Jesus of Nazareth: What He Wanted, Who He Was

The Zealot movement, as well as other enthusiastic movements like those of Theudas and “the Egyptian,” tried to draw as many people in Israel as possible to follow them. They wanted the people as such to rise up against the Romans, or in other words, all Israel was supposed to follow these new charismatics. The Zealots’ reckless use of violence, not hesitating even at murder, was directed not only at the Roman occupiers but also against all Jews who submitted to Roman rule for the sake of peace.⁸ Here again something entirely different was evident in Jesus’ movement: he did not regard Israel as a uniform collective but instead respected to a sometimes off-putting degree the freedom and specific calling of every individual.

Jesus calls individuals to discipleship, each of them chosen and approached by him in person. The next chapter will explore this phenomenon in more detail. Here we may say only that for Jesus the Good News of the coming of the reign of God was directed to everyone, and the same was true for the consequences of that message: the call to repentance. But the call to discipleship was not addressed to everyone; it was only for those Jesus chose for himself. He expects of them that they share his unstable itinerant life, that they abandon their property, that they leave their families and live with him together as a community of disciples.

This is a call to a new form of life, a call to a very insecure and hard life—and for that very reason a call that presupposes freedom of decision. No one may be forced to live this way. Here again we see the profound difference between Jesus and the fanaticism of the Zealots.

Elijah and Elisha

The real model for following Jesus is found—and what else would we expect?—in the Bible itself, in the prophet Elijah’s calling of Elisha. The story is told this way in 1 Kings 19:19-21:

So he [Elijah] set out from there, and found Elisha son of Shaphat, who was plowing. There were twelve yoke of oxen ahead of him, and he was with the twelfth. Elijah passed by him and threw his mantle over him. He left the oxen, ran after Elijah, and said, “Let me kiss my father and my mother, and then I will follow you.” Then Elijah said to him, “Go back again; for what have I done to you?” He returned from following him, took the yoke of oxen, and slaughtered them; using the equipment from the oxen, he boiled their flesh, and gave it to the people, and they ate. Then he set out and followed Elijah, and became his servant.

Elisha is portrayed in this text as the son of a well-to-do farmer, for he plows with twelve pairs of oxen at a time. He himself works with the last, the twelfth span, and so he can see how the eleven servants ahead of him draw their furrows.

Elijah calls Elisha by throwing his mantle over him, so Elisha is conscripted for God’s business. He knows immediately what it means for him: leaving his family, breaking with his previous occupation, discipleship. The rest of the story only tells us how this wealthy heir leaves behind his family and his occupation.

First Elisha asks Elijah for permission to take leave of his parents. He knows, then, that he is no longer his own master but the servant of Elijah. Elijah permits him to take his leave; the somewhat difficult text at this point can scarcely be understood in any other way. By saying “what have I done to you?” he allows Elijah full freedom of action. The one who is called can only follow freely. But that very action makes Elisha aware of what has happened to him.

Probably the text means to say that he does not even return to his house, but improvises a farewell dinner for his farmhands in the field. He uses the yoke and equipment of a span of oxen as firewood as a sign that he is giving up his previous occupation and that God’s business cannot wait. Thus this story reveals itself in many ways as a prelude to the later discipleship of those who followed Jesus’ call. For example, it shows us the “immediacy” of discipleship. But it also shows that the new thing God has begun with Israel can only be handed on from person to person. There is no automatic transfer of faith to the next generation. Calling and charism must be handed on face to face. Elisha must, so to speak, feel Elijah’s mantle on his own body.