The most compelling teacher in history didn’t teach from a stage or podium (Mark 4:1, 10). He was not burdened by aesthetics or three-point outlines with sound bites. He attracted crowds, but they certainly were not his goal. Disciples were.
[Jesus’] pedagogy formed people, not platforms.
Messiah Jesus, the perfect Teacher, offered wisdom and truth through discipleship conversations on dusty roads (Luke 24:13–35), parables filled with vivid meaning (Mark 4:33–34), and questions that stirred curiosity and exposed hearts (Matthew 16:13–15). His pedagogy formed people, not platforms.
The approach provides a pattern that feels increasingly at odds with modern ministry expectations. As those called to teach the Word of God, how does Jesus’ example invite us to untie our lives from earthly measures of success? How does understanding his first-century Jewish world help us disciple more faithfully today? And what might it look like to recover his methods as we champion the spiritual formation of those entrusted to our care?
The Rabbinic Word of Jesus
One of the titles Jesus was frequently called was Rabbi. In fact, by my count, the Gospels record forty-five instances in which he is referred this way.1 The frequency indicates that Jesus was widely recognized and accepted within his own culture as a rabbi. But what did that mean in his first-century Jewish world?
Discipleship is an ancient Jewish practice best understood through the Hebrew word talmidut. While the root word means “student,” in Jewish thought, a student was an apprentice (more so than a learner) whose life became attached to the rabbi for the purpose of imitation and replication. Discipleship was measured not by accumulated knowledge, but by resemblance. As Jesus himself said, “A disciple, when fully trained, will be like his teacher” (Luke 6:40).
How Rabbis Taught
Learning happened “on the way.” Rabbis taught continually by allowing everyday moments to become a place of formative instruction. Disciples carried their rabbi’s authority wherever they went, representing him through their lives. Embedded within this model was a generational vision (Deuteronomy 6:4–9), where the faithful transmission of truth from one generation to the next remained central to both rabbi and talmidim alike.
A Jewish sage who lived nearly two centuries before Jesus captured this practice with a vivid image: “Sit in the very dust of their feet, and drink in their words thirstily.”2 To be a disciple was to walk so closely with one’s rabbi that his dust covered you.
This was the world that Jesus inhabited. He called, taught, lived with, and sent his disciples from within this Jewish framework of life-on-life spiritual formation. When we consider him as Rabbi and teacher of Israel, it becomes clear that his expectations differ sharply from those often celebrated in modern ministry culture.
The Expectations of Jesus’ Rabbinic Discipleship
I once asked a pastor I was coaching about what kept him up at night more than anything else. His answer has stayed with me:
“Whether the things I’m doing week in and week out are going to matter in the end for the kingdom.”
He was naming the tension between modern ministry expectations and kingdom purpose.
Is your time spent on kingdom purposes?
As disciples of Jesus, those called to make disciples of Jesus, we did not say yes to ministry to master our gifts, optimize visibility, or polish delivery. We said yes because we long to walk in the dust of our Rabbi and to see others thirst for his Word and his way.
I have found the challenge is not that most leaders hold the wrong beliefs about teaching; it is that they feel bound by the expectations surrounding them. Many church leaders desire faithful discipleship, yet serve in cultures that reward visibility, hustle, and constant output. These pressures quietly reshape ministry into management rather than discipleship, leaving little room for the slower, relational spiritual formation Jesus modeled.
As we turn the pages of Scripture, the expectations of Jesus’ rabbinic discipleship are clear. Where modern ministry rewards performance, Jesus valued presence. Where ministry culture measures accomplishment and numbers, Jesus measured resemblance. Where churches prioritize gathering attenders, Jesus prioritized forming disciples.
Recovering the Way of Our Rabbi
How do we carry the dust of our Rabbi into our teaching and discipleship today? If modern ministry culture tends to reward a different set of metrics, what options do we have?
- Everything flows from the heart (Proverbs 4:23). Renewal begins with personally reordering our lives around time in his presence (Scripture, prayer, and Sabbath rest). Covering ourselves in his dust allows us to carry it into everything else we do.
- Reclaim margins in the rhythm of your week and your ministry to pour into relational discipleship even as existing systems continue to run. Priorities matter: While discipling is of great consequence, do not forget about your family.
- Begin shifting the goalposts by starting with what you personally measure and publicly celebrate. What we celebrate reveals what we value, and over time it reshapes culture.
- Teach about Jesus’ model of discipleship as much as possible. Help those under your influence gain clear understanding of why spiritual formation in life-on-life relationships matters.
At a pivotal moment in my ministry leadership, I confided with a friend (a professor who leads trips in Israel) about my sense of how God was leading. She shared about walking the hills of the Galilee while the mustard seed was blooming and spreading. While she reflected upon Jesus’ words about the mustard seed (Mark 4:31–32), she reminded me that the power of the seed was never about size, but potential. It spreads in harsh conditions. It becomes a home. It is resilient.
Get Smaller and Lower
My friend said something I’ll never forget.
“Michayla, as I walked and talked with the Spirit on those hills, a question struck me: What would happen if we all got smaller and lower?”
She grabbed my face and declared, “All shall be well . . .” as I stepped toward a narrower path. One that promised more of the kingdom and more dust from my Rabbi.
What would happen if we all got smaller and lower?
Smaller and lower is the opposite of a world that beckons teachers to climb higher and bigger. But as talmidim (students) of Rabbi Jesus, we live opposite the empire of earth and in agreement with the kingdom of heaven.
And when we live in agreement with his Word we will reflect the truth spoken by Julian of Norwich, “All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner [of things] shall be well.”3
- James Strong, Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, (Nashville: Abingdon, 1890), s.v. ῥαββί (G4461), ῥαββουνί (G4462), and διδάσκαλος (G1320). While ῥαββί/ῥαββουνί occur approximately fifteen times as direct forms of address, the broader category of teacher (διδάσκαλος) brings the total references to Jesus’ teaching authority to roughly forty-five occurrences. ↩︎
- Pirkei Avot 1:4, in The Mishnah, trans. Herbert Danby, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1933). Other translations are available online here. ↩︎
- Julian of Norwich, Revelations of Divine Love, trans. Grace Warrack (1901). You can find it online here. ↩︎
