The Choice of Transformation

Scripture: Mark 9.30-37; James 3.13-4.3, 7-10



I was admiring my friend’s t-shirt the other day. It was a shirt he had received for running in a 10k race.

Me: “I like your shirt. I wish I had a shirt like that.”

My friend: “There’s a way you could have a shirt like this.” He was implying that I could get the shirt by running the race with him next time.

Me: “I don’t want to make the effort and commitment – I just want the t-shirt.”



If we’re not careful, our religion can be just that, a way of being identified with the right kind of cause or group without the commitment and long-term work necessary for really becoming the sort of person we say we are. Our faith can be as easy as buying a t-shirt.

But in fact, it’s not. Because it is not a religion we are pursuing, but a person who keeps saying things to us and what’s more,, he keeps walking, oftentimes away from us, so we have to occasionally scurry to keep up and to hear what He just said. Being a Chrisitian is being a disciple, and the way of a disciple is the long path of transformation.


Notice in Mark’s Gospel that Jesus and the disciples are always “on the way” to somewhere. Mostly, as Jesus was soon to tell them, they are on the way to a city called Jerusalem, and a place, not then well known but whose name would become infamous – a place called Golgotha. But for now, they are just “on the way to Capernaum.”

“They passed through Galilee. He did not want anyone to know it; for he was teaching his disciples. . .”

It’s one of those frequent moments in the Gospel that I love, the time when Jesus has gone out of his way to make sure it’s just him and his closest friends. He wants time with them without the distractions and busyness that the crowds bring with them. It’s important for us to remember that these small group times, these “alone” times are not just a retreat or respite from their “real lives” or the “real work”; this is their real life and work. Jesus is the Teacher and they are the disciples. Jesus is the Master and they are the apprentices. You get the sense that Jesus loves these times and so do the disciples. They get to ask questions and talk about so many things with Jesus.

These special small group times were not without their challenges. Sometimes things could get tense. The disciples found that Jesus was not always in a good mood. Sometimes things could get awkward or even embarrassing. Like now:

“When he was in the house he asked them, ‘What were you arguing about on the way?’

They didn’t want to tell him. Because what they had been arguing about was, well, who was the best disciple. On the road, just between the best ones, it seemed like a good discussion to have. But here in front of Jesus, it sounded a little egotistical. It sounded a little silly.

Before we look at how wrong the disciples got things, let’s take a look at what they got right. They got it right to follow Jesus in the first place. They could have been one of the nameless crowd who would come out to hear an inspiring message and then go home and live the same ole way; they could have been one of the Pharisees or lawyers with their laws and their rules who came to debate Jesus, to try to trip him up, score some points.
But the disciples were not the crowds or the Pharisees. The disciples were different. When Jesus called, they followed.

Naturalist Edward O. Wilson has criticized Christians for a religion that posits “the torment of the damned for trillions and trillions of years. . .all for a mistake they made in choice of religion.” Wilson makes the mistake that, let’s admit, many professing Christians make – that is, that our eternal destinies rest upon the precarious foundation of a knife’s edge called religion – one wrong belief, one sin too many, and you will fall and not get up again.

Disciples know better, not because they are smarter but because they’ve fallen so many times and a hand has always been extended to them to help them up. More often than not, they’ve found that hand belonged to the Master. Disciples make mistakes. Disciples don’t know all the answers. (That’s why they’re always asking questions.) They just know that in the Master there is one who is worth following, one worth giving their lives to.

So let’s give credit to the disciples for this much - they know Messiah when they bump up against him. Secondly, the disciples get credit for somehow sticking to each other. And there were moments, like every day, when that enterprise seemed unlikely to last. Peter was a loudmouth. James was a know-it-all. Judas just didn’t look right, ya know? Andrew probably had b.o. (Well, they all probably did by our standards) and John, him of Beloved Disciple fame, well, he was just so smug! They had trouble getting along at times. They got into arguments. But let’s give them credit – they really lived together. They were honest and they stuck together, warts and all.

I’m missing from friends, the Caulders. Last week was special for me. It wasn’t just having old friends visit and remembering old times. Shelley and Amy are the kind of friends that you pick up with right where you left off, even if that leaving happened years ago. Shelley has described our friendship as one of “full disclosure,” meaning there are not many subjects, especially personal ones that are off-limits, that we won’t talk about. I give him credit for that. They have been amazingly honest with me and that has often given me the freedom to be honest with them as well. The Apostle James calls this, “Confessing your sins one to another.”

But this kind of friendship and spiritual transparency doesn’t just happen. The other day Shelley was fixing one of his kids bikes and while he was doing that we were talking about some stuff and I presented to him a challenge I was facing. He stopped with the bike, looked at me with a twinkle in his eye and said, “As soon as I fix this bike I’ll fix your problem.” We both laughed because most problems are not as easy to fix, or quick to fix as a bike. But many times we don’t benefit from the wisdom and friendship of other Christians because we’re not willing to hang around long enough to talk about things “on the way.”

It’s like what this guy said who came to look at my birch trees. He said, “One thing you can do to prevent major limbs from breaking off is cabling the trees together. You put a couple bolts into them and connect the bolts with cable. You can connect trees to each other by cabling them together. Then, when the storms come they will sway together but won’t break.”

Many of us are breaking on our own because we won’t do what it takes to cable together and learn to sway.

Being a disciple with other disciples takes time. It’s a way of life really. As I’ve said, these disciples had problems just like you and me. They were always jockeying for position among themselves, just like you and me. What Jesus told them was you are defining greatness the wrong way, you are measuring greatness in the wrong direction. Think low. Think small. Think a child. If you do this then maybe you won’t be so preoccupied with power and comfort and success, with who is right. “Perhaps the better question is who is living rightly?” says Rob Bell. Maybe you learn to care for the poor and the widow and the unbeliever. Maybe you’ll even care about each other like I God cares

Knowing who God is comes by knowing Jesus. And knowing Jesus happens when faith is given room and food and exercise to grow in the company of others who are pointing their lives in the same direction. We change. We transform. But it’s a choice that we make and continue to make daily. It doesn’t just happen cause we go to church or believe in God. We don’t drift into transformation. We choose to grow. We choose the way of the Cross. We choose to follow. That’s what a disciple does.

A young woman wanted to go to college. Her heart sank as she read the question on the application that asked, “Are you a leader?”

Being both honest and conscientious, she wrote, “No,” and returned the application, expecting the worst.

To her surprise, she received this letter from the college: “Dear Applicant: A study of the application forms reveals that this year our college will have 1,452 new leaders. We are accepting you because we feel it is imperative that all these new leaders have at least one follower.”

Jesus is looking for followers today. Will you follow?