The idea of discipleship is rooted in the great commission, in which Jesus told the eleven to “go and make disciples from all nations” (Mt 28,19). In this command, Christians are represented not only as believers, but also as people who undergo a serious and ongoing discipleship.Unlike the sower of Matthew 13,3-8, which is singular, the scribes of Matthew 13,52 are several. The sower is a symbol of the Son of Man (Mt 13,37), the scribe is not a symbol, but the reality represented by one. We know this because, in Matthew, most parables begin with the sentence “the kingdom of heaven is like.” In the comparison of the scribe and the father, that sentence is replaced by the statement that the scribe is like a father, who takes things out of his treasure. Therefore, the scribe is in the place of the kingdom of heaven. And as the kingdom is represented by several symbols in the previous parables, the scribe is the object symbolized in this parable.
It is often discussed whether it is lawful for a Christian teacher to have disciples. The answer of the parable is affirmative, since it portrays a scribe in the kingdom of heaven, not in Judaism. At the time of Jesus, the scribe was a teacher who had disciples, just like today’s teacher has students. Since the scribe of the parable is not a symbol, but a reality, the allusion to one who is “learned in the kingdom of heaven” means there are teachers with disciples in the kingdom of God.
Discipleship involves freedom. This is a basic principle. However, it also brings in the caveat that, in the kingdom of heaven, every teacher exercises his ministry after Jesus delivered speeches such as the one in Matthew 5 through 7. The inevitable comparison with Jesus makes Christian teachers real non-teachers. Teaching after Jesus is like an apprentice playing after Beethoven in a concert, or an inexperienced painter exhibiting his screen in the inauguration of the Sistine Chapel. In a nutshell, to teach after Jesus is to feel that nothing is taught.
By his teaching, Jesus was lifted to the rank of master of all masters. “You call me Master and Lord, and you say well, for I am” (John 13,13). And also: “Do not be called masters: for one is your Master” (Matthew 23,8). The ban to be called master, in the last verse, should not be considered absolute. Ephesians 4,11 says that God gave teachers to the church. And if he did, it’s okay to call someone a master. As being a master implies having disciples, the disciple-master relationship is entirely appropriate in the kingdom of heaven. But even so, the Christian teacher is, at bottom, a non-teacher.
The master-disciple relationship was thus modified by Jesus. The Christian teacher is not like the scribe coopted by the religious power of the Temple, or like the rabbi who thinks he understands all mysteries. He is more like Jacob, after God touched the nerve of his thigh. Jacob wrestled and even triumphed over God. But only until God touched his thigh.
The strong and invincible master, like Jacob who wrestled with God and won, is the opposite of another kind of master, a second Jacob, who became weak and had his name changed by God. The lame leg of this Jacob is his strength. To transform Jacob into Israel, God does not need to make him stronger; he has to withdraw his strength. Likewise, before being touched by God, the teacher of the Scriptures is wise, but his wisdom is misused. Only the divine touch turns him into someone who remains a teacher, but no longer feels like one, who continues to be wise, but gains a deep awareness of the illegality of all his titles. In short, while in Judaism the rabbi, the master in the strong sense, needed to affirm his wisdom, in the procession of Christ, the master in the weak sense is constituted more by the denial than by the affirmation of what he knows. And the motive for this is not in himself, but in the master of masters.
Throughout the first century, Judea and Galilee boiled with teachers and students of the first kind. The relationship between them was the most important one. It was the very ground, in which Jewish society was built. In the parable of the father who takes new and old things out of his treasure, Jesus showed that, after the establishment of the kingdom of heaven, this relationship underwent a metamorphosis. By an experience like the touch of God in the usurper’s thigh, the master became a father, and his relationship with the Temple was unfolded as that of a family.
The family is the spiritual children of the master in the kingdom of heaven. What does the father do to his children? The parable says that he takes new and old stuff not from others, but from himself. When touched by God, the new teacher acquires the precious words of the Old and the New Testaments. They cease to be mere teachings, and become food to him. They cease to be alien and start to be his own, that is, his subjective experience, the word of God written not on tablets of stone, but of flesh.
And what does the father do with the things he pulls from his priceless deposit? The parable does not say. Jesus chose to describe by silence what is beyond words. Thus he showed the true teacher is not loquacious. He knows that silence is as important as words. Silence is like the space between the wires that make up the upholstery or between the cells that form the organism. As a body includes the space between its pieces, the teaching of a true master is made up by his silence and his words. Jesus showed this by omitting that the father of the parable gives what he takes out of his treasure. Thus the action that most defines the new teacher remained implied, that is, his giving. That sort of giving cannot be rendered, for love is ineffable. So it was omitted, transferred to the air to become an exhalation, the spiritual essence of love of the teacher learned in the kingdom of heaven.
In the light of the short parable of Matthew 13,52, the commission to make disciples is shown to be a unique work, but not the work of a unique human master. Many scribes carry it out jointly, since there is no jealousy or exclusiveness in the kingdom of heaven. As Jesus performed miracles and gave his followers the power to perform them, as he preached and sent his disciples to preach, took care of people, and commanded us to take care of them, so also Jesus taught and sent his disciples to teach the nations. He instituted a shared and ongoing discipleship. A discipleship that only those whose nerve was touched by God are able to exert.
