May 2005 by E. Louise Williams
(Click here for downloadable artwork)

Making Disciples
Matthew 28:19–20

“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations....” —Matthew 28:19a

Jesus made disciples by going to the places where they lived and worked and inviting them to come along. Jesus made disciples by spending time with them and teaching them. Jesus made disciples by patiently showing them a new way of living.

Jesus gathered all kinds of people—fishermen and tax collectors, religious leaders and sinners, women and men, rich and poor, young and old, healthy and sick. No one was left out of Jesus’ invitation to “follow me.”

In the process of making disciples, Jesus bore much. The disciples sometimes doubted. They were sometimes afraid. They tried to talk Jesus out of going to Jerusalem and dying. They competed among themselves for the best place in the kingdom of heaven. They asked question after question. They tried to keep children away from Jesus. They interrupted Jesus’ times of prayer and fell asleep when Jesus asked them to watch and pray. They abandoned and denied him.

These were the disciples Jesus made and loved with such amazing grace. They were people a lot like us.

What is perhaps even more amazing, is that God entrusts those disciples—and us—with making more disciples. We will be agents of God’s amazing grace if we model our disciple making after Jesus. We will extend the invitation to all no matter where they come from or what they have done. We will go to where they live and work. We will spend time with them, teach them, and show them a new way of living. We will bear their doubts and questions, their sins and shortcomings.

But mostly we will introduce them to Jesus whose love is greater than anything we can imagine and whose promise is sure: “I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

For reflection and discussion: How did you become a disciple? In what ways does your congregation make disciples like Jesus did? How do you fall short of that model?

Prayer: Gracious God, fill us with your grace and empower us to make disciples as Jesus did. Amen.