A New Normal.
Many discussions in Jesus’ day centered around which laws were the most important. The better the rabbi, the more succinctly he’d summarize the commands. Daily debates were held in temple courts around these interpretations. In a drop-the-mic, stun-the-crowd kind of moment, Jesus summarizes all 613 commands of the Torah saying, “Love God and love others as much as self” (Matt.22:24).
Different rabbis held different interpretations. Some might emphasize how much a person could lift or how far one could walk on Sabbath and still keep the day as holy. Others might emphasize personal hygiene or acceptable eating habits. And still others might scrutinize care for the most vulnerable in society. Many interpretations became strict and a source of pride.
What’s interesting is that a rabbi’s interpretation was known as his ‘yoke;’ a apt metaphor for following one’s lead. Jesus, a master rabbi, announces a new normal saying, “my yoke is easy (or, useful) and my burden is light” (Mt.11:30). Jesus separates the law from the leader. He makes religion relational. Jesus wants to illustrate what it looks like to put the Divine on display, making disicples as part of the normal Christian experience.
Small-Batch Disciplemaking offers a hope-filled, useful “yoke”; a way to animate a living faith, like a relationship to nurture. The rhythms are not meant to be theologically comprehensive but to be spiritually reproductive. It’s about bearing fruit in one’s heart, not measuring performative results. Fruit is what happens inside us like the way a person recalibrates desires, priorities, attitudes, and burdens. The book shares seven rhythms but it’s really about one rhythm - Apprenticing - expressed in seven different ways. Like learning a trade, shadowing is required; instruction combined with demonstration, experienced coupled with feedback. Instead of teaching without sending, disciple-making is learning to reproduce the life of Jesus and the difference he’s making along the way. This was Jesus’ mission: training the few to reach the many, making disciples as New Normal.
