THE JESUS-SHAPED WAY

A SAMPLE CHAPTER

Introduction | Recovering the Way of Jesus

Chapter One: The Disciples’ Creed

Treasure Hunting

I can still remember the feeling of his tiny hand in mine as we walked through the Plaza, a shopping mall in Santa Rosa, California, near where we lived. I was a young dad, and Bobby, the first of our two sons, was a toddler. As we entered Macy’s, the flagship department store, Bobby twisted his hand out of mine and shot under the nearest clothing rack. This was a familiar pattern he had developed. He was always searching for “treasures,” and he knew just where to find them!

Several minutes later, just as I was starting to feel nervous, Bobby emerged from the forest of coats and sweaters beaming like the Cheshire Cat. Both of his pudgy hands were crammed full of the treasures he had found: pieces of broken hangers, lost price tags, and little clips. He was so proud of himself. You’d have thought he was Long John Silver and had finally found the buried chest of gold!

As we left Macy’s and began to make our way through the mall, Bobby’s eyes suddenly lit up as he caught sight of the unmistakable sign over the entrance to Letty’s Ice Cream shop. I had to run to keep up with him as he sprinted straight to the glass freezer filled with his favorite flavors of frozen delight. Wordlessly, he looked up at me and then looked into the freezer. I told him, “Well, you have a decision to make. Your hands are too full to hold an ice cream cone. You are going to have to choose. Treasures or ice cream?”

I could see him wrestling with this seemingly impossible decision as he studied the treasures in his hands and then peered longingly into the large cartons of ice cream. Finally, he made his choice and blurted out “ice cream”! As I held the cone out to him, he reluctantly dropped his collected treasures in the trash and reached to take the ice cream. He took hold of my fingers with his other hand, and we continued our exploration to see what other treasures this mall had to offer.

That happened over 30 years ago, but I still remember it like it was yesterday because I realized Bobby was mirroring a pattern in my own life. I was the one filling my hands with so-called “treasures,” and then being left to wonder why there never seemed to be enough room in my life for the most important things. Jesus once told Martha that her sister Mary had “chosen the better part,” (Luke 10:42) and I found myself wanting to learn how to do the same.

The Better Part

By the objective measure of his impact on the world and the people in it, we can confidently say that Jesus lived one of the most, or perhaps the most, extraordinary life in history. The four eyewitness accounts of his life that we have in the Bible are chock-full of incredible treasures Jesus left for us to discover—the things he said, the things he did, and the things that were done to him. Beyond these historically accessible facts about Jesus, he made extraordinary claims that countless others who followed him have trusted and believed. Jesus said of himself, “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Anyone who believes in him is not condemned, but anyone who does not believe is already condemned, because he has not believed in the name of the one and only Son of God.” (John 3:17-18)

If Jesus is telling us the truth, then there is no question he is the most important person who has ever lived. But how do we sift through all the things we have heard or read or assumed about Jesus to find the most important parts? If we are going to let go of the trash we thought was treasure, what is the real gold that we should take hold of?

One day in the Temple courts, Jesus was asked what the most important thing in life is. Jesus answered, “The most important is ‘Listen, Israel! The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ The second is, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other command greater than these.” (Mark 12:29-31) On the last night he was with the disciples in the upper room Jesus told them, “I give you a new command: Love one another. Just as I have loved you, you are also to love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” (John 13:34-35)

Jesus was clear: love is the most important thing in this universe! John tells us, “Dear friends, let us love one another, because love is from God, and everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, because God is love.” (1 John 4:7-8) Love is not just an attribute of God, and it is not just that God loves us. The very nature of God is love. God loves us because it is who he is! Not to love us would be a denial of himself.

This is why Jesus loved people so powerfully and completely—because he is love. Love is intrinsic to Jesus’ very identity. The Way of Jesus is the Way of Love. The true treasure of Jesus is the great love he pours out on those who will trust him. Anything that keeps us from receiving and reciprocating that love back to God, to those near to us, and to those far from us, must be ruthlessly eliminated from our lives! In this Great Commandment and New Commandment, Jesus showed us and told us what matters most. But he also showed us how to live out that priority of love with God, each other, and our neighbors. This is what we will spend the rest of this book exploring.

On the night before he was arrested and crucified, Jesus hosted his final Passover meal in the upper room of a large home in southwest Jerusalem, and he shared some of his most important treasures with the disciples that night. They became deeply disturbed when Jesus told them he was going away to prepare a place for them. Thomas piped up, “Lord, we don’t know where you’re going. How can we know the way?” Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:5-6)

*Site of the Upper Room, Southwest Jerusalem*

This is the final of seven “I AM” statements that Jesus used to describe himself to his followers. He is telling us this: if we want to know the secret to living the extraordinary Life he modeled for us, if we want to live a life of loving God, each other, and our neighbors as ourselves, we must focus on two things that matter most: his Way and his Truth. Since we only have two pudgy hands to take hold of the better part, Jesus is telling us to drop what seemed like treasure and hold on tight to his Way and his Truth because that is what will lead us to the Life we are meant to live. This is how we will learn to love God with all we are and love our neighbor as ourselves. It is no wonder the two primary imperatives Jesus gave his disciples were, “believe in me” (John 14:1) and “follow me.” (Mark 1:15) By listening to his words we come to believe in him (The Truth), and by watching the pattern of his life we learn to follow him (The Way). If we are going to learn to love God and neighbor, these are the two treasures that we are to take hold of and never let go!

Losing the Way

The first followers of Jesus were clear about what it meant to choose the better part and fulfill the Great Commandment. They understood that being a disciple of Jesus meant living in such a close relationship with him that they could hear what he was saying and believe, and they could see what he was doing and follow. The disciples were those who believed Jesus’ Truth and followed Jesus’ Way so they could learn to live the Jesus-shaped Life. This kind of discipleship unleashed an explosive movement of everyday men and women who were living lives that looked like Jesus and producing the same kind of fruit his life produced.

These Jesus-shaped disciples proclaimed the Truth of a Gospel that had the power to transform those who were broken and in need of healing. They lived a Way of life together in community that provided a home for those who were desperately lost and in need of a family. Just as Jesus foretold, this movement of Jesus-shaped lives spread like wildfire from Jerusalem to Judea, from Judea to Samaria, and from Samaria to the ends of the earth. (Acts 1:8) Apostles like Peter and John and Paul continued proclaiming Jesus’ Truth and modeling his Way across the Gentile world, and disciples who were learning how to make disciples multiplied this extraordinary Life in the lives of those who learned to do the same.

The movement built slowly at first, unnoticed by many in the diverse Roman Empire, where countless gods were worshiped and religions practiced. But, over time, this singular movement of sacrificial love and transforming power began to make its mark on the world. As more and more people came to believe in the Truth of Jesus and follow his Way, philosophers tried to refute it, magistrates tried to subdue it, religious leaders tried to manipulate it, but nothing seemed capable of stopping it. Even beatings, imprisonment, and death couldn’t quench the power of the Spirit flowing through ordinary women and men who were bringing Jesus’ Kingdom to the world! Nothing could stop them from loving God and loving neighbor because they were trusting the Truth and following the Way.

By the beginning of the fourth century, the movement of Jesus had become well-established in the Roman Empire, so much so that the Emperor Constantine’s own mother Helena had become a devoted follower of Jesus. Through her example and for the purpose of military expediency, Emperor Constantine decided to embrace this new “religion” rather than trying to fight it. However, painting crosses on your soldiers’ shields to gain God’s favor in battle doesn’t sound much like the Way of Jesus, does it? Rather than submit to the Way of Jesus, Constantine saw Jesus as a tool to get his own way. Before long this new “Christian” emperor legalized Christianity, began to build monumental church buildings, and instructed church leaders to sort out their theological differences. Once the church and state became united, the power of influence began to shift. By AD 380 Emperor Theodosius declared Christianity the official religion of the Empire, and before long this state-sponsored religion was being forced on a pagan world at the tip of the sword.

*Colossal Head of Constantine in* *the Capitoline Museums, Rome*

Rather than the movement of Jesus impacting the Empire, more and more the powers of Rome began to shape the church in its own image. The once-persecuted leaders of the church became honored “lords” in Roman society and were rewarded with large estates and conspicuous wealth. Instead of focusing on living in extended spiritual families where the lost were welcomed, disciples were trained, and the Kingdom of God was extended, churches became places where ordinary “lay people” came to listen to elevated “clergy” who held on to spiritual power by controlling access to the Scriptures and the Sacraments. The emphasis shifted away from living a Jesus-shaped way of life to attendance at religious services held in impressive public buildings, where participants were expected to contribute financially to maintain this religious institution. The definition of a Christian became someone who simply agreed with the professed truths of Christianity.

Truth Without the Way

Somewhere in this tragic shift, the Way of Jesus was overlooked and gradually faded into the background. As a result, the Truth of Jesus became the focus of trained clergy who maintained their position of dominance in the church by framing themselves as the sole arbiters of biblical truth, interpreting the teaching of the Bible for “ordinary” people. Less and less emphasis was put on training people to follow the Way of Jesus in their everyday lives and communities. Many of those who claimed the name of Jesus no longer focused their lives on loving God with all they had, loving each other as Jesus had loved them, and loving their neighbors as themselves.

In this context two great theological controversies came to the fore: the Trinity and the dual natures of Christ. In these early centuries, many false teachings circulated, and one of the tasks of the first theologians was to root out these heresies and clarify orthodox biblical teaching. The two thorniest issues were understanding the relationship of God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and defining the divine and human natures of Jesus. Through a series of official gatherings of the primary church leaders from the largest cities in the Roman Empire, called Ecumenical Councils, these theologians and leaders wrestled with the biblical texts and hammered out, among other things, an orthodox teaching of the Trinity and the natures of Christ.

The Emperor Constantine directed the leaders of the church to convene and come to an agreement about these teachings. In AD 325 the bishops and theologians gathered in Nicaea, just south of Constantinople, and agreed on theological formulations describing the Trinity and the dual natures of Christ. To communicate these decisions, the Council of Nicaea issued an authoritative summary of these orthodox teachings about God, which has come to be known as the “Nicene Creed.” This statement of faith was slightly refined at the Council of Constantinople in AD 381, and this version of the Nicene Creed is accepted by nearly all Christian churches today, recited by hundreds of millions of Christians in their worship services each week. This creed, and others like the Apostles Creed and the Athanasian Creed, have been helpful reminders over the centuries of the most important aspects of Jesus’ Truth. We could summarize these most important truths as follows:

· God is our all-powerful Father.

· God is the transcendent Creator of the universe.

· Jesus is the eternal Son of God, equal to and one with the Father.

· Jesus was miraculously conceived in Mary through the Holy Spirit and became fully human.

· Jesus died on a cross in Jerusalem at the hands of the Roman Governor Pontius Pilate.

· Jesus rose bodily from the dead, eternally victorious over sin, death, hell, and the devil.

· Jesus reigns as King and will return in a dramatic cosmic event to make all things right.

· The Holy Spirit is also equal to and one with the Father and the Son.

· The Holy Spirit is the source of life itself who unifies the Church into one body.

· The Holy Spirit speaks to us through the written Word of God and inspired people.

Obviously, the Bible contains far more teaching than this collection of statements. Jesus’ Truth is much wider and deeper than the Nicene Creed, but it is helpful to boil it down to the most important, defining truths of our faith. But what about the Way of Jesus? Somehow orthodox Christianity became all about the Truth, but it forgot about the Way. That pattern has continued till today. Most people think of Christianity as a collection of beliefs, rather than faith in truths expressed through a lifestyle that creates an extraordinary Jesus-shaped life. That is why so often those who agree with the Truth of Jesus aren’t able to love God, love each other, and love their neighbors the Way Jesus did.

Just as there was confusion in the early church about the Trinity and the true nature of Jesus, there is confusion today about what it means to be a disciple of Jesus. Perhaps the greatest heresy of our time is the idea that a disciple is someone who simply understands and agrees with the Truth of Jesus. These truths are foundational to our faith, but a disciple is someone who not only believes the Truth of Jesus but is also learning to follow the Way of Jesus! This is what produces a Life characterized by loving God and neighbor. If we are going to learn how to follow the Way of Jesus, in addition to believing the Truth of Jesus, we will need a new creed, a “Disciples’ Creed,” that will become a foundation on which we can build a more Jesus-shaped life.

Recovering the Way

You have probably heard the well-known story of the “Big Rocks”: An expert was addressing a class of high-achieving business students, and he said, “Okay, time for a quiz.” He pulled out a one-gallon, wide-mouthed mason jar and set it on a table in front of him. Then he produced about a dozen fist-sized rocks and carefully placed them, one at a time, into the jar.

When the jar was filled to the top and no more rocks would fit inside, he asked, “Is this jar full?” Everyone in the class said, “Yes.” Then he said, “Really?” He reached under the table and pulled out a bucket of gravel. Then he dumped some gravel in and shook the jar causing pieces of gravel to work down into the spaces between the big rocks.

Then he smiled and asked the group once more, “Is the jar full?” By this time the class was onto him. “Probably not,” one of them answered. “Good!” he replied. And he reached under the table and brought out a bucket of sand. He started dumping the sand in and it went into all the spaces left between the rocks and the gravel. Once more he asked the question, “Is this jar full?”

“No!” the class shouted. Once again he said, “Good!” Then he grabbed a pitcher of water and began to pour it in until the jar was filled to the brim. Then he looked up at the class and asked, “What is the point of this illustration?”

One eager student raised his hand and said, “The point is, no matter how full your schedule is, if you try really hard, you can always fit some more things into it!”

“No,” the speaker replied, “that’s not the point. The truth this illustration teaches us is: If you don’t put the big rocks in first, you’ll never get them in at all.”1

The Way of Jesus, as exemplified in the four Gospels and contextualized in the rest of the New Testament, is a wonderfully rich tapestry of rhythms, patterns, groupings, values, postures, practices, and habits. Jesus’ lifestyle is incredibly deep and wide and beautiful, but as a new disciple it can be hard to know what to focus on. Where do we begin? If we are to recover the Way of Jesus in our time, we will need to gain clarity on the most important aspects of his Way, and we will need tools to help us put these priorities into practice. We will need to identify the “big rocks” in the Way of Jesus. To help us identify what is most important in the Way of Jesus, we will use a Disciples’ Creed and a Disciples’ Roadmap. To help us actually put these principles into action, we will also develop a Disciples’ Tool Kit.

Because truths can be conveyed by words, it is easier to express them in writing. But a way of life is lived out in real places with real people who are shaped by a prevailing culture. It is something that needs to be observed. For this reason, when we read the Gospels outside of their geographical and cultural context, we may grasp some of the Truth of Jesus, but we often end up missing much of the Way of Jesus. For forty years now, I have lived in and traveled regularly to the Holy Land to walk in the places where Jesus lived and carried out his mission, studying the history, archaeology, and culture of those places to help illuminate the Gospel texts. This has given me greater clarity about the Truth of Jesus, but even more it has revolutionized my understanding of the Way of Jesus.

Bob Leading a Group of Pilgrims in Galilee

For more than thirty of those forty years, I have led people in a unique 14-day historical and spiritual pilgrimage, following the life of Jesus from birth to resurrection, focusing on the historically verifiable places and seeking a fresh encounter with Jesus. Now my wife Pam and I lead at least four of these unique pilgrimages every year. All these years of repeatedly visiting and studying the actual places where Jesus lived and carried out his mission with groups of pilgrims has brought into focus six specific aspects of Jesus’ lifestyle that I have come to believe are the “big rocks” of the Way of Jesus. A few years ago, as I led these pilgrimages, I noticed I kept reinforcing the most important things we had experienced along the way by counting off these six places and principles on the fingers, thumb, and palm of my hand:

· Jordan River and Judean Desert – Live From Your Identity and Authority

· Nazareth – Find and Invest in People of Peace

· Capernaum – Build Families on Mission

· Sower’s Cove – Make Disciple-Making Disciples

· Upper Room – Live in Fruitful Rhythms

· Golgotha – Take Up Your Cross

I have come to see this as a kind of Disciples’ Creed that reminds us of the most important aspects in the Way of Jesus. As we go, I want to encourage you to count off these six steps on your thumb and fingers so you can memorize this important creed. Because it unfolds in the life of Jesus as we read the Gospels, I also think of it as a kind of Disciples’ Roadmap to help us find the Way of Jesus. As we follow Jesus to these six places and use history, archaeology, and Middle Eastern culture to uncover what time, distance, and western culture have hidden from us, we will begin to recover the six most important steps in the Way of Jesus. We will also learn to use the practical tools in our Disciples’ Toolkit so we can actually live a more Jesus-shaped life.

THE DISCIPLES’ ROADMAP: SIX KEY STEPS ON THE WAY OF JESUS

OUR JOURNEY

Nearly 20 years ago Pam and I realized the things we were learning from spending time in the places where Jesus lived and ministered were actually meant to teach us how to look and live more like Jesus back in our hometown, in the church we served, in the neighborhood where we lived, and in our own family. The simple call, “Follow me,” is actually a radical invitation to allow the Way of Jesus to fundamentally shape our way of life. As Pam and I began to shift our focus from only believing the Truth of Jesus and started to intentionally imitate the Way that Jesus lived his life as well, we found our way of life starting to change.

Our journey began with the realization that, in addition to being beloved children of God, we were also authorized to represent Jesus in word and deed. Instead of seeing our house as a fortress where we could retreat from the stresses of ministry carried out at the church buildings, we started to open our home and family as the center of our mission like Jesus did. Instead of focusing on inviting our neighbors to attend our church services and programs, we started to welcome them into our very lives. Instead of thinking of discipleship as a class we were teaching or a curriculum we were leading, we started to invest ourselves in the lives of people who were open to learning the Way of Jesus by following our imperfect example. Instead of working too hard and burning ourselves out with ministry activities, we started to learn Jesus’ healthy rhythms of abiding and bearing fruit. And finally, instead of trying to do all of this by our own strength and wisdom, we started to learn how to take up our cross, die to ourselves, and allow the Holy Spirit to guide us in living by the authority and power of the risen Jesus.

In all these steps of faith, we were learning how to allow the shape of Jesus’ life to shape our lives. We have come to see every aspect of Jesus’ way of life as the model for our lives and the perfect example for us to follow by God’s grace and the power of his Spirit. We still have a long way to go on this journey, but we will never go back to the way we used to live. The Way of Jesus is so much more abundant and life-giving than any other way we could ever find or create for ourselves!

This is the journey on which we are about to embark. If you decide to submit your way of life to Jesus, this is a journey that will forever change you. It is a journey that will upend your comfortable habits and challenge the status quo. It is a journey that will bring you into conflict with the cultural assumptions you have grown up with and may cause tension with the people around you. It is a long journey, and parts of it will test you deeply when you are tempted to turn back. You will have to let go of some “treasures” you have collected along the way in order to take hold of this new way of life. In the end it is a journey of taking up your cross, because only in giving up our life do we begin to truly live.

Be aware, however, that this is not a solo journey. You cannot do this alone. You need people who are ahead of you who will help to show you the Way. You need people beside you on the journey to share the burdens and help you overcome the challenges together. You will also need to bring along people who are behind you on the journey because, by definition, the goal of every disciple is to learn how to make disciples. So don’t just read this book on your own. Look for mentors who can help you make sense of all this and show you how to put it into practice. Gather a group of peers to discuss what Jesus is saying to you and share how you are going to respond in faith. Look for those people who are far from Jesus but open to you and invite them to join you on this journey. Use the processing questions at the end of each chapter and the companion video training guide as resources to make sure you are taking concrete steps of faith in response to the things Jesus is showing you.2 This is how you will learn to live the extraordinary, Jesus-shaped life for which you were created. This is how you will learn to love God and love your neighbor as Jesus did!

Since the fourth century, followers of Jesus have memorized the ancient creeds to help them remember the most important aspects of Jesus’ Truth. Likewise, as we begin to explore the most important aspects of Jesus’ Way, I want to challenge you to memorize the Disciples’ Creed. Go ahead and get started by counting off on your thumb and fingers while you say the six steps in the Disciples’ Creed out loud:

THE DISCIPLES’ CREED: SIX KEY STEPS ON THE WAY OF JESUS

CHAPTER ONE PROCESSING QUESTIONS

Is the distinction between Jesus Way and Truth and Life significant to you? If so, why?

What aspects of Jesus’ Way do you think we may have lost sight of in the modern church?

Do you agree these six steps in the Way of Jesus are the most important in the life of a disciple? Why or why not?

How can the Disciples’ Road Map and the Disciples’ Creed help you recover the Way of Jesus?

What is Jesus saying to you? What is your next step of faith?

FOOTNOTES

[1] Stephen Covey, First Things First (Free Press: New York, NY), 1997, pg. 118.

[2] Watch how Bob teaches this tool using a whiteboard in the Disciples’ Tool Box video series, available in the Store at bobrognlien.com.

[3] Watch how Bob teaches this tool using a whiteboard in the Disciples’ Tool Box video series, available in the Store at bobrognlien.com.

THE JESUS-SHAPED WAY

A SAMPLE CHAPTER

Table of Contents

Introduction | Recovering the Way of Jesus

Chapter One: The Disciples’ Creed