Jesus Remembered: Christianity in the Making, vol. 1

§14.3 The Character of Discipleship
analysis in the social conditions of the time, the description suggests that a hint
of the old romantic idealism of a Renan still lingers. For one thing, it would appear
that only a few who may properly be called Jesus' disciples actually went
out on mission on Jesus' behalf. 73 And for another, a mission throughout Galilee
need involve only a sequence of one or two days travel from a centre like
Capernaum. 74 Indeed, apart from the references to the sending out of the twelve
(Mark 6.7 pars.) and journeys to the region of Tyre and Sidon and perhaps the
villages of Caesarea Philippi (7.24 par.; 8.27 par.), the Gospel accounts seem to
envisage outreach mainly from a base in Capernaum, either across the lake, to
villages/towns like Chorazin and Bethsaida, or less than a day's journey to places
like Nain and Cana. 75
Nevertheless, it could be fairly said that a sharing in Jesus' mission is another
element in the distinctiveness of being a disciple of Jesus. For if Pharisees
did not seek out disciples, neither did they send them out on mission. And there
is no evidence of Essenes actually seeking to evangelize or proselytize in the
name, say, of the Teacher of Righteousness. The nearness of the eschatological
horizon was obviously an important factor in the case of Jesus' commission, but
it is worth noting that the subsequent communities preserved and reused the mission
instructions despite the horizon drawing no nearer. Worth noting also is the
fact that the eschatological tension within the instructions between good news
and healing offered on the one hand and judgment pronounced on the other 76
closely mirrors the same tension in Jesus' kingdom preaching (§§12.4-5).
itinerancy was not necessarily linked with early Christian "mission" at all but rather had more
the quality of a permanent manner of living, a life-style advocated by the Jesus movement'
(Birth 325-37, citing 325, 335, 337, 328). He further argues that a dialectic of dissent between
itinerants and householders can be traced from the historical Jesus, through the Q material and
into Didache (Part VIII): 'Behind Q Gospel 6:36-49 you must hear the criticisms made against
the itinerants by the householders even as you read the itinerants countercriticizing the householders
in defense of themselves' (357). That such Jesus tradition was used in many exhortations
in early Christian communities is entirely probable (note particularly Luke 6.36), but
Crossan grossly over-schematizes a complex of motifs.
73. Though also to be noted is the implication that disciples are to be 'salt' and 'light'
(Matt. 5.13-16), Matthew's tradition drawing the implication from more general sayings in the
tradition (Mark 9.49-50 and Luke 14.34-35; Mark 4.21 and Luke 8.16).
74. References to mission throughout Galilee (as in Mark 1.39; see above, §9.9f) have to
be balanced against references to Capernaum as his settled base (see above, §9.9d).
75. See again §9.9f above, and on the likelihood that Jesus extended his mission to Judea
and Jerusalem see §9.9g.
76. Mark 6.7 pars. (Matt. 10.8 heightens the parallel by including a foreshadowing of
11.5); Mark 6.11 pars.; Matt. 10.12-13, 15/Luke 10.5-6, 12.
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