Dear Parents,
I love, love, love this week’s High Life lesson! We are currently studying the life of Jesus, recorded in the book of Matthew. This week we take a look at the first thing he did when he began his ministry: He called disciples. We considered three different “calling” stories, and I love what God has shown me in each story.
First we considered the calling of Andrew and Peter found in Matthew 4:18-22. From a bit of past teaching on Jewish way of life, I know that since Peter and Andrew had joined their family business, that meant they were past the point of being chosen by a rabbi as a religious student. Only the best and brightest were chosen by a rabbi to continue their religious study. Everybody else didn’t make the cut and went to work for their family business. Andrew and Peter had been passed over. They were not the cream of the crop. But I love their response to Jesus. Immediately they left their nets to follow him. This story assures me that I don’t need to be the best and brightest to be a disciple of Jesus; I just need to be willing. When He calls, I just need to be in a place where I’ll drop everything, my whole livelihood if I need to, to go and serve alongside him.
Second we looked at the calling of Levi in Luke 5:27-31. What a beautiful message we find in Levi’s story. Levi was a tax collector. He was, undoubtedly, hated by the Jewish community because he was, most likely, dishonest. To make a living, he would collect more than the tax the citizen owed and keep the difference for himself. As you can imagine, this didn’t garner much love from the citizens. And, Levi was certainly wealthy, given his profession. Levi responded to Jesus’ calling, and Jesus returned to Levi’s home to eat with some of his friends. He was criticized by the religious leaders for this. Jesus’ response was to tell them “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.” Levi was a sick man. He was sick with greed. He was a thief. Yet, Jesus chose him. Because he came for the sick. He came to redeem and to rescue us while we are still caught in our own mire and sin. Levi’s story assures us that none of our past mistakes can keep us from being called by Jesus. No past or present sin can disqualify us from being his disciple.
Our final story was Nathanael’s. Oh, how I love Nathanael’s story. His story comes form John 1:43-50. Jesus called his brother, Phillip, first, and then Philip went to get Nathanael, because he wanted him to be a part of this great Jesus thing, too. But Nathanael was skeptical. He hadn’t even heard much about Jesus, except that he was from Nazareth. So Nathanael says to his brother, “Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?” He seems a bit cynical, to me, certainly a bit too negative and/or critical. When Jesus meets Nathanael, he says, “Here is a true Israelite, in whom there is nothing false.” And of course Nathanael is like, Um, you don’t know me… But Jesus tells him, “I saw you when you were still under the fig tree before Philip called you.“ Jesus saw Nathanael, not only physically before he ever came to meet Jesus, but also his heart. And I have to believe that if he says this of Nathanael, he can say it of you and me, too. I saw you. I see your heart. I love it. Sometimes we just need to know that Jesus sees us.
From these stories, our teens learned:
- You are enough, even if you’ve been passed over before.
- Your past mistakes don’t disqualify you
- Jesus sees you; he sees your heart
I hope each student was impacted in a meaningful way by this lesson. It certainly touched my heart!
Blessings to each of you,
Catherine