Tied with a
ribbon
Some people
won’t sail the sea ‘cause they’re safer on land
To follow
what’s written
But I’d
follow you to the great unknown
Off to a
world we call our own”
These are
the opening lyrics of Charity Barnum’s solo, ‘Tightrope’, in The Greatest
Showman. She has signed up for a
life of adventure with her entrepreneur husband, P T Barnum. Charity doesn’t know where this life will
take her, but she is open to the mystery, the journey, to see what might happen
and who she might become. And perhaps
the flipside of that is, she doesn’t want to miss out on this voyage of discovery.
It’s not unlike the invitation of Jesus to
his disciples. He said, “Follow me, and
I will make you fish for people…” (Matthew 4:19). A couple of years later, one of those men –
Peter – said to Jesus, “Look, we have left everything and followed you…” (Matthew
19:27). It’s true, discipleship –
following Jesus – had cost Peter and the others virtually everything. But as Dallas Willard put it, the cost of “non-discipleship”
is far greater:
“Non-discipleship costs abiding peace, a life
penetrated throughout by love, faith that sees everything in the light of God’s
overriding governance for good, hopefulness that stands firm in the most
discouraging of circumstances, power to do what is right and withstand the forces
of evil. In short, it costs exactly that
abundance of life Jesus said he came to bring” (Willard, The Spirit of the
Disciplines)
There are other moments from the Jesus story
involving the disciples, and especially Peter, that speak to this. The first is a really powerful story, where
the disciples had got into the boat to cross Lake Galilee one evening, while
Jesus dismissed crowds who had come out to meet him and to hear him. After sending everyone away, Jesus went to
pray on a hill, while the wind got up against the disciples’ boat. Jesus then started to walk – on the water –
toward the boat, in the middle of the lake.
The disciples assumed Jesus was a ghost, but he reassured them that it
was actually him. As if to test this,
Peter says, “Lord, if it’s you, command me to come to you on the water” (Matthew
14:28). Jesus invites him, “Come”. So Peter climbs out of the boat and starts
walking on the water toward Jesus. But
then Peter notices or remembers the wind and waves around him, and he starts to
sink. He shouts, “Lord, save me!” Immediately Jesus reaches out his hand and
catches Peter.
As Charity sings in her chorus, “Hand in my
hand and you promised to never let go, We’re walking a tightrope…” In another song, the Hebrew Psalm 37, the writer
says, “though we stumble, we shall not fall headlong, for the LORD holds us by
the hand” (v.24). So the people, on
whose behalf the writer was speaking, expected to stumble. They knew there’d be bumps in the road, but
they also trusted that God was not going to let failure or disaster define them
and have the final say, because God was there to catch them.
A similar image was employed in Isaiah 42:6,
in a message to the Hebrews in exile in Babylon – the result of their history
of slips. They were being told about God’s
servant (which was them, in the first instance) who had a calling to bring
justice and healing and liberation to those around. So we read there: “I am the LORD, I have
called you in righteousness, I have taken you by the hand and kept you…”
Called – like Peter was called by Jesus. Taken by the hand and kept…
Peter’s life was characterized by the call of
Jesus. To follow, on the shore of Galilee. And now, to walk on water like his master.
The story on the lake didn’t end there. Jesus has a word with Peter when he catches
him. He (famously) says, “You of little
faith, why did you doubt?” (Matthew 14:31).
This seems like a harsh rebuke, but more
literally Jesus might have said, “Mini-faith, why did you doubt?” It’s not necessarily a put-down. It could be a pet name. Because Jesus called Peter and the rest to be
his disciples, meaning he expected them to become like him. But they weren’t there yet – even if Peter
had just taken a big step.
Another time Jesus used this term (a Greek
term he seems to have invented) was when he came down a mountain after being ‘transfigured’
(shining with the glory of God) in front of three of his disciples (including
Peter, of course). They joined the rest
of the disciples among a commotion, as a father had brought his epileptic son
to be healed. The others had tired and
failed, so Jesus stepped in and healed the boy instantly. Puzzled, the disciples asked Jesus, “Why could
we not cast it [the epilepsy] out?” And
Jesus answered, “Because of your little faith…” (Matthew 17:20). Again, I don’t think Jesus is criticizing them. I think he’s saying, ‘you’re on the right
track, but you’re not there yet. You
couldn’t do this today, but one day you will’.
After all, he then tells them that if they have faith “as the mustard
seed” (I don’t think he’s necessarily talking about size here, but character of
faith – referencing his parable in Matthew 13:31-32), they “will say to this
mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move, and nothing will be
impossible for [them]” (Matthew 17:20).
A bit of grammar here: when Jesus says, “you will say to this mountain…”,
the Greek verb is in the indicative. It’s
not the imperative (like an order). It’s
more like a statement. This is going to
happen. They will do the things Jesus
does. Maybe not yet, but one day.
That is what being a disciple of Jesus
means. Becoming like Jesus. Living like him. It’s actually the same as being a Christian. That name really means little Christ, or one
who is like Christ – where Christ became an alternative name for Jesus. A Christian is a mini-faith. A little Jesus, growing into someone like him. Imagine passing that up. It’s costly to follow Jesus and to commit to
that life of growth, and all that comes with it. “But it’s all an adventure that comes with a
breathtaking view, Walking a tightrope…”
