Jesus is our model in discipleship

Wherever missionaries go, one of their main tasks will likely be discipleship training. However, a question the missionary encounters is whether discipleship and discipleship mentoring will necessarily look the same everywhere.

Japanese culture has been labelled as a shame culture since Ruth Benedict’s famous Chrysanthemum and the Sword (1946) was published immediately after the war. Notwithstanding her oversimplifications, such as her unnecessary juxtaposition of external shame and internal guilt, Benedict did identify the avoidance of shame as an important social phenomenon that affects people’s behaviour. While her interpretation has been both celebrated and challenged, the notion that shame and honour are influential in Japanese society is still true and thus relevant for those who want to be and make disciples of Jesus in Japan.¹

Discipleship and values

The main purpose of this article is to ask how a context of honour and shame could affect, whether for good or bad, those who would live as disciples of Jesus. As missionaries, we surely desire both to live as disciples and make disciples. But how do we help and encourage others on their journey of following Jesus? How do we teach and train new believers in cultures that are different from our own?

Definitions of bad and good behaviour differ among cultures. This is not to argue for relativity, for although there are clear absolute standards, there may be differences in how they are applied in various cultures. For example, what does it mean to honour one’s parents? Or what constitutes lying? Especially, the commands to love your neighbour (Mark 12:31) and the Golden Rule (Matt. 7:12) will need to find culturally appropriate expressions in every place.

We must also be alert to how values such as space and time, punctuality and cleanliness, family, treatment of animals, smoking, and gluttony vary between different cultures. It is too easy to just assume that our values are the biblical ones. In Japan, how should a believer view anger? Communal discord? Kinship obligations? Preserving peace and harmony? Giving honour and shame? These are all biblical virtues or vices that may very well be taken more seriously by Japanese followers of Jesus than by Westerners, and these may affect how one lives as a follower of Jesus in Japan. What if my own Western set of values and virtues is actually detrimental to my Japanese mentee’s life and witness? How do I refrain from inadvertently imposing my own culture and values on Japanese believers? I suggest that a conscious imitation of Christ would give us a way forward.

Discipleship as imitation of Christ

The imitation of Christ is a powerful vision of discipleship that is relevant to every culture. It proposes that the New Testament Gospels are not merely a recollection of Jesus’ teaching or a neutral account of his life; they proclaim who he is and present him as a model to imitate. This is in accordance with the typical function of biographies in Greek culture where the virtuous lives of great men were “a significant factor in the training of moral character.”²

Besides Christology, discipleship is a key theme in the Gospels. But while the twelve disciples are not always ideal examples of discipleship, it is ultimately Jesus himself who is the true model worthy of imitation. As Peter reminds his readers, “For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you should follow in his steps” (1 Pet. 2:21, NRSV). The imitation of Christ, becoming like him in character and virtue, honours him.

Discipleship in Japan

In East Asia, the idea of a master is a very important concept for teaching and mentoring—the focus is on personal learning. The goal of the training is not simply to achieve a certain result; it is a matter of being and becoming. In Japanese training—whether in kendo, archery, or calligraphy—the training and mastery of form is highly significant. One might hit the bullseye, but if the form is wrong, the sensei will not be satisfied. The disciple learns from the master to be and do things in a certain way that honours both the craft and the master. On the contrary, failure to follow the master is likely to induce feelings of shame.

Redefinition of honour and shame

While the mentoring ideals found in the New Testament are culturally relevant for ancient Greece and Israel, as well as contemporary Japan, it may also, in fact, prove to be countercultural in content because the actual teaching of Jesus can also be contrary to cultural norms.

God is the ultimate arbiter of good and bad, right and wrong, as well as what is honourable and shameful. Jesus, with his word and deeds, demonstrates the ultimate good and what is honourable and, thus, also the meaning of true discipleship. This has the potential to subvert both Western and Japanese values. Disciples of Jesus in any culture might well find themselves to be countercultural when they re-evaluate true honour and shame in light of Jesus’ example. True virtue and honour is to imitate Jesus while sin and shame is a failure to emulate him. Believers from honour and shame contexts may be particularly well-tuned to hear such connotations in Jesus’ life and ministry while Westerners may have cultural blind spots and could benefit from the insights of our sisters and brothers from different cultures.

Discipleship is more than ethics

The question is perhaps not so much how Christian discipleship is fundamentally different in various cultures. The difference is simply in the way that discipleship is carried out in practice. The command to love and the fruit of the Spirit are the same everywhere, but the way they are applied in specific situations would be different. For instance, kindness in an honour and shame context might involve refraining from shaming someone. To love someone may include honouring him or her.

To be a Christian is, in essence, to be a disciple and imitator of Jesus, the master and model. The disciple is committed to Jesus as a person and not simply his teaching. In fact, being a disciple of Jesus is more than simply a question of right and wrong or ethics. It is a matter of being and becoming like him. It is a matter of imitating Jesus appropriately in the context we are in, which affects our identity, community, and ministry.

Community and identity

While each Christian is a disciple individually, discipleship also has a communal dimension. Disciples of Jesus are not intended to be disciples alone or to trek solo. This has special relevance in honour and shame cultures which are more community oriented. Now, in Christ, there can be no differentiation based on former evaluations of worth which were based on their society’s values. Rather, all are reflecting the honour of their master and honour him by giving public allegiance to him. Evangelism and discipleship must change the identity of the person, first as disciples of the master Jesus and then as fellow disciples with others. Once a person’s primary identity has changed, honour and shame are redefined according to the new community and ultimately in light of the example of Jesus.

Shame is also closely correlated to a person’s moral responsibility to his or her group. The fact that the disciple lives and learns in community with other disciples encourages that person to imitate Jesus better. However, if someone “lets the group down” or struggles to live according to his or her identity as a follower of Jesus, this moral dissonance can cause experiences of shame, whether psychologically, socially, or before God. The desire to avoid shame and gain honour from God thus has the potential to be a formative power for Christlikeness.

Ministry

If we, and those among whom we minister, want to live as disciples and followers of Jesus, his ministry must surely be an example for us. We would do well to share the gospel, which justifies the unrighteous and honours the dishonourable, with the most shamed in our society. These groups may be the same across many cultures—criminals, sex workers, drug addicts, and the homeless. In Japan, there are also specific groupings of people shamed or excluded by society, such as the burakumin.³

Epilogue

Jesus is our ultimate model and mentor, and just as he suffered shame, those who follow him may also be shamed in their society. Contexts where the social function of shame and honour are more pronounced can have significant implications for what it looks like to be and make disciples of Jesus. But we can look at the example of Jesus as worthy of imitation and as the ultimate basis for both our values and virtues, which will be a testimony to all around as we imitate him.

1. However, it has increasingly been recognized that experiences of shame are also prevalent in the West. Cf. the work of Brené Brown.
2. David B. Capes, “Imitatio Christi and the Gospel Genre”, Bulletin for Biblical Research (2003), 6.
3. Burakumin are descendants of outcastes during the Edo era who had occupations considered to be associated with kegare (穢れ, “defilement”), such as undertakers, butchers, or tanners. Burakumin can be victims of severe discrimination and ostracism.