Ray Vander Laan: "Come. Follow me." The call of the rabbi to make disciples. The call Jesus used to say to those men from Galilee. "Come. Be like me." And so we've walked in their footsteps. We've watched them. We've seen them from a distance become like the Rabbi. A community devoted to the text, passionately desiring to be like Jesus, their rabbi.

But there's one more chapter, because when you choose the walk of a disciple (talmid in Hebrew), it's a walk that goes right to the end. So we've come to a place today where people had to make a decision - whether they would be like the Rabbi even if the path was very, very difficult and meant facing their own death.

Come with me as we look at the difficult path of taking up our cross like the Messiah did.

The name of this area is, today, Cappadocia (cap uh do sha). That's how Christians say it. The Greeks in the biblical time would have called it Cappadocia (cap uh do ke uh). Now I'd like to have you imagine a flat, relatively high plateau. That's Cappadocia. What made it unique though was in part, it was difficult to get to. On the east is the Euphrates River and the mountains of Armenia. So it was hard to get to from the east. 

On the north, the Pontus Mountains. On the south, the Taurus Mountains. The only place where it was somewhat accessible was on the west. 

Since ancient time, people came here because this area was relatively inaccessible. You were hard to find when you got here. The Hittites were here. Then the Egyptians were here. Then the Persians were here. Then the Greeks came. And in the Gospel time, in the New Testament time, the Romans had taken control but really not taken control. There were no cities here. There were small villages, tribes with tribal chiefs. It was almost like what the American West was 200 years ago. 

So this area was where people came if they wanted to disappear. Now there's another thing here that makes Cappadocia a place where you can go and live anonymously. Look. There are two or more great volcanoes here. Many, many years ago, long before the time of Jesus, the volcanoes erupted and covered this area with ash - like drifts of snow. The ash hardened into a soft but stable rock called tufa. It was soft enough to scratch with your fingernails and yet, when it dries, hard enough to hold its shape. 

So people discovered they could come here, and they could carve, into these mountains, homes and hideouts and even churches easily. Because it cut fairly easily. So this became a place where people came not only to disappear in the general Cappadocia Plateau but to disappear into these mountains. 

Now some people came here who were on the run, people who were escaped from their slave owners, people whose countries had been destroyed, probably Israelites in the Old Testament time. And in the time we're looking at, the time of Jesus and thereafter, Christians came here. Because they were under intense persecution of emperors like Domitian and Decius and Valerian and Diocletian. It was short but intense persecutions for 10, 15, and even 20 years. And they came here, because they could live their lives obediently to their Messiah and be relatively isolated. 

So we've walked into this valley today to try and enter their lives, the lives of the believers in Cappadocia. Come. Let's go see. 

It's really pretty amazing.

This is really interesting in here. Come on in and find a place. 

So the question, why does a talmid-- what's a talmid? A disciple. What's a disciple? Someone who is passionate to the rabbi. Be like the rabbi. Follow the rabbi. Why does a disciple have to suffer? I was wandering around here and I found this room. It's very interesting. It's an ancient press. They put grapes or olives in this trough and they rolled this wheel on it, smooshing them either for the grape juice or for the oil of the olive.

If it was for olives, they took the pulp and they placed it under a heavy weight, which I don't see around here anymore. It probably is gone or broken. And they placed it under an enormous weight, and it squeezes the oil out of that pulp. Now in Hebrew, that's called gat shemanim, which in English is translated gethsemane. This is a gethsemane. And it's intriguing to me that as Jesus finished his walk as an earthly rabbi, the Messiah, he came, too, to a gethsemane. We call it the Garden of Gethsemane. Although, the Bible doesn't put those two words together. But he came to a press. 

I'm not sure exactly why he chose that place. Maybe because it was a cave indoors and they were staying there that night. The point though, in that place of the gethsemane - the press - the weight of what he had to do not now as rabbi teacher but as Messiah was so heavy, it pushed it right down on the ground. He was sweating like drops of blood. In other words, the Rabbi suffered far beyond what we can imagine. But if being a disciple is to be like the Rabbi, we ought to expect gethsemane moments too. 

Say these words after me - first from 1 John 2. "Whoever is in Jesus must walk as Jesus walked." 

"Whoever is in Jesus must walk as Jesus walked." That's John's command. 

Now say these words. "Whoever comes after me must take up his cross and follow me." 

"Whoever comes after me, whoever walks behind me, whoever wants to be like me must take up his cross." Those are not popular words in Christian circles. We want Jesus to carry his cross so that we don't have to. But Jesus said, "Do you want to be like me? Do you want to walk in my footprints? You're going to have to carry the cross." That means a lot of things, I'm sure. But one thing they knew it meant is, "You've got to be willing to pay the total price"

So why do we have to suffer? In part, because the Rabbi did. But do you know what? There's even more. And in this place where the stones still echo with the voices of our brothers and sisters from centuries ago, we need to go one more place. Come.

We've come to a place that I find deeply moving. This was their church. 1700, 1600, 1500 years ago, believers, brothers and sisters came here to worship God, to seek Jesus. The crosses, early crosses, the low ones. There's light coming in. I don't know if they thought of Jesus as light, but it's very powerful. The cross behind - I wonder if they carved that cross because they remembered he said, "Take up your cross." This place has the ability to move your soul. It's an honor. 

Now, we cannot say that any of the great martyr stories happened in this valley. There are no records. We do know there were times when believers came here in this place and faced great danger, suffering, and almost certainly death. And I think the fact we can't name anybody makes it even more powerful. It's as if these are ordinary people who followed the Rabbi all the way. 

So why did they have to suffer? Why do followers of the Rabbi suffer? Well, we stood by the gethsemane. And we saw that he suffered. So naturally, disciples should expect. They get out of the boat when the Rabbi gets out of the boat. If the Rabbi suffers, they suffer. They must have known that. He predicted it. Maybe they came here to recite his words in this church. 

Say them after me. "Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely. Because of me, rejoice and be glad. For great is your reward in Heaven. For in the same way, they persecuted the prophets who came before you." 

Did they remember that he said, "If they hate you, keep in mind they hated me first. If they persecuted me, they will persecute you."

There's one more. It's an amazing passage. Maybe the letter of Colossians had been circulated here by that time already. It must have been passed around. Paul says, "I rejoice in what was suffered for you," meaning Jesus' suffering for you. And then he said, "And I fill up in my flesh what was lacking with regard to the afflictions of Christ for the sake of his body, the church." 

In other words, if we are the body of Jesus-- remember, Priene where we talked about being the body of Jesus. If we are the body of Jesus, we continue to suffer for the sake of others just like he did. Not to save them. That was his job. But just because we're his body. And so they came. 

Do you hear the echoes? Listen. Ancient voices reaching out from the past to say, "Walk with the Rabbi. Follow him wherever he goes. Be like him." Listen. 

Let's hear a couple of those ancient voices as they speak like echoes from the past. It's translated into modern English somewhat freely, but listen to our brothers and sisters. Though none of these happened in this place, their echoes are here. 

Veronica, a young woman - "Where the temptation is great, he who overcomes temptation is greater. Where there is battle, Jesus goes before us and triumphs. He claimed victory in his death on the cross," as she waited for them to light the fires beneath her. 

"Your tortures cannot hurt me. My God makes me strong."  - Demetrius as he traced the sign of the cross in the dust and died. 

Female speaker 1: "Pray to the emblems of our lord, the emperor who maintains peace and gives us our pay and, in all things, considers our good."

"I am paid and fed by God above. It is his never-ending generosity that makes me rich. It is better for me to be a sacrifice for our Lord Christ than to be sacrificed for your idol Saturn." - Christian soldier Decius who sees the bull and scattered the incense to the winds stepped on the blasphemous image of the blasphemous emperor and made the sign of the cross of Christ on his forehead. He was immediately executed. 

Male speaker 1: "Are you a Christian?"

"Though a sinner, yet I follow Jesus."

"Do you not know of the decrees of our divine master?"

"What decrees?"

"That all Christians should give up their ridiculous superstitions and acknowledge their true lord to whom all are subject and worship the emperor and his gods?"

"In me is Jesus. His grace, like a fire. And it will save me through the prayers of all who suffer in this struggle, following the example of those who showed us the courage to die for him."

"The divine mercy commands that for the discouragement of other Christians, this man be stoned to death since he has refused obedience to the holy laws." - Maximus, a Christian pastor.

Female speaker 2: "The most holy emperors, Valerian and Gallienus, have honored me with a message which commands that all who have hitherto not confessed their loyalty to the Roman religion must in the future take part in the Roman services to the gods."

"I am a Christian and a leader of the faithful. I know no other God but the one true God who has made Heaven and earth, the sea, and all that are in them. We Christians serve this God. We beseech him day and night for ourselves and for all people and for the preservation of the emperors as well."

"Then you will die."

"Good. I am ready." - Cyprian

Male speaker 2: To all the leaders whose blood may be spilled supported by me with their prayers as do all who have been faithful to death in this struggle." - An unknown soldier before he was executed.

Male speaker 3: "I cannot become a soldier. I cannot commit blasphemy. I am a Christian." A lead seal was hung around his neck, which like the imperial coins and the portraits on the standards on military decorations bore the symbol of the emperor's claim to deity. 

"Be a soldier or you die."

"Strike off my head then. I'm not the emperor's soldier but God's. I will not be lost. My name is written with my Lord."

"Put him to the sword."  

Maximilian was executed and buried beside the martyred Bishop Cyprian.

Female speaker 3: "What is wrong with calling upon the emperor lord, sacrificing to him and all the rest," said the Roman commander. "Think of your gray hair. Swear by the divine spirit of the emperor and I shall set you free. Only curse Christ."

"Eighty-six years, I have served him and he has never done me any wrong. How can I bring myself to blaspheme my king who is my Messiah?" Polycarp of Smyrna.

Ray Vander Laan: Do you hear the echoes? These are brothers and sisters who sit in the stands of the race we run to be like Jesus. They cheer you on. They bless you with their courage, their passion, and their fight. What echoes will remain when our footprints are finished? What stories will others tell of us? What encouragement will they get because we walked like the Rabbi walked?

We need not only to make our community this wide, brothers and sisters. We need to make our community this deep. They are our roots. They are models to show us how to be like the Rabbi of Galilee. 

So the Rabbi says, "Come." 

Where does the path lead? The disciple doesn't ask. All he knows, all she knows is that more than anything else in the world, a disciple, a talmid wants to be just like the Rabbi right to the end.

Last modified: Thursday, August 13, 2020, 1:10 PM