Jesus Remembered: Christianity in the Making, vol. 1

THE MISSION OF JESUS §14.3
of irreplaceable value to them — their very lives. 87 Suffering was to be the lot of
the messenger, as a sheep among wolves (Matt. 10.16/Luke 10.3). Worth noting,
however, is Matthew's addition to the mission instructions:
A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master. It is
enough for the disciple to be like his teacher and the servant like his master.
If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more will
they malign those of his household (Matt. 10.24-25).
The saying undoubtedly reflects subsequent reflection on the lot of Jesus' disciples,
but it is well enough grounded in Jesus' forebodings, elsewhere attested, 88
as to provide a fitting summary of this further aspect of discipleship. Disciples
could not assume that the path of discipleship would be other than that trodden
by Jesus himself.
Learning, missioning, serving, praying, and suffering hardly provide a
complete description of discipleship and could hardly be regarded as a blueprint
for all (though Jesus presumably expected all to both learn and pray). But they
were evidently characteristics of the discipleship to which Jesus called, not least
as following in his own footsteps. The common feature in each case is that they
are marks of disciples of Jesus. If we revert to the image of 'circles of discipleship'
(§13.8), the point needs to be made that they were 'circles' because Jesus
was the centre.
ing which used crucifixion as illustration of the completeness of commitment called for is certainly
possible to conceive (cf. GTh 55.2). Meier cites Epictetus 1.229-30 ('If you wish to be
crucified, wait, and the cross will come') and Plato's Republic 1.124-25 {Marginal Jew 3.64-
67, 108 n. 86).
87. Meier, Marginal Jew 3.56-64, affirms Taylor's remark: 'Few sayings of Jesus are so
well attested as this' {Mark 382). Mark has elaborated the tradition he received (by adding at
least 'and [for the sake of] the gospel'), but Jesus was evidently remembered as voicing the
memorable sequence (8.35-37), perhaps in reflection on Ps. 49.7-8 (Pesch, Markusevangelium
2.62-64). See also E. Schweizer, Erniedrigung und Erhöhung bei Jesus und seinen Nachfolgern
(Zürich: Zwingli, 2 1962) 15-17 (ET of first edition, Lordship and Discipleship [London: SCM,
1960] 17-18), though he is dubious on the origin of 8.36-37; Crossan, Fragments 89-94.
McKnight quotes Bonhoeffer with effect: 'When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die'
{New Vision 195; D. Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship [London: SCM, 1959] 99), though in
private correspondence he points out that this is a dramatic over-translation of what Bonhoeffer
actually wrote.
88. See below §17.4.
562