The Disciple-Making Temperament

The following blog is an excerpt from the 1st chapter of my book, One Disciple at a Time: How to Lead Others to Dynamic, Engaged, Life-Changing Faith. The book asks the question, “how do we make a single person into a lifelong disciple of Jesus Christ?” This article addresses the need to start with the temperament of the Messiah. It is part 1 of a 2 part series of blogs on the subject.

I saw a movie several years ago in which a story was told about a young aspiring magician. When the magician was a teenager, he approached the mayor of the town and asked him to pull a card from a deck and sign his name to the card. To the mayor’s amusement, the boy performed a simple sleight-of-hand trick with the signed card. The mayor chuckled and congratulated the boy on his craft, and he went on his merry way.

However, the young aspiring magician had a much bigger plan than mastering simple card tricks. He took the card that the mayor had signed and stuck it into a hole in a tree. Over many years, the tree grew around the card, enclosing the card in the center of the large tree. Thirty years later, the mayor, now the governor of the state, returned to the town. The magician was now a grown man and rather well known within the region, but the governor had long forgotten his interaction with the magician several decades before. The magician approached the governor and asked him to pull a card from a deck and sign his name to the card. Using sleight of hand, he made sure that the governor pulled the same card that he had pulled thirty years prior, and he made sure that the governor signed the card in the same place as before. The magician pocketed the card and then asked someone to cut down the tree in the center of the town. The governor was astonished to find that his card was growing in the center of the tree (of course, he didn’t realize this was the card from thirty years prior). The magician instantly became a legend, and the townspeople spoke of his incredible trick for years to come.

What I find inspiring about this story is that the magician had an idea for an amazing trick that required him to be patient for thirty years to see it through to fruition. I wish that Christians had this same kind of patience and vision when it came to forming disciples. I often find that Christians who have a zeal and desire to spread the Gospel can do more damage than good when they lack the appropriate temperament.

If you were only responsible for making one disciple of Jesus Christ, you have the freedom to think long term and see the bigger picture. Every person on earth is given a lifetime to become a saint, and everyone’s journey is different. We can see examples of the diversity of faith journeys when looking at the lives of different canonized saints. For some, such as St. Thérèse of Lisieux, holiness is a part of the narrative of their entire lives. For others, such as St. Dismas—who was crucified next to Jesus and repented of his sin moments before his death—sanctity happens at the very end of life. The key is that a person who seeks to walk with another has to recognize that they are along for the journey.

If you wish to make a lifelong disciple of Jesus Christ, you have to be committed to the whole journey. You have to be willing to accompany someone throughout their lifetime. This is a big commitment.

God embodies accompaniment in the Incarnation of Jesus Christ. God does not seek to save humanity by keeping a safe distance from sin and the flesh. Rather, God becomes flesh and enters into every part of the human experience (except sin). We know that God understands every facet of what it means to be human because he is human.

The one thing that Jesus did not share in was sin, and yet his temperament toward the sinner is not one of judgment. I bring up sin because Jesus’s temperament toward sin is a necessary temperament to have if accompaniment is to be successful.

Jesus, Sin, and the Lepers

When Jesus walked the earth, one of the greatest diseases of the time was leprosy. If a person contracted this disease, they were forced to live apart from the rest of humanity because they were contagious. Lepers lived in colonies with one another and were considered “unclean.” In the book of Leviticus, God tells Moses what is supposed to happen to a person who is unclean: they are quarantined from society because they are contagious; anyone who would touch them immediately became unclean as well (Lv 13:1–2, 44–46).

Jesus turns this mindset on its head. In the Gospel of Mark, when Jesus meets a leper, he reaches out, touches him, and says, “Be made clean” (Mk 1:40–45). Jesus does not catch the man’s leprosy. Rather, the man catches Jesus’s purity. Rather than Jesus becoming ill, the opposite occurs—the leper becomes well.

This is also an illustration of the relationship that Jesus has with sin and the sinner. Jesus enters into humanity but he does not “catch” humanity’s sinfulness. Also, he does not keep a safe distance from the sinner and shout “Unclean” at them. Rather, Jesus is not afraid to touch the sinner because he cleanses each person of their sins. Jesus accompanies humanity by entering into our very experiences. He comes close to us and he cleanses us.

Jesus Meets Simon, the Sinner

Jesus’s temperament with sinners is very important to understand, particularly when we consider his relationship with Peter. The first time Jesus meets Simon the fisherman (who would one day be named Peter), Simon warns Jesus to keep a safe distance away from him.

In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus performs a fishing miracle in the presence of Simon, who responds, “Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man” (Lk 5:8). It is as if Simon Peter were a leper and he is warning Jesus that he is “unclean.” Jesus doesn’t keep his distance. On the contrary, Jesus comes closer to Simon and says, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men” (Lk 5:10). There is no judgment from Jesus and no fear of the sinner. Jesus doesn’t keep a safe distance; he dives right in.

Perhaps you have heard the common Christian cliché “Hate the sin but love the sinner.” The problem with this statement is that those that I have heard use it are usually light on the love of the sinner and they double down on the hate of the sin. This phrase is frequently the catchphrase of Christians who love to cast judgment on others because of their sins. It’s like the person is saying, “I love you, but here is my loophole to justify judging you.” This cliché doesn’t accurately describe the temperament of Jesus. He did much more than what many of us think of as love. Rather, he demonstrated that love doesn’t have a loophole. Jesus got close to the sinner. He touched the sinner. If we wish to imitate Christ’s example, we have to be willing to touch the sinner as well.

Join our newsletter and receive information notifications about new blogs, our podcast and Everett Fritz’s new book.