticus 19:3 and Deuteronomy 6:13 except the use of the plural “you all” in Leviticus 19:3 compared to the singular, “you” in Deuteronomy 6:13.
[33] Sin is connected to death, as seen from Genesis 2:17 to Ezekiel 18:20.
[34] Kiddushim 31a.2. The Bible never ascribes this precise saying to God. However, Scripturally there is precedent for both God dwelling among His people when they are in obedience to Him (and removing His glory when they are in disobedience) and that God suffers when His people suffer, “In all their affliction He was afflicted.” (Isaiah 63:9)
[35] Bava Metzia 2.11; Bava Metzia 33a.8-9
[36] John 6:60-71
[37] Genesis 29:30-31; Deuteronomy 21:15-17; and many scholars also include Malachi 1:2-3.
[38] Neither should we say that our family hates us because they first hated God and we are His disciples—for too often they do not hate us for being disciples of God, but rather for being hypocrites. We should not blame God or others for that which we have done.
[39] I Timothy 5:8
[40] In the Middle East, believers with a Muslim (and Jewish) background can feel great pressure from their families to stay silent or to conform to the local norms. This causes many new believers to turn back and renounce their belief. On the other hand, others are willing to renounce all that they have—including their very life—to follow God.
[41] This isn’t to say that catechism, teaching, or other programs can’t be a part of discipleship. But they are just that, a part of it.
[42] Pirkei Avot 1.4; Berakhot 62a.1-3. See also: Luke 4:38-39; Luke 10:38-42; Acts 16:15, 40; Acts 18:7
[43] Leviticus 11:44; 19:2; 20:7, 26; Numbers 15:40; Deuteronomy 14:2, 21; I Peter 1:15-16
[44] Leviticus 20:8; Leviticus 21:1-23; Leviticus 22:32; Exodus 31:13; Ezekiel 37:28
[45] Numbers 15:40
[46] John 13:15; I Peter 2:21
[47] Matthew 8:19-22; Luke 9:57-62; Luke 14:25-33. See also: Matthew 4:18-22; Matthew 9:9; Mark 10:28
[48] Mark 1:25-27; Mark 6:7, 13; Mark 9:18, 28-29
[49] Mark 4:38-41, see also: Matthew 14:24-27
[50] John 2:14-17; Mark 11:15-18; Matthew 21:12-13
[51] I Thessalonians 1:6; II Thessalonians 3:7-9; I Corinthians 4:16; I Corinthians 11:1; Philippians 3:17; Philippians 4:9
[52] Hebrews 13:7. See also: Hebrews 11:4-12:3; Sirach 44:1, 45:6-50:21
[53] Matthew 23:1-4
[54] Pirkei Avot 3:10. Rabbi Hanina ben Dosa is thought to have been born in the middle of the first century.