Fr Sebastian Jose

What we see in Jesus is that his person merges with his mission. His saviourhood, lordship and mastership are all embedded and realised in the mission he received from the Father. In his self-emptying, he received a name above every name. In his washing of feet, he affirmed his lordship and mastership.

By turning his body into bread and not stone into bread, he proved his divinity. This is the heart of Jesus’ mission. For a disciple, following Jesus means that Jesus is the place, event and power of salvation. The mission is not just a profession but a call commensurate with the whole of discipleship. Discipleship is always for a mission. We find an army of people called as co-workers in the execution of God’s plan. But scarcely do we find a single call in the entire Bible, which is concerned with the private salvation of the individual concerned. Everybody called had to step out of his/her secure, private life, family and vested interests and embrace God’s larger plan of salvation.

Discipleship is a call through and through and is a call given by Jesus. He needs co-workers to continue his mission in the world.

Jesus had a large number of disciples. Out of them he chose twelve apostles. The apostles are a special band of disciples marked by a radicality not found in others. They are the ones who left behind everything in life for the sake of following Jesus. When we examine the list of the disciples who were later appointed as apostles, we can identify them as those who had already left behind everything at the beginning of their call. No doubt, Jesus had empowered them to make this extra-ordinary step. Certainly, Jesus did not want to create an elitist or ruling class out of them. But Jesus wanted to institute a special ministry out of them. This is the ministry of apostleship. Jesus needed a special band of disciples whose availability for being sent should be absolutely total and unconditional: he called them apostles; they were always to be with him and were to be sent. The demand equalled the very fact of he being sent by the Father. “As the father has sent me so I send you” (Jn 17:18). Here he places the sending of the apostles on par with his own by the father. Such sending, indeed demands, not just any kind of discipleship, but the radical of all.

There are three essentials without which existence is not normally possible: family and partnership; money and material properties; self-determination and self-programming.

Our self is constituted of these fundamental factors. Without these normal conditions, one’s self is as good as non-existent. But the disciples, whom Jesus appointed as apostles, ie., the sent ones had to leave behind them all of these: family, property and self-programming. They had to go to the very roots of their life and existence and even get uprooted from the world for the sake of following Jesus. From now onwards our own safety, security and prestige cannot be our priority and preoccupation any more.

Leaving behind everything is an absolute condition of being an apostle. But of the things left behind, only a few are singled out and mentioned: father, net and boat. Why only these and not others? Do the authors of the Gospels want to convey thereby something more than what meets our eyes? Father, net and boat stand for the value system created by human beings. More than sentimentality, male dominance and economic factors, father net and boat stand for the value system which competes with and challenges God’s. In God’s value system, meaningfulness, happiness, peace and fulfilment are possible and attainable only in reciprocity and receptivity between God, neighbour and nature.

Self-deification: the philosophy behind the value system created by humankind: Gen 3:4-5 portrays in nutshell the project of humans to establish a value system of their own rejecting God’s. the building of the tower of Babel in Gen 11 is a showpiece of this project. “Let us make a name for ourselves” (Gen 11:4). This contrasts with God’s project: “Let us make man in our own image and likeness”. Human beings want to be their own absolute masters. They want to create their own brand of happiness, peace and fullness.

The tragedy of humanity according to Genesis is the project of human beings to create a God according to their own image. Here, good and evil are considered not from the view point of totality, but that of the individual self, bent upon himself/herself. The self is made absolute, and the rest, which is God, neighbour and nature are relativized, subordinated, expolited and even eliminated: all to the advantage of one’s self. Self-programming for the sake of self-establishment becomes the only reasonable agenda and binding truth: self is idolized. The most abominable sins in the O.T are idolatry and prostitution. In Paul’s language, it is exchanging God for a lie.

The modern version of the project of human deification is called consumerism. It is the total programming of self in pursuit of good identified as power, possession and pleasure. Whatever you do to achieve this good, including lies and murders are reasonable and justifiable.

After identifying sin as self-deification and absolute self-centredness, Genesis shows that is only matched by the endless and reckless of series of lies, murders, death and destruction. God intervenes in history through several valient men to lead humanity to liberty, light and truth. Today the same Lord has intervened through a special call offered to us.

Leaving behind father, net and boat means a total break with the self-centered value system devised by sin, and the readiness of the radical disciples to be totally identified with the mission of Jesus.

The apostles get the message: they have to renounce even the ultimate in the value system of the world, the dear self around which everything else revolves: family, property and decision making.

Fr Sebastian Jose