"May the dust of your Rabbi be upon you"
For the first time ever, I heard the story of Jesus calling Peter to walk on water with a little background information. And it touched my heart.
All jewish children, until about the age of five, went through intense schooling to learn and memorize the first five books of the Bible, called the Torah. At the end of there learning, their teachers would pick the best of the best out of the children to go on and learn the rest of the Old Testament, Joshua through Malachi. The children who were not picked would go on to learn the family trade, some of these would be carpenters, basket makers, tent makers, or fisherman.
After the best of the best had learned the rest of the Old Testament, their teachers would grill them, ask them all of these questions about the books they had memorized, about their ancestors... from these students they would choose the best of the best of the best. The ones not chosen would be told to go home and learn their family trade.
But the best of the best of the best would go out and find a Rabbi that they wanted to be a disciple of. The name "Rabbi" means teacher, and the name "disciple" means student. For these kids, to be a disciple of their Rabbi meant that they wanted to take on all of his beliefs and ways and to be just like him. They would find a Rabbi that they wanted to be a disciple of and would tell him that they wanted to be his disciple. The Rabbi would then ask tons of questions about Jewish customs and the Torah and the Talmud. The Rabbi did not just chose every student who came to him. In fact, a lot of times the Rabbi's would tell them that they were good, but they should go back home and learn the family trade. But, when a Rabbi found a student who impressed him and who he thought could be like him he would tell him "Come, follow me."
Flash forward to Jesus and his disciples. Who did Jesus chose to be his disciples? First thing to notice, Jesus chose them. They didn't come looking for Jesus and asking him to be their Rabbi, but Jesus came and found them. Second thing, who were they? They were the fishermen, the doctors, the carpenters... the people who weren't good enough. The ones he chose were the ones who were told they weren't good enough to be a disciple and to just go home and learn the family trade. They were the B- Team, the second string.
If I was told and felt all my life that I wasn't good enough then the moment someone said those three magic words, "Come, follow me" I would drop my nets and follow. Jesus' asking them to come be his disciples was a huge suprise, they had never seen this Rabbi before. And those words were well known, people knew what it meant... they knew it meant that they were going to be disciples, students.
Something that disciples used to tell each other, kind of a blessing they would say to one another was, "May the dust of your Rabbi be upon you." What a saying. May you be following behind him so closely and be so in sync with his every move that you be covered head to toe with the dust from his feet. What an amazing picture of us.
Jesus came to me, the under dog, and He said, "Lanie, come follow me." He chooses those of us who are underqualified and who didn't make the first cut. We were his chosen disciples. How beautiful.
So.... I leave you with this.....
May the dust of your Rabbi be upon you.