Covered in the Dust of Your Rabbi

The following post is written by an East-West stateside missionary.

I was standing in the archaeological reconstruction of the Decapolis near the Sea of Galilee surrounded by my classmates in a yearlong program to learn about leadership and how to be a disciple of Christ.

At the start of the program, we were told we would be the first class to go on a new trip to the Holy Lands. Now we were there learning about discipleship … and I was learning the hardest lesson of my life.

Our instructor talked about the distinction between the 1^st Century and our modern Western concept of discipleship.

In the West, we usually hear the word Rabbi and think “teacher”—like an Algebra teacher or an English professor who teaches us to solve for “x” or diagram a sentence to pass a test. But in Jesus’ day, the concept was much deeper.

A disciple’s goal was to learn by emulating his Rabbi’s every move—not only by listening and learning about the Rabbi’s instructions.

There was a popular blessing back then that stated, “May you be covered in the dust of your Rabbi.” This means that a disciple would follow so closely behind his teacher that they’d catch the dust kicked up behind their rabbi’s feet.

This was the hard part of the lesson for me. I could easily learn all about Jesus. I could memorize scripture and big impressive theological words like propitiation and neo-docetism. But it was a lot harder to consider following that closely in my Rabbi’s footsteps.

I would have to consider how Jesus treated people, and what he thought about money and work and status and success. I would have to be more like a servant than a student.

It’s a higher calling, and it’s not one our western minds easily grasp.

But my prayer for you and for me is that we would be so committed to learning and living how Jesus lived. My prayer is that we would be covered in the dust of our Rabbi.