On Being an Apprentice of Jesus

A few weeks back, I was privileged to preach at my home church in Orlando, Florida. Being there has flooded my mind with memories in these days of ministry transition for me. I became a follower of Jesus in January of 1978 through the ministry of Campus Crusade for Christ working at my high school. In June of 1978, I stepped into Pine Castle UMC and found my spiritual home. This church welcomed me in all my brokenness, nurtured me in the ways of Jesus, and called out the best in me.

In the Spring of 1980, sitting in the last row of a Physics class at Valencia Community College, listening to a totally forgetful lecture, God called me to vocational ministry with the question, "What brings you joy?" My answer to God was amazingly, "Teaching eighth grade Sunday School class." Sarah Reed, our Director of Christian Education, had asked me to lead this class. Frankly, I had no business teaching this class. Yet, Sarah saw something in me and she called it out of me.

I gathered up my books, jumped in my car and drove to the church. Pastor Clarence Yates was my Senior Minister and by providence, he was in his office and had time to see me. I sat down and explained my divine encounter in the Physics class and asked him to help me make sense of it. Remember, I’ve been a follower of Jesus for about two years. With no church background, I did not have a Christian “decoder ring.” Pastor Yates told me that God had “called me into the ministry.” I responded, “What’s that?” I recall him saying something about being a pastor and doing the stuff he did. I said, “Yes, that’s what I want to do.” “What do I do now?” I asked. “You go to Asbury College and Seminary,” said my Pastor. And that’s what I planned on doing and that’s what I did. By the way, the Scholarship Fund of my Church helped me graduate from Asbury College and Asbury Theological Seminary (both expensive schools) with only $2500 debt.

We had a very large and active youth and college ministry and one of the most formative ministries for me was our Senior High and College Choir. In the summer of 1980, a few months after my call to ministry in that Physics class and my debriefing of the experience with Pastor Yates, we took a Choir Tour in a big bus with a broken air conditioner through several southern states. It was blistering hot!

Tom Drick, our Director, was a firm but kind leader and that summer, a mere two and a half years into my apprenticeship with Jesus, he asked me to share my testimony before our Choir sang Ken Medima's fantastic song "Moses." The first night, I stepped to the front of the Choir, nervously held the microphone and with my shaking hand, I spoke for a few minutes. By the time we returned home a week later for our "Homecoming Concert,” in the packed Sanctuary at Pine Castle, I stood and more confidently, but still nervously spoke for about 10 minutes telling my story of my new life in Christ. That week singing in small and large churches dotted throughout the Southeast, with my sweaty teenage friends, my call to ministry came alive and was confirmed.

Sarah Reed, Pastor Clarence Yates, and Tom Drick “called” my calling out of me. They platformed me even as my apprenticeship to Jesus was still being formed. I didn’t know the difference between Malachi and Matthew in those first years of my walk with our Rabbi. My faith was still forming, yet they had an audacious faith to entrust me with handling the holy things even as a young apprentice of Jesus.

Following Rabbi Jesus

In an article by Ray Vander Laan entitled “He Went to Synagogue,” he writes about the educational journey of Jewish children in the first century:

Boys and girls went to school in Galilee though boys continued till they were 15 if they displayed unusual ability while the girls were married by that time. Students probably attended school in the synagogue and were taught by the hazzan or a local Torah Teacher. Study began at age five or six in elementary school, called bet sefer. The subject was the Torah and the method was memorization. Since the learning of the community was passed orally, memorization of tradition and God's Word were essential.

At first students studied only the Torah. Later they began to study the more complicated oral interpretations of the Torah. Question-and-answer sessions between teacher and student were added to the memorization drills. The more gifted students might continue after age 12 or 13 in beth midrash (meaning "house of study," or secondary school). Here began the more intense process of understanding and applying the Torah and oral tradition to specific situations. The truly gifted would leave home to study with a famous rabbi to "become like him" as a talmid (disciple). Although their discussion and study might be held in the synagogue, these disciples would travel with their rabbi, learning the wisdom of Torah and oral tradition applied to the daily situations they faced.

By the time a person was an adult, he knew most of the Scriptures by heart. If someone recited a passage, the audience would know whether it was quoted accurately or not. Jesus, in keeping with his culture, would simply begin with "It is written ..." knowing his audience would recognize an accurate quote.

The Mishnah (the written record of the oral traditions of Jesus' time and after) recorded that the gifted student began study of the written Torah at age five, studied oral traditions at age 12, became a religious adult at 13, studied the application of Torah and tradition at 15, learned a trade at 20, and entered his full ability at 30. Although this was written after Jesus, it represents the practice of his time. It is significant that he came to Jerusalem at age 12, already wise; then he learned a trade from His father until his ministry began at age 30. His life seemed to follow the education practices of his people quite closely. He surely attended the local school of Nazareth and learned from great rabbis as well. Being addressed as "Rabbi" certainly indicated someone who had learned from a rabbi. He certainly selected a group of students who followed him, learning as they went. And everywhere his audience had the knowledge of the Bible on which Jesus so often based his teaching. (https://www.thattheworldmayknow.com/he-went-to-synagogue)

Every first-century Jewish teenage boy longed for a learned Rabbi or Teacher to come by and say, “Come and follow me.” This was like getting an acceptance letter into an Ivy League school. Jewish moms would put a bumper sticker on their oxen-pulled wagon that said, “My kid follows Rabbi Solomon.” So, when lowly fishermen from the equally lowly area pejoratively known as “the Galilee” heard Rabbi Jesus say to them, “Come and follow me,” their hearts leaped with joy, and they immediately followed him.

As they would leave and begin to follow Rabbi Jesus, others in his community would likely say to the happy boy, “May you be covered with the dust of your Rabbi.” These young students, learners or disciples followed their Rabbi so closely that the dust from the road that came from the feet of the Rabbi would cover the disciple. They wanted to be just like their Rabbi.

So, for three years, four young men named Peter, Andrew, James, John and a handful of others followed their Rabbi named Jesus. For more than 26,000 hours, they watched, learned and obeyed their Rabbi. But remember, these are 14 to 18-year-old adolescents. There is still a lot of selfishness and a ton of narcissism in these young protégé’s of Jesus too.

Take for example the time that James and John, famously known as the “sons of thunder” for their ability to stir up trouble, privately came to Jesus and asked him for a favor. “Alright, what do you need?” Jesus responded. “Well Jesus, when you take over this place, can we be on your executive team in those places of authority and power on your right and left?” Now mind you, Jesus has just told them that he was going to do the single most selfless act in human history by dying on the cross and the single most glorious act in human history by rising from the dead. That’s the backdrop for this request for power from the “sons of thunder.” Jesus kindly responds telling them they don’t know what they are asking for. Full of themselves, they are sure they can handle whatever comes their way. Jesus tells them giving these places of prestige is not in his job description.

Then Mark 10:41 (NIV) reports what happened next. “When the ten other disciples heard what James and John had asked, they were indignant.” Why were the ten “indignant?” Were they aghast at the self-absorption of the other two disciples? No way. They were mad because James and John beat them to the question of their Rabbi. You see, they too wanted to be on Jesus’ right and left in their misunderstanding of the Kingdom that Jesus came to bring. Jesus uses this as a teaching moment for his young, self-centered Padawan’s. Here’s what Jesus tells these “full of themselves” apprentices. “You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Mark 10:42-45 NIV)

“Not so with you.” Jesus is trying to teach them that following the cultural norm of “looking out for number one” is not the way of their Rabbi. His life was a life of “towel-bearing service.” In contrast to the “do for me whatever I ask of you” way of living, Jesus lifts up the way of service. Towel-bearing was what it meant to take up the “yoke” or the “teaching” of their Rabbi Jesus. It’s the kind of towel bearing, we see Jesus model for them and us in John 13:12-17 (NIV): When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place. “Do you understand what I have done for you?” he asked them. “You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am. Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. Very truly I tell you, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.” It would take awhile before these teenage boys would “get it.”

So, in the summer of 1980, as I stood before my home church and told my story, I was a lot more like Jesus’ young self-absorbed protege’s. More than 43 years later, Jesus still has to remind me often, “Not so with you, Jorge.” So with the Spirit’s help, I’ll keep walking behind my Rabbi and pray his dust settles on me. How about you?

Cheryl Montgomery (Acevedo) and Jorge Acevedo in their Youth Choir outfits (1980)

Sheet music from the powerful Ken Medima song “Moses”

Jorge preaching at his home church in November 2023