The Vocabulary of Discipleship -- FPC sermon excerpt

Skedaddle.

You know what the word means: To run away quickly. As in, “When the police showed up at the keg party, the teenagers skedaddled.”

This is nothing new. In the Garden of Gethsemane, Judas led an armed posse to Jesus, and they laid hands on him and arrested him. And what did the disciples do? According to the Gospel of Mark, they skedaddled.

Actually, Mark says that they “deserted him and fled” (14:50). Same thing.

But do you know where the word “skedaddle” comes from? It first appeared during the Civil War, and was used to describe a flight from the battlefield. It may have come from a Scottish word meaning to spill or scatter. The sight of blood being spilled on the battlefield probably caused soldiers to say “skedaddle” when they made a rapid retreat from the fighting.

There are a number of words in our civilian vocabulary that have a military origin. Almost every outbreak of war spawns new words, and this terminology quickly slips into everyday use. According to mental_floss magazine (May-June 2008), warfare is responsible for words such as:

Undermine. You might complain that your colleagues are undermining you, and this can certainly be frustrating and damaging. But in the 14th century, undermining was a military term for digging a secret passage under a building to sneak up on the enemy, or to bring down a castle or some other fortification. So be glad that your coworkers are not undermining you … literally.

Basket case. Today, a basket case is simply a deeply troubled person, and we all know a few of them. Sometimes I feel like one. But during the First World War it meant a living soldier who had lost all his limbs and was carried home in a basket. The US military denies that real baskets were used for this purpose, but the gruesome image remains.

Flak. Celebrities catch a lot of flak for idiotic behavior — and they deserve it. But when the word originated in the 1930s, it was short for an unpronounceable 19-letter German word for anti-aircraft guns. The bursting shells from these guns were a lethal threat to airplane crews, and were infinitely more damaging than the words hurled at people today.

Even the war in Iraq is contributing new vocabulary. Hillbilly armor is a term for the scraps used by resourceful soldiers to make their vehicles bulletproof. And an IED is an improvised explosive device — a homemade bomb created by a terrorist or insurgent. Our soldiers need hillbilly armor to protect them from … you guessed it … IEDs.

In the eighth chapter of Mark, Jesus predicts his suffering and death, rebukes Peter, and challenges his followers to lose their lives for the sake of the gospel. The vocabulary of discipleship is not always peaceful, since it includes calls for self-sacrifice, predictions of suffering, and violent outbursts such as “Get behind me, Satan!” To be a follower of Jesus is a life-and-death battle — challenging, stressful, and painful.

Before we fall into formation behind Jesus, we need to count the cost. We don’t want to be like the original disciples … and skedaddle.