Disciples in the Gospel of Luke

So while finishing my sermon last Sunday on Jesus' encounter with the Rich Ruler, I re-read the entire gospel of Luke, trying to determine if the call to "sell everything and follow me" was universal to all the people Jesus talked to, or if it was something special just for the rich ruler.

I learned two things:
1. No, this was not the universal of Jesus to everyone. At least 29 times in the gospel, the call from Jesus was not to sell everything, or to leave everything, and in those times, it also wasn't a call to "follow him." Most of the time in Luke, Jesus was content to affirm people's faith and trust in him, and did not encourage people to give up everything to follow him.

In the 13 instances where people were either told or did leave everything and follow Jesus, it refers to one of three groups of people:
a. The 12
b. The 70
c. The rich ruler

What we have here is a window into understanding how to categorize the people of faith during the ministry of Jesus. You could think about it in terms of two concentric circles. The outer circle was comprised of those who had faith that Jesus was the savior and were living under his authority. The inner circle were those people who were committed to following Jesus to Jerusalem.

This is helpful because it explains the flow of the conversation between the Rich Ruler and Jesus. The Rich Ruler asks Jesus how he can inherit eternal life. After confronting his flattery, Jesus tells him that if he wants to inherit eternal life, he needs to be in the outer circle. You can tell who will inherit eternal life by looking at the fruit of their life. Those who keep covenant with God will inherit eternal life.

In his self-deception and self-righteousness, the Rich Ruler responds to Jesus by expressing his opinion that he's in the outer circle. So Jesus pushes him by inviting him into the inner circle so that the Rich Ruler would understand that he's not in either circle. This is why Jesus issues this unusual call to him.

2. The word disciple in Luke is not synonymous with person who believes in Jesus as the Messiah. In Luke, the disciples were those people who were traveling with Jesus and following him to Jerusalem. Revisiting the notion of the two concentric circles above, if you read through the gospel, the disciples were in the inner circle, the rest of the believers were in the outer circle.

Having said this, the word does take on a broader meaning after the resurrection of Jesus.

That's it for now.