Experiential Discipliship (John 1:35-51)

In the latter half of the gospel, John tells the story of the calling of the first disciples.  John the Baptist points out Jesus as the Lamb of God and the disciples’ interest is piqued.  They said to Jesus, “Rabbi, where are you staying?  To truly understand the question, we need to consider the duality of the question.   The disciples were asking a literal question; Jesus where are you living and where are you from?  But they were also asking what his was theologically.  Just as there are many Christian churches with differing theological tenets, in Jesus time there were many Jewish groups that differed in their theological teachings.  Jesus understood that they had a deeper desire than merely wanting to get to know him better, including his theology.  He knew that deep within their souls they had a desire to know and serve God in a personal and profound way.

The answer that Jesus gave was more of an invitation that answer; “Come and you will see.”  He refuses to merely give a theological treatise that will not satisfy their deepest longings, but instead he offers them a gift.  Come and experience me with your whole being; see with your eyes, with your mind, with your heart.  Come and experience transformation as you live as my disciples.  Jesus called them to experiential discipleship. 

In the educational world there is a teaching model called experiential learning developed in the 70’s by David Kolb and Ron Fry.  The premise behind this model is that learning takes place through our experiences based upon four elements that continue cyclically:

      • concrete experience

      • observation and reflection upon that experience

      • formation of abstract concepts based upon the reflection

      • testing of new concepts

This is just the type of invitation that Jesus was giving his disciples.  Hey Nathaniel, “Come with me and experience sick people being healed, the demon possessed being set free, the poor receiving acceptance and the dead being raised to life.  In the evening when all the people have gone back to their homes, we will have a chance to talk about all that happened during the day.  You will have time to think about it and figure out for yourself who I am.  And you’re not going to believe this, but in time, I am going to let you go out on your own (not really on his own but with the power of the Holy Spirit) to test what ministry in my name is really like.  So what do you think?  You want to come?”

Jesus offers us the same invitation as well.  As Christians we do a pretty good job of getting into the thick of the experiences.  But in order to really have a deep and grounded faith, experiential disciples need to spend time reflecting and allowing themselves to be changed by them.  How much time do you spend reflecting alone and with other fellow disciples?  Most of the time, truth be told, we are so busy going from one thing to another we never process what we have actually been doing.  So just as Jesus was inviting Nathaniel not only into active hands-on ministry but also to a life of active reflection he invites you as well?  Will you come?