Are You My Model?…
07/10/22
Does anyone remember the book Are You My Mother by P.D. Eastman? The children’s book tells the story of a baby bird that hatches while the mother bird is away. This left the hatchling alone in search of its caretaker. The hatchling goes on to ask everyone (and everything) it finds, “are YOU my mother?” I think we can agree that we all inevitably find ourselves looking up to- or modeling our lives after- someone. This is not inherently evil, but it does have its limitations when it comes to discipleship. This includes our ability to put things into practice like “comforting one another.”
In our message on comfort, we reflected on Paul’s words to the Corinthian church. One verse stands out to me. “For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ.” 2 Corinthians 1:5
Our ability to comfort one another the way Jesus taught and modeled is such a challenge and mystery to us. Many of us (myself included) have mastered the art of the “to-do” list. But the task of comforting someone, or embracing being comforted, feels foreign. This command looks great on paper, but when we attempt to put it into practice it ends up being very… well… uncomfortable.
I think that part of this discomfort comes from the ways we see the relationship between the Bible and discipleship. At this point there are probably thousands of devotionals and sermons that are built on character studies on the various people in scripture. Again, I am not saying that this is wrong. In fact, we believe with confidence that each story and each person in scripture is there for the divine purpose of telling God’s story of redemption.
Here is the tension. When we go from character study to character study, there is a risk that we end up becoming a disciple of someone else before being a disciple of Jesus. We turn the stories of scripture that are meant to reveal Jesus into Christian horoscopes or pious personality tests. “Are you a Moses?” “Oh, you are SUCH a Peter!!” “I don’t get it, because I am more of a Martha, and SHE is Definitely a Mary…” Okay… Maybe we don’t go that far… But I think you get the idea…
The problem with this is when we put a biblical character as our model for who we are or strive to be, and that character is not Jesus, we end up following (or even idolizing) an imperfect character with imperfect characteristics. This gives us an incomplete model of what a disciple of Jesus looks like.
If our models are the Old Testament Kings and Judges, we don’t always see a perfect picture of humility, selflessness, and purity.
If our models are the Old Testament Prophets, we don’t always see a perfect picture of gentleness, patience, and faith.
If our models are even the New Testament disciples, we don’t always see a perfect picture of these Christlike characteristics either.
The bottom-line is we don’t get to excuse a lack of “comforting one another” in our lives because “well look at Moses (or any other biblical character), he wasn’t a comforter and look at what he accomplished!”
We aren’t called to be Moses-like. We aren’t called to be David-like. We aren’t called to be Peter-like. We aren’t called to be John-like. We are called to be Christlike.
In Philippians 2, Paul writes “Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from His love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being on in spirit and of one mind.” Philippians 2:1-2
Jesus, through the power of the Holy Spirit that we now have in us, is both our source and example of what it means to be comforted. We need to allow the words and life of Jesus to shape our imagination. Our practices shape our routines, which then shape our character, which then shapes our imaginations. That is a picture of discipleship.
So, as we seek to understand what it looks like to comfort and be comforted, or what it looks like to put any of our One Another statements into practice, we need to keep Jesus at the center of our discipleship. As with all of these One Another statements, lets also remember to give each other (and ourselves) grace. We are followers of Jesus, but we aren’t Jesus. Walking this path takes patience, humility, and heaps of grace. Let’s continue this journey together.