The Shaving of The Razor
July 3, 2019
Who Is That Man?
September 27, 2019
Marked Among The Unremarkable Losers!
By Vinnie MacIsaac
Nobody wants to be a “Loser.” People don’t usually wake up and think to themselves, over breakfast, between sips of Java, “How can I win today at being a Loser?” The question remains though if nobody wants to be a Loser, why is the world so full of losers?
Logic demands, in order to have winners, we must have losers. Losers are simply everyone else who did not make the Winner’s Circle. Take a minute and think about it. The only way we can rid the world of losers is not to let there ever be a winner. Because, as soon as we have even one winner, we have instant, ready-made losers.
James, John, Andrew, and Simon (Peter), were Losers. They failed at the ideal dreams of their Fathers. They did not find their way into the Winner’s Circle. They were subpar, average; as we use to say back in the day, “they were white bread and mayonnaise.” They were the unremarkable, plain, vanilla. We know this because we find them in the biblical record being fisherman. Not that fishing is a bad profession, not at all, but in this case, it was their father’s profession. And in Jewish culture, you only followed in your Father’s footsteps when you could not forge your own.
Not a lot has changed; fathers today dream of their children growing up and becoming doctors, lawyers, CEO’s, etc. In the time of Jesus, fathers dreamed that their sons would grow up to be called by a famous Rabbi to become a disciple. For to be invited to be a disciple meant you were called to the fast track of one day being a Rabbi, yourself, with your own gang of Disciples hanging onto your every word and doing your bidding. You’d one day not only get to read the scrolls in the Synagogue but, you would be a definitive voice in interpreting the very words of Moses and God’s prophets to the whole community! You would be privileged in being one who helped edify the will of Yahweh to His lost sheep in Israel once again! From a very early age children attended the school of the Rabbi’s to hook a lasso around that trip to the stars; those same stars God had pointed out to Abraham, so many years ago, looking up at the night sky.
The Rabbinical School System went like this: They started out around age six in the first level that was called Beth Sefer (house of the book). Everyone, even the girls[i], went to Beth Sefer because it was where you learned to read. In Beth Sefer, you eventually memorized the whole of the Torah[ii], and at around age eleven, you were examined by the presiding Rabbi to determine if you merited the inclusion in the next grade level. To advance, you have to be male, and had to be able to recite any book from the Torah, in part or full, upon command. If you were deemed worthy, having committed it nearly perfectly to memory, you’d be in the running for advancement. Still, only the best students were selected to advance to Beth Talmud. On this level, you’d learn to memorize and copy all the rest of the Jewish Bible and manuscripts. Around the age of 15, you would be tested yet again. This time though, it was more than a pass or fail grade. The Rabbi would only advance a very few students, less than a handful, to his winning ranks, and the rest would go home “losers” that night. They would have their dreams of being a Rabbi dashed and would head home to eke out a life in the family trade. But, if the Rabbi had thoroughly tested you and made sure you were the best of all the winners, he extended the high honor of following him by saying these now famed words, “You, come and follow me!”
For those who made that last cut, you certainly won the prize! It was like winning the lottery and getting into Harvard all on the same day! You got advanced to Beth Midrash (house of interpreting). In Beth Midrash, you literally followed your Rabbi around for the next 10-15 years mimicking, copying, and emulating, their every move! When you thought exactly like him you too could be Rabbi.
In the Jewish traditions recorded in the Mishnah, there is a verse that says, “Let thy house be a meeting-house for the wise, and powder thyself in the dust of their feet, and drink their words with thirstiness.”[iii] And it has been said that Jewish father’s reserved this oral law as a pronouncement upon their son only if they were fortunate enough to actually be called to Beth Midrash by an actual Rabbi. The idea is, it was a blessing that passed the son over to the Rabbi’s property. The son was to forsake his birth family for the house of the wise. He was to be so close to his Rabbi, that he drank his words like water and that the dust of the Rabbi powdered them as they followed behind them. To not be passed over, but to be called, was such an honor that no one dared looked back once the pronouncement was made![iv]
In the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke[v], we find James, John, Andrew, and Simon fishing because they are losers. They did not get advanced. Their fathers had no pronouncement to give them, only a trade to give them. They were passed over. They were the rejects and the dropouts. They were stuck, living out an unremarkable life, doing the family trade!
I can confirm to you that they would have all at least gone to Beth Sefer because everyone did! I can’t tell you if all of them or any of them went on the Beth Talmud. However, I can undoubtedly confirm none of them made it to Beth Midrash, for they were the losers. As Rob Bell calls them, “The B-Team.”[vi] They work on their Dad’s boat, fishing because it likely is the only job they could get. And while John was a recent drop out being the youngest of those called by Jesus, Peter was the oldest. Peter was married, and church tradition suggests he may have even been a father himself.[vii] Imagine, being a married man, raising a family, and never having had found your own footing, and still being a tag-along at Daddy’s workplace? They had been forgotten, passed over, and condemned to what, for them, was to be considered the Losers Circle; the consolation prize of mundane mediocracy, the fast track to no place special.
It is fair to say; maybe they weren’t any more losers than the rest of the general population. I mean not everyone can be a Rabbi. But it is indisputable that they were the rejects, the unremarkable, the unskilled, ungifted, and undesirables in their religion class. If we define losers as being those who are not winners, then, the disciples more than fulfill that classic definition. Nobody could see their calling. Nobody recognized their call. Nobody was ever going to give them another chance. But, that is what Jesus does, he sees in us the things everyone else skips over, rejects, and finds unremarkable. He looks where nobody else would. It is the standard operating procedure for Jesus to find beautiful pottery hiding in the miry clay.
“That is what Jesus does, he sees in us the things everyone else skips over, rejects, and finds unremarkable. He looks where nobody else would. It is the standard operating procedure for Jesus to find beautiful pottery hiding in the miry clay.”
If you have ever been passed over, ignored, or picked last; you get it. When you have felt the sting of belittlement, bought the lie, and believed yourself no good for nothing; you get it. Amid unforgiving regret, paralyzing failure, and the humiliation of knowing you can’t turn back time and make it all right again; you get it. Get what? Get called, off the bench, into the game, to center field, tonight you headline for Jesus!
You see, there is one Rabbi, who is not looking for the best. There is one Rabbi, that doesn’t seek out the top members of the class. There is one Rabbi, who only takes the losers and the unremarkables. And if you’re ashamed to be numbered among the losers, called out for what you are, you can’t ever be called by him, for he declares with no apologies ….
“The first shall be last, and the last first: for many shall be called, but few chosen.”[viii]
I’d rather be chosen than to be the head of the class. I’d rather be in the back seat on the right bus, than riding shotgun in a limousine cruising to hell. I’ll take my place with the Losers. Because those who know what it means to lose and are given a chance to be in the game; they want to win the most!
I am chosen because I was passed over. “Come Follow Me,” is not a mere call to a vocation, a membership, or a tank of water. They are the words of the call of everything I am, all I do, and the rest of every second, of every minute, of every hour, of every day for the rest of my eternal existence. I am more than called, I am chosen to the Beth Midrash of the Master of the Universe. I don’t ever want to be the Rabbi. My motivation is not advancements for myself or career as a professional clergy, and I just want to sit at the feet of the Rabbi, drink his words, be covered in his Dust and teach only, ever, under his credentials, not my own. It is not an earthly father’s dreams and pronouncements I am seeking, rather I am fulfilling the will of my Abba in heaven.
“If you have ever been passed over, ignored, or picked last; you get it.”
In Beth Midrash, the Disciples study every word, and mimic every behavior of their master for one reason alone; if they perfected what he did, they’d get to become what he was, be the Rabbi, get the praise, win the chief seats in synagogues. Winners do get the best seats, the best praises, and best prizes. I’d rather have Heaven.
Count me out, count me down, number me an unremarkable loser. They get no reward but hard work, self-sacrifice, and the scorn of men. But one day, when status and self-importance has long passed away, they sit on the Throne’s in Heaven (see Revelation 3:21). I’d rather sit at the feet my Rabbi, on his throne in heaven, than to be the Rabbi of a “synagogue of best seats” that will pass away!
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Footnotes
[i] After the return from Exile, the women’s role in teaching was greatly reduced. She was taught the basics of Torah, but that was all. Due to intermarrying with gentiles, the Jews came to believe the women were leading the children in the sins of the idols of their father’s houses. Upon return, Rabbinical schools were set up to keep religion a male controlled institution.
[ii] The Law. The first five books of the Bible.
[iii] Avot 1:4
[iv] This is the full meaning of Luke 9:57-62. Go back and read it in that context.
[v] Matthew 4, Luke 5, Mark 1
[vi] https://www.christianbook.com/dust-008-rob-bell/pd/DV2261-CP
[vii] Some church tradition suggests Peter had a daughter named Petronella, who is listed as one of the early martyrs of the Church.
[viii] Matthew 20:16
