Discipleship for Dummies

The readings from the Fifth Sunday of Easter could be the outline for a book entitled "Discipleship for Dummies." Discipleship is a difficult concept for me to understand, since it does not seem to be too common in our culture. I think discipleship can be thought of as a combination of two actions:

1. Imitate
2. Obey

In John 15, Jesus is comparing himself to a vine, and this followers to branches. He says his Father will be glorified when his followers "bear much fruit and become disciples" (John 15:8). This statement leaves us with two questions. How do we bear fruit? How do we become disciples? I think we'll see that these questions really aren't two, but rather one question.

John gives us an answer in the second reading. He says that we know we "belong to the truth" (1 John 3:19) if we "keep his commandments" (1 John 3:22). But what are God's commandments?

And his commandment is this: we should believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another just as he commanded us (1 John 3:23).

John lays out two things we need to do to know we "belong to the truth" or in other words, to know we are disciples.

1. Believe in Christ
2. Love others, as he commanded

To truly believe in something is to imitate it. Think about the things you do everyday. Very few of the things we do are original. In most cases, we're imitating something or someone. Take brushing your teeth, for instance. I only know how to brush my teeth because my parents taught me. Suppose they never taught me, and never allowed me to see them brushing their teeth. Then one day, the put a toothbrush in me hand and said "use it." I would have no clue what to do with it.

Now suppose I go the dentist, and the dentist shows me a new way to brush my teeth, which she claims is better then the way I have been brushing. I have a choice. I can continue to imitate my parents, or I can imitate the dentist. I'll probably choose to imitate the method I think is most correct.

Certainly we don't imitate everything we believe (I try not to imitate the law of gravity, although I believe in it). But the things we imitate are things we believe most strongly to be good and true. So to say we believe in Jesus is to imitate him.

But besides imitation, we must obey him. And how does John claim we need to obey? We need to love others.

That's it. Simple, pure discipleship. Imitate and obey.

In the first reading, we get a glimpse of discipleship in action. Saul has traveled to Jerusalem, but he hasn't been accepted as a disciple. So Barnabas convinces the apostles that Saul is indeed a disciple by explaining that Saul has seen the Lord (believed, imitated) and spoken out in the name of Jesus (obeyed).

Discipleship certainly isn't easy, I tend to fail at it everyday. But we are called by Jesus to be part of the vine, to bear fruit in love and to become disciples.