CTS Radical Christianity | Radical Discipleship

Yesu aliposema, "Wala hakuna mtu atiaye divai mpya katika viriba vikuukuu" (Luka 5:37-38), alikuwa akileta aina mpya ya mwanafunzi. Chombo cha zamani cha dini — mfumo mgumu na mkavu wa Mafarisayo — hakingeweza kubeba kile alichokuwa akimimina. Uanafunzi wa kujitoa kikamilifu ndio kiriba kipya. Hauanzi na mpango mpya, bali na sentensi moja ngumu: Mtu akitaka kunifuata, na ajikane mwenyewe, ajitwike msalaba wake, anifuate (Mathayo 16:24). Sehemu hii inaifuata sentensi hiyo katika hatua tatu: kiriba kipya alicholeta Yesu, gharama aliyoitaja, na bandia ambayo ulimwengu huendelea kutoa badala yake.When Jesus said, "No one pours new wine into old wineskins" (Luke 5:37-38), He was introducing a new kind of disciple. The old religious container — the Pharisees' rigid, brittle system — could not hold what He was pouring. Radical discipleship is the new wineskin. It begins not with a new program but with a single, hard sentence: Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me (Matt 16:24). This unit follows that sentence through three movements: the new wineskin Jesus brought, the cost He named, and the counterfeit the world keeps offering instead.

1. Divai Mpya, Viriba Vipya1. New Wine, New Wineskins

Picha hii inatoka jikoni, si darasani la teolojia. Divai mpya huchachuka. Sukari iliyo ndani ya juisi hugeuka kuwa gesi, gesi hupanuka, na chombo kinalazimika kunyooka. Kiriba kipya cha ngozi hulegea kidogo divai inapopumua, kisha kidogo zaidi, kisha hutulia uchachukaji unapokwisha. Kiriba kikuukuu, kilichochakaa na kukauka, hakina tena uwezo wa kulegea. Shinikizo lile lile ambalo kiriba kipya hulistahimili hukipasua kiriba kikuukuu. Divai huishia sakafuni na kiriba huishia jaani. Hoja ya Yesu haihusu divai. Hoja yake inawahusu watu. Mwanafunzi anayemuunda yuko katika uchachukaji; mwanafunzi huyo hawezi kufungiwa ndani ya mfumo wa zamani wa dini usio na nafasi tena ya kunyooka.The image is from the kitchen, not from a theology classroom. New wine ferments. The sugar in the juice becomes gas, the gas expands, the container has to stretch. A fresh leather wineskin gives a little as the wine breathes, then a little more, then settles when the fermentation finishes. An old wineskin, used up and brittle, has no give left in it. The same pressure that a new skin absorbs splits an old one open. The wine ends up on the floor and the skin ends up in the trash. Jesus' point is not about wine. His point is about people. The disciple He is making is fermenting; the disciple cannot be contained inside an old religious system that has no room left to stretch.

Muktadha wa Mathayo 9 unalifanya jambo hili kuwa wazi. Mafarisayo walikuwa wakilalamikia mambo mawili. Kwanza, Yesu alikuwa akila pamoja na watoza ushuru na wenye dhambi badala ya watu wa dini wenye heshima. Pili, wanafunzi wake hawakufunga siku zile ambazo Mafarisayo walifunga. Malalamiko yote mawili yanahusu vyombo. Mafarisayo walikuwa na umbo maalum la jinsi mtu mtakatifu anavyopaswa kuonekana, na Yesu hakulingana nalo. Badala ya kujiuliza kama huenda umbo lao lilikuwa na kasoro, walihitimisha kwamba Yeye ndiye aliyekuwa na kasoro. Hivyo ndivyo kiriba kikuukuu kinavyofanya. Hakinyooki ili kupokea divai mpya; kinapasuka, kinailaumu divai, na kuitupa.The context in Matthew 9 makes this concrete. The Pharisees were complaining about two things. First, Jesus was eating with tax collectors and sinners instead of with respectable religious people. Second, His disciples were not fasting on the days the Pharisees fasted. Both complaints are about containers. The Pharisees had a fixed shape for what a holy man should look like, and Jesus did not fit it. Rather than asking whether their shape might be wrong, they concluded He must be wrong. That is what an old wineskin does. It does not stretch to receive new wine; it splits, blames the wine, and throws it away.

Imani katika Kristo hutenda kama divai iliyokuwa ndani ya madumu yale ya maziwa. Iko hai. Inapanuka. Haikai kwa adabu ndani ya umbo lolote la kidini ambalo mwanafunzi alikulia ndani yake. Kiriba kipya cha uanafunzi wa kujitoa kikamilifu lazima kinyooke. Kunyooshwa kunauma — hiyo ndiyo sehemu ambayo hakuna anayejitolea kwa hiari. Waumini wengi hufikia kunyooshwa kwa kwanza na kuamua kwamba afadhali wawe na kiriba kikuukuu kisichopasuka kuliko kiriba kipya kilichojaa shinikizo geni. Divai inamwagika. Kiriba kinabaki kizima lakini kitupu. Hii ndiyo aina ya kushindwa iliyo ya kawaida zaidi katika historia ya kanisa: si uzushi bali ugumu, si kumkana Kristo bali ukakamavu. Kwa vipimo vya ulimwengu, Mafarisayo hawakuwa watu wabaya. Walikuwa watu wa dini ambao vyombo vyao havikuweza tena kubeba kile Mungu alichokuwa akimimina.Faith in Christ behaves like the wine in those milk jugs. It is alive. It is expansive. It does not sit politely inside whatever religious shape the disciple grew up in. The new wineskin of radical discipleship has to stretch. Stretching is painful — that is the part nobody volunteers for. Many believers reach the first stretch and decide they would rather have an unbroken old skin than a new one full of strange pressure. The wine spills. The skin is intact but empty. This is the most common kind of failure in church history: not heresy but rigidity, not denial but stiffness. The Pharisees were not bad men by the world's standards. They were religious men whose containers could no longer hold what God was pouring.

2. Gharama2. The Cost

Gharama anayoitaja Yesu si ya kinadharia. Ajikane mwenyewe — nafsi yenyewe ndicho kizuizi kikubwa zaidi. Ajitwike msalaba wake — na msalaba katika karne ya kwanza haukuwa pambo la kuvaa; ulikuwa chombo cha kunyonga watu hadharani kwa aibu. Kusulubiwa kwa Kirumi kuliwekwa kwa ajili ya watumwa, waasi, na wahalifu wa hali ya chini kabisa. Yesu alipoiambia umati wa Galilaya jitwike msalaba wako, walielewa kwamba alikuwa akizungumza juu ya kifo halisi na aibu halisi. Hapakuwa na ulaini wowote wa kiibada katika picha hiyo. Alikuwa akitaja bei ya kuwa mwanafunzi wake, na bei hiyo ilikuwa kila kitu.The cost Jesus names is not abstract. Deny himself — the self is the largest obstacle. Take up his cross — and a cross in the first century was not jewelry; it was the instrument of public, shameful execution. Roman crucifixion was reserved for slaves, rebels, and the lowest criminals. When Jesus said take up your cross to a Galilean crowd, they understood Him to be talking about literal death and literal disgrace. There was no devotional softness in the image. He was naming the price of becoming His disciple, and the price was everything.

Yesu hakuwadai wanafunzi wake jambo lolote ambalo Yeye mwenyewe hakuwa amekwisha kulifanya. Ingawa alikuwa tajiri, alikuwa maskini kwa ajili yenu, ili ninyi mpate kuwa matajiri kwa umaskini wake (2 Wakorintho 8:9). Bwana wa utukufu aliacha kiti cha enzi. Alitwaa mwili. Alipata zizi kuwa mahali pa kuzaliwa na hori kuwa kitanda chake cha kitoto. Hakuwa na nyumba wakati wa huduma yake, na kwa kadiri tunavyoweza kujua hakuwa na akiba; alikuwa na joho zuri ambalo mtu fulani alikuwa amempa. Hakuwa na farasi, akalazimika kuazima mwana-punda kwa ajili ya kuingia kwake kwa mwisho Yerusalemu. Hakuwa na kaburi, akalazimika kuazima moja alipokufa — ingawa alilirudisha siku tatu baadaye, likiwa limetumika kidogo tu. Kila uamuzi alioufanya ulikuwa hatua ya kushuka chini. Luka anaandika hatua ya mabadiliko katika huduma yake kwa sentensi moja: alikaza uso wake kwenda Yerusalemu (Luka 9:51). Alijua kilichokuwa kikimngoja huko. Hata hivyo alikwenda.Jesus did not require of His disciples anything He had not already done Himself. Though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich (2 Cor 8:9). The Lord of glory left the throne. He took a body. He took a stable for a birthplace and a manger for a crib. He had no house during His ministry, and as far as we can tell He had no savings; He had a nice cloak that someone had given Him. He had no horse, and had to borrow a colt for His final entrance into Jerusalem. He had no grave, but had to borrow one when He died — though He did return it three days later, only slightly used. Every choice He made was a downward step. Luke records the turning point in His ministry in a single sentence: He steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem (Luke 9:51). He knew what was waiting there. He went anyway.

Wanafunzi walifuata mfano huo huo, polepole mwanzoni na kisha kikamilifu. Mwanzoni walitoa kazi zao kuwa dhabihu — nyavu zikaachwa ufuoni, meza ya ushuru ikaachwa katikati ya ukusanyaji. Kisha walitoa sifa zao njema, wakitembea pamoja na mwalimu ambaye viongozi wa dini walimchukia waziwazi. Kufikia mwisho wa karne ya kwanza, wengi wao walikuwa wametoa maisha yao. Yakobo aliuawa kwa upanga (Matendo 12:2); mapokeo ya kanisa, yenye ushahidi mzuri ingawa yenyewe si Maandiko, yanasema kwamba Petro alisulubiwa na kwamba Andrea na Tomaso nao walikufa wakiwa mashahidi wa imani, Tomaso akiwa mbali kama India; ni Yohana peke yake aliyeishi hadi uzee, naye aliuishi uzee huo akiwa uhamishoni Patmo. Kiwango cha kujitoa kikamilifu hakikubadilika kati ya Yesu na mitume. Mtu akitaka kunifuata bado kunamaanisha kujikana, kujitwika msalaba, kufuata.The disciples followed the same pattern, slowly at first and then completely. They sacrificed their jobs at the start — nets dropped on the beach, a tax table abandoned in mid-collection. They sacrificed their reputations next, walking with a teacher the religious authorities openly hated. By the end of the first century, most of them had sacrificed their lives. James was beheaded (Acts 12:2); church tradition, well-attested though not itself Scripture, holds that Peter was crucified and Andrew and Thomas died as martyrs as well, Thomas as far away as India; only John lived to old age, and he lived it in exile on Patmos. The standard for radical commitment did not change between Jesus and the apostles. Whoever wants to come after Me still means deny self, take up cross, follow.

Na kiwango hicho hicho kinarudi nyuma zaidi. Ibrahimu alikuwa tayari kumweka mwanawe wa pekee juu ya madhabahu. Petro na mitume walisimama mbele ya Baraza na kusema Imetupasa kumtii Mungu kuliko wanadamu (Matendo 5:29), wakijua kabisa matokeo yangekuwa nini. Katika maagano yote mawili, alama ya mwanafunzi ni ile ile: kuna kitu chenye thamani kubwa kwake kuliko maisha yake mwenyewe, naye anajua ni kitu gani. Gharama hutajwa mapema, hukubaliwa mapema, na hulipwa katika miaka yote, utii mmoja baada ya mwingine.And the same standard reaches farther back. Abraham was willing to lay his only son on the altar. Peter and the apostles stood before the Sanhedrin and said we ought to obey God rather than men (Acts 5:29), knowing exactly what the consequences would be. Across the testaments, the disciple's mark is the same: there is something more valuable to him than his own life, and he knows what it is. The cost is named in advance, accepted in advance, and paid out across the years one obedience at a time.

3. Bandia3. The Counterfeit

Adui wa uanafunzi wa kujitoa kikamilifu si ukanaji wa Mungu. Adui ni kupenda mali — kubadilisha nafsi kwa vitu, polepole na kwa uchangamfu. Kupenda mali ndiko kunakomfanya kijana tajiri aliye kiongozi aondoke kwa Yesu akiwa na huzuni, baada ya kuuliza swali sahihi na kupokea jibu sahihi (Mathayo 19:22). Ndiko kunakolisonga neno lililopandwa katika mfano wa Yesu wa mpanzi (Mathayo 13:22). Ndiko Charles Colson alikotaja alipoandika kwamba kwanza lazima tutubu ibada ya sanamu, kwa kukumbatia miungu ya uongo ya nyakati za kisasa, kama vile kupenda mali, mamlaka, mafanikio, na kujitawala binafsi. Kila kipimo ambacho ulimwengu hutumia kumpima mtu ni kinyume cha kipimo cha Mungu. Ili kuwa mkuu ulimwenguni, lazima uwe na nguvu; ili kuwa mkuu katika ufalme, lazima uwe mtumishi. Ulimwengu na ufalme hutumia sarafu zinazopingana, na mwanafunzi huchagua ni kiwango gani cha kubadilisha fedha maisha yake yatatumia.The enemy of radical discipleship is not atheism. The enemy is materialism — the slow, cheerful substitution of things for the soul. Materialism is what makes the rich young ruler walk away from Jesus sorrowful, after asking the right question and receiving the right answer (Matt 19:22). It is what causes the seed of the word to be choked in Jesus' parable of the sower (Matt 13:22). It is what Charles Colson named when he wrote that we must first repent of idolatry, of having embraced the false gods of modern times, like materialism, power, success, and personal autonomy. Every standard the world uses to judge a man is the opposite of God's measure. To be great in the world, you must be powerful; to be great in the kingdom, you must be a servant. The world and the kingdom run on opposite currencies, and the disciple chooses which exchange rate his life will use.

Shida ni kwamba kupenda mali huvaa vizuri. Kwa kawaida hakuonekani kama tamaa. Kunaonekana kama usalama, kama uwajibikaji, kama kuwa mtunzaji mwema wa familia, kama kutaka yaliyo bora kwa watoto wako. Hujilimbikiza uamuzi mmoja unaoweza kutetewa baada ya mwingine, mpaka kiriba kinajaa vitu visivyo divai. Swali la Yesu katika mstari wa 26 ni mojawapo ya maswali makali zaidi katika Injili: mtu atatoa nini badala ya nafsi yake? Jibu la kweli katika maisha ya watu wengi ni orodha ndefu ya vitu vidogo — hakuna hata kimoja chenye thamani ya gharama yake, lakini vyote kwa pamoja vimeunganishwa kuwa kitu ambacho kilikuwa na thamani hiyo. Kazi ya kwanza ya mwanafunzi ni kukataa biashara hiyo kabla haijakamilika.The trouble is that materialism dresses up well. It usually does not look like greed. It looks like security, like responsibility, like being a good provider, like wanting the best for your children. It accumulates one defensible decision at a time until the wineskin is full of things that are not wine. Jesus' question in verse 26 is one of the sharpest in the Gospels: what will a man give in exchange for his soul? The honest answer in most lives is a long list of small things — none of them worth what they cost, all of them assembled into something that was. The disciple's first task is to refuse the trade before it is fully made.

Msichana huyu wa Kirusi hatoi hoja ya kisiasa; anatoa hoja ya uanafunzi bila kutumia neno hilo. Alikuwa ameishi mahali ambapo watu walikuwa na kidogo lakini walikuwa na maana kubwa kwa wenzao, na alikuwa ameishi mahali ambapo watu walikuwa na mengi lakini walikuwa na maana ndogo kwa wenzao. Alipopewa nafasi ya kuchagua kati ya hayo mawili, alichagua kidogo. Kiwango cha Bwana kinaelekea upande huo huo. Kupenda mali hakuhukumiwi kwa sababu mali ni ovu, bali kwa sababu mali ni nzito. Huchukua nafasi ndani ya kiriba ambayo ilipaswa kubeba kitu kingine.The Russian girl is not making a political argument; she is making a discipleship argument without using the word. She had been in a place where people had less and meant more to each other, and she had been in a place where people had more and meant less. Given the choice between the two, she chose less. The Lord's standard runs in the same direction. Materialism is not condemned because possessions are wicked but because possessions are heavy. They occupy space in the wineskin that was supposed to hold something else.

Kuna toleo bandia la kujitoa kikamilifu katika kila kizazi. Katika kizazi chetu, mara nyingi ni harakati ya kisiasa au ya kijamii inayodai lugha ya kujitolea dhabihu huku isitoe chochote cha kiini kinachookoa nafsi. Ulimwengu una mashahidi wake, wamishonari wake, na vita vyake vya kiitikadi. Hao si sawa na mwanafunzi wa Yesu. Mtu anayejitoa kikamilifu bila Kristo bado anaitumikia sanamu; tofauti pekee ni ipi. Karl Marx ndiye mfano dhahiri wa kisasa — mtu mwenye uchungu mwingi ambaye mfumo wake uliahidi ukombozi wa wanadamu kupitia uchumi, lakini badala yake ukazaa makaburi huko Urusi, China, Kuba, na Korea Kaskazini. Alijitoa kikamilifu. Hakuwa mwanafunzi. Msalaba aliowaagiza wafuasi wake waubebe ulikuwa wa mtu mwingine, na ufalme alioahidi haukuja kamwe. Yesu ni mwanamapinduzi zaidi kuliko Marx; tofauti ni kwamba kujiunga na harakati yake ni kwa hiari, na msalaba anaowaagiza wanafunzi wake waubebe ni ule ule ambao Yeye aliubeba kwanza.There is a counterfeit version of radical commitment in every age. In ours, it is often a political or social cause that demands the language of sacrifice while offering none of the soul-saving substance. The world has its own martyrs, its own missionaries, its own crusades. They are not the same thing as a disciple of Jesus. A radical without Christ is still serving an idol; the only difference is which one. Karl Marx is the obvious modern example — a deeply embittered man whose system promised the redemption of humanity through economics and produced graves in Russia, China, Cuba, and North Korea instead. He was radical. He was not a disciple. The cross he asked his followers to bear was someone else's, and the kingdom he promised never came. Jesus is more revolutionary than Marx; the difference is that joining His movement is voluntary, and the cross He asks His disciples to carry is the same one He carried first.

Uanafunzi wa kujitoa kikamilifu ndio kiriba kipya alicholeta Yesu kuchukua nafasi ya ugumu wa kidini. Gharama yake ilitajwa mapema: jikane, jitwike msalaba, fuata. Adui wake mkuu ni kupenda mali, yaani kujilimbikiza polepole kwa vitu katika nafasi ambayo nafsi ilikusudiwa kuishika. Mafarisayo walikuwa na viriba vikuukuu, wanafunzi walikuwa na viriba vipya, na Yesu alitembea kati yao akitafuta chombo chochote kilicho tayari kunyooka. Yesu yule yule bado anatembea. Swali ambalo kila msomaji wa Mathayo 16 hatimaye lazima alijibu ni swali alilomwuliza yule kijana tajiri aliye kiongozi: utatoa nini badala ya nafsi yako? Mwanafunzi aliyelijibu mara moja ataendelea kulijibu maisha yake yote, utii mmoja baada ya mwingine.Radical discipleship is the new wineskin Jesus brought to replace religious rigidity. Its cost was named in advance: deny self, take up cross, follow. Its great enemy is materialism, the slow accumulation of things in the space the soul was meant to occupy. The Pharisees had old wineskins, the disciples had new ones, and Jesus walked between them looking for any container willing to stretch. The same Jesus still walks. The question every reader of Matthew 16 eventually has to answer is the question He asked the rich young ruler: what will you give in exchange for your soul? The disciple who has answered it once will keep answering it for the rest of his life, one obedience at a time.