Finding Faith: Christian vs. disciple

Would you consider yourself a “disciple” of Jesus?

One of my favorite faith blogs this week posed the question: Would we be better off resurrecting this biblical term rather than continuing to use the word “Christian,” a term which for many that once held a brilliant sheen but as of late has been tarnished.

Or does calling ourselves “disciples” demand too much of us, I wonder?

After all, calling oneself a Christian is much safer, less demanding. To be a Christian, you only have to profess a certain belief that Jesus is the son of God, and he died on the cross for our salvation.

But, we don’t ask much more of those who call themselves Christians, do we? Doesn’t seem like a very high bar of expectation.

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But disciples, now there’s something to live up to, right? I mean, Jesus’ disciples bought into a mentality of service to others, putting the entire community before themselves and roaming about proclaiming the gospel, or the good news. In other words, they picked up the cross and carried it!

Jesus unabashedly expected certain behaviors and beliefs of his disciples, and well, it seems in our modern society, that may be too much to ask of ourselves.

Be a Christian? Sure, count me in! … I go to church once a month, drop a little money in the plate and take a swig of that communion wine once in a while. Which, by the way, can be kind of stale if you don’t replace it regularly, pastor. … Hehe. Wink! Wink!

But be a disciple? … Ahh, not sure if I have time or inclination for that, pastor. After all, the kids got all of their activities they’re involved in; you know the bills don’t pay themselves; and don’t those folks already have all of those government programs to help ‘em? … Really, I got my own problems here.

Christian? Or a disciple? What are you? … What’s in a label anyway, right?

To quote the Center for Action and Contemplation’s blog post: “We can’t just sit on the roadside of life and call ourselves followers of Jesus. We are to do more than esteem him for his generous love and dedicated service.”

And that seems to be the trouble these days, doesn’t it?

I mean there is a personal cost to actually being a disciple of Jesus, whereas only calling ourselves a Christian. And sorrowfully, it seems that those outside of the church can see the difference much better than those of us who profess to be the church.

The word “disciple” appears more than 250 times in the New Testament, the source of Christian faith. … You know how many times the word “Christian” appears? … Three.

Maybe it is indeed way past time that we as faithful people aimed to be disciples of Jesus, rather than only Christians. Amen.