The Meaning of being a Follower of Jesus: Made in the Hand of God

 

Jeremiah 18:4- "But the vessel that he was making of clay was spoiled in the hand of the potter; so he remade it into another vessel, as it pleased the potter to make" (NASB).

As followers of Jesus, our desire to do great things in the kingdom of God conditions us to conclude that being a disciple relates more to what we do than who we are becoming. In "Art + Faith: A Theology of Making", Makoto Fujimura calls for a refocus on what God is creating in us than what we are doing for God. As followers of Jesus, I have found when we focus on our usefulness, or the lack thereof, we make God out to be utilitarian. We strive to know his purpose for our lives. We pray to be used by God. When we focus on our usefulness for God, though, we reduce God to a divine wishing well where we imagine we can access His promises. Fujimura's book challenged me to turn my attention to what God is creating in me as opposed to how God may use me. 

Peter became the premier follower of Jesus, though at first glance it would have been reasonable to question if that would ever happen for such an impetuous man. To understand what it means to be a disciple like the very imperfect Peter, there is an unlikely passage I want to consider first from Jeremiah 18. There are some important details from Jeremiah 18:1-4 to understand what being a follower of Jesus may have meant for Peter. Pause for a moment to consider these few verses: "The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: 'Arise, and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will let you hear my words.' So I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was working at his wheel. And the vessel he was making of clay was spoiled in the potter’s hand, and he reworked it into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to do." 

It is easy to interpret this passage as one that reinforces our usefulness for God even when we spoil His purpose for our lives. The word picture does depict us as a vessel with a potentially useful purpose. As I reexamined this scripture, though, I noticed an important detail that can change how we think about how God sees us. Even before the clay was spoiled, it was already in the hand of the potter because upon his arrival Jeremiah saw that the potter was already working at the wheel. My tendency has been to focus on the spoiling of the vessel, making God's formation of me about Him correcting what I had messed up. However, I discovered that God's lesson for Jeremiah was more about being formed in the hand of God than being used for the purposes of God. God does go on to say in verse six, "Behold, like the clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand." 

This passage, then, highlights the sovereign choice of God to make us as vessels. I think this unlikely passage may just reframe discipleship as a process of forming that relates more to God's gracious choice to make us than God's justice to correct us. Occasionally, we do become spoiled in the hand of the Potter even in His making. But the making continues. He reshapes what is spoiled. He salvages what is lost. He recreates from what remains. Jeremiah's lesson portrays the gracious choice of God in the making and the mercy of God when the making is spoiled. 

Our purpose, then, is found in His hand of formation, not so much in the field of ministry. Our place is more to be held than to be used. Our usefulness emerges in our formation from being held by God. God is creating something in us rather than shaping a tool out of us. Our purpose is to be formed by him. It is the process of making something out of a lump of clay that brings joy to the Potter, and it is our joy to simply experience his formation. Joy not to be used, but to be made. 

Peter's story presents him as one big lump of clay being formed and then remade many times over. As the clay became spoiled in the hand of the potter, so Peter's story shows a man marred by impetuous conclusions and fear-induced denials that required Jesus to assume the Potter's role to restore what Peter had spoiled (John 21:15-19). We are given transparent access into Peter's life as a disciple of Jesus like no other. We see in Jesus' early call of Simon and Andrew how God framed what it means to be His follower. Carefully notice the words Jesus used. "And He (Jesus) said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you (Simon and Andrew) fishers of men" (Matthew 4:19, ESV). Jesus called these disciples to follow, likening His followers to a relationship that is borne out of God's formation of them more than their faithfulness to Him. While we do not know how Andrew may have interpreted Jesus' call, we do have some indication of how Peter later reflected on it. 

The older man, Peter, got the point of what Jesus meant when He told them "I will make you fishers of men." From my early instruction in the church, I concluded that the meaning of discipleship must be to be a fisher of men. Therefore, evangelism cannot be separated from discipleship. But I discovered that making discipleship about becoming a faithful fisher of men is much like thinking that my usefulness really reflects what the Potter is doing with me. But when I examined Peter's conclusion from that moment with Jesus by the seashore, I found his reflection more like God's lesson for Jeremiah than the conclusion from my instruction as a new Christian. 

 Likening his own experience to the one left by the Lord, Peter remembered how Jesus "continued entrusting Himself" to the Father (1 Peter 2:23). Nowhere in Peter's letter does He connect Jesus' call as a fisher of men to His faithfulness or usefulness as an evangelist for Christ. Rather, Peter concluded that following Jesus required a complete surrender to what God decided to make of him much like Jesus did as He committed to the Father's will. Peter saw himself as a disciple of Christ as having been placed into the hands of God to become what he could not be apart from the work of God.

Making him into a fisher of men was not about God's use of Peter but about God's making of him. It was not about Peter's usefulness. Being a disciple of Christ was about the process of making something out of this lump of clay. Peter's purpose, then, was not found in preaching the gospel. Preaching became the result of the making. Our usefulness for God will always be found in God's making of us. The elderly Peter knew his purpose was to rest in the hand of the One who made him to be something he could not be apart from God's creative hand. His purpose was about being formed. 

It is easy to make discipleship about us, which is what we do when we strive to be useful for God. To follow Jesus means we must follow Him. There is something that must be required from us. I don't think Peter would disagree with that conclusion. But Peter would conclude that the meaning of being a follower of Jesus is to rest in the Hand of the One who is making us into someone we cannot become apart from the formation of the Potter. Therefore, being a follower of Jesus means God makes us into a vessel that reflects His beautiful creation of who He is and our usefulness will always emerge from His making.  

Click this link to find out more about the influence of grace from my new book "Living Under the Influence: How Grace Sets Us Free from the Performance Mindset." Click this link to visit my author's website.