Dusty Disciples of Jesus.

I’m from the rural parts of Indiana and it’s not too out of the ordinary to see a crop duster plane fly over the fields by my house in the summer season. This has been something that doesn’t seem to catch my attention anymore, but this reality is truly a feat of modern technology. Now, I am not here to enlighten you on the health benefits and downsides of the spreading of herbicides or pesticides, but that of being a disciple under the way of Jesus of Nazareth. 

John 14:6  
“Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” 

Mark 8:34 
“And calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he said to them, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” 

In old Jewish tradition, as one would leave and begin to follow their teachers, others would say to him, “May you be covered with the dust of your Rabbi.” The students followed him so closely that the dust from the road that came from the feet of the Rabbi would cover the disciple. That should be the desire of every disciple of Christ, to walk so closely to him that we would be covered with his dust. How beautiful is that?

My intention is to encourage us as the body of Christ to look more like those covered by the dust of our Rabbi. People who apprentice under him and learn his ways and love his presence. The invitation is for all of us to come under his way and closely observe how he walked and place ourselves right behind him as he moves and find ourselves as dusty disciples of the rabbi Jesus.

Back to the crop duster analogy; our field is our churches. We have become all too content with the occasional crop dust coverings given to us by Sunday services. If we claim to be Christ-followers we should in turn be covered by his dust from closely following the Holy Spirit! We must break the cycles of Americanized Christianity and follow Christ as he intended when he extended the invitation, “follow me.” 

John Mark Comer, a pastor in Portland, Oregon beautifully encompasses how we should respond to this special invitation. He says, “As disciples, we should be with Jesus, become like Jesus, and do what Jesus did.” Seems simple, right? Most of us know about him to a degree, very few of us practice looking like him, and little to none of us act in faith to do what he did. We need to rethink what ‘following’ Jesus should look like, and what it means to respond to his invitation. As the new year approaches, as the Lord what He wants you to shift in your relationship with him. He isn’t just a duster plane that is above and out of reach of his children, he walks through the garden of our hearts and surveys all that is within us. He is intentional and everpresent to those that he calls his own. 

John 15:1–2
“I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit.”