Father Koch: Jesus Taught His Disciples to Become Rabbis to Continue His Mission
July 12, 2024 at 11:32 a.m.
Gospel Reflection for July 14, 2024, 15th Sunday in Ordinary Time
The ministry of Jesus was not just teaching his disciples about ethereal realities and performing miracles. His mission was to proclaim the Kingdom of God, preach conversion, forgive sins and, ultimately, to complete his mission in the paschal events. He was a true rabbi – a teacher – who inspired his disciples to become rabbis forming their own disciples, grounded in the teaching of Jesus. We see this mission at work as Jesus sends the twelve out to practice what he has taught them to do. The focus that Mark places on this work is significant: preach repentance and heal the sick. This is the work that the church continues to do today.
While it is not clear that or if the first apostles ever assumed the title of rabbi for themselves, they certainly continued to exercise that ministry as they set out after Pentecost to preach the Gospel to the ends of the earth. It was their mission to proclaim Jesus Christ, raised from the dead and seated at the right hand of the Father. They announced to those who would listen that there is a new economy of salvation and that God, having made himself present to the world in the person of Jesus Christ through the mystery of the Incarnation, was now and forever present to his church.
The teaching power of the disciples was handed-on quickly to a second generation of preachers, who would themselves hand-on the Gospel message until the end of history. We are today the beneficiaries of this legacy of handing-on the traditions and teachings of Jesus Christ and those first apostles.
The commission of Jesus to the twelve as he sent them out on what we might think of today as an internship or a ministry practicum, sounds simple enough. They were to teach clearly and simply, but they were also to be men of simple life.
Besides their tasks of preaching and simplicity of life, the disciples were given “authority over unclean spirits.”
In this way, Jesus already begins to demonstrate that there is something different about his disciples relative to the disciples of other rabbis, including even John the Baptizer. The proclamation of the Kingdom of God now present in the world was not merely a statement, it demanded decision and action.
The people to whom Jesus preached and ministered, and now so also with his disciples in their ministry, were forced by their hearing of the message to either accept it or to reject it. In doing so they either accepted or rejected Jesus himself.
Throughout his ministry Jesus performed many miracles – but at the core of all of his miracles was the eradication of evil: sin and death. He expelled demons; he cured people from their blindness, muteness, deafness, and their inability to stand and walk. On several occasions he even raised the dead to life. This stands as the expression of his power over sin, possession, weakness, and death.
Jesus handed this authority, this power over sin and death to his disciples and, through them, to the church. Perhaps we don’t see the kinds of miracles today that we see in the Gospels, but people still experience the healing power of Christ in their lives. There are healing-experiences, attested to in the number of saints who are being canonized each year by the church; but to a much greater extent, those who know that their lives are better and their well-being improved because of the mystery of the presence of God in their lives.
We proclaim the Good News of Jesus Christ to a world that is skeptical of the miraculous and doesn’t believe in evil or sin, and avoids confronting the reality of death. Yet, with the authority of Jesus Christ, the church continues his mission to the world.
As Jesus formed his disciples to become apostles, so we today continue to form disciples and evangelizers today. With simplicity of heart and intentionality of discipleship, each one of us can perform miracles — the primary miracle than any one of us can perform — to lead another soul to Christ by our lives and the testimony of our faith.
Related Stories
Thursday, November 21, 2024
E-Editions
Events
Gospel Reflection for July 14, 2024, 15th Sunday in Ordinary Time
The ministry of Jesus was not just teaching his disciples about ethereal realities and performing miracles. His mission was to proclaim the Kingdom of God, preach conversion, forgive sins and, ultimately, to complete his mission in the paschal events. He was a true rabbi – a teacher – who inspired his disciples to become rabbis forming their own disciples, grounded in the teaching of Jesus. We see this mission at work as Jesus sends the twelve out to practice what he has taught them to do. The focus that Mark places on this work is significant: preach repentance and heal the sick. This is the work that the church continues to do today.
While it is not clear that or if the first apostles ever assumed the title of rabbi for themselves, they certainly continued to exercise that ministry as they set out after Pentecost to preach the Gospel to the ends of the earth. It was their mission to proclaim Jesus Christ, raised from the dead and seated at the right hand of the Father. They announced to those who would listen that there is a new economy of salvation and that God, having made himself present to the world in the person of Jesus Christ through the mystery of the Incarnation, was now and forever present to his church.
The teaching power of the disciples was handed-on quickly to a second generation of preachers, who would themselves hand-on the Gospel message until the end of history. We are today the beneficiaries of this legacy of handing-on the traditions and teachings of Jesus Christ and those first apostles.
The commission of Jesus to the twelve as he sent them out on what we might think of today as an internship or a ministry practicum, sounds simple enough. They were to teach clearly and simply, but they were also to be men of simple life.
Besides their tasks of preaching and simplicity of life, the disciples were given “authority over unclean spirits.”
In this way, Jesus already begins to demonstrate that there is something different about his disciples relative to the disciples of other rabbis, including even John the Baptizer. The proclamation of the Kingdom of God now present in the world was not merely a statement, it demanded decision and action.
The people to whom Jesus preached and ministered, and now so also with his disciples in their ministry, were forced by their hearing of the message to either accept it or to reject it. In doing so they either accepted or rejected Jesus himself.
Throughout his ministry Jesus performed many miracles – but at the core of all of his miracles was the eradication of evil: sin and death. He expelled demons; he cured people from their blindness, muteness, deafness, and their inability to stand and walk. On several occasions he even raised the dead to life. This stands as the expression of his power over sin, possession, weakness, and death.
Jesus handed this authority, this power over sin and death to his disciples and, through them, to the church. Perhaps we don’t see the kinds of miracles today that we see in the Gospels, but people still experience the healing power of Christ in their lives. There are healing-experiences, attested to in the number of saints who are being canonized each year by the church; but to a much greater extent, those who know that their lives are better and their well-being improved because of the mystery of the presence of God in their lives.
We proclaim the Good News of Jesus Christ to a world that is skeptical of the miraculous and doesn’t believe in evil or sin, and avoids confronting the reality of death. Yet, with the authority of Jesus Christ, the church continues his mission to the world.
As Jesus formed his disciples to become apostles, so we today continue to form disciples and evangelizers today. With simplicity of heart and intentionality of discipleship, each one of us can perform miracles — the primary miracle than any one of us can perform — to lead another soul to Christ by our lives and the testimony of our faith.