“Follow Me”
I watched an episode from “The Chosen” recently about Jesus calling people to follow Him. We’ve read about this in the Bible a thousand times, or so it seems.
But, still, to see it (witness it) stirred something.
What strange words. In these days, it seems we are more independent than ever. Perhaps it is because we feel we are diminished somehow if we are followers.
Doing our own thing is important to us.
In that era, in Israel, when a Rabbi said, “follow me” everyone knew what a great honor it was to be invited to live and learn at the side of the Rabbi. The called would drop everything to follow and their whole lives changed.
Called by Jesus
“Come after Me, and I will make you fishers of men.”
These are strange words. Most of us are not fishermen. Maybe, “I will make you teachers of men” makes more sense in our time. But perhaps “teachers of men” would not really have the same connotation as “fishers of men.”
These words were addressed to commercial fisherman along the shores of the Sea of Galilee when Jesus walked by. Did they stare after Him like He was crazy? They weren’t Torah students waiting for a Rabbi to walk by, for heavens’ sake – they were plain Joes who made a living at fishing.
They understood those words.
Jesus walked by a hated tax man, “follow Me,” he invited. The tax man left his money to follow. Gasp! Choke! What?? He had built up an amazing portfolio. It would allow him to live the high life and have a great retirement fund. And he left it? What was he thinking?
Two brothers, mending their fishing nets with their father, jumped up when Jesus came by and said, “follow Me”. Another invitation was issued to a young man sitting under a tree. “I see no deceit in you,” Jesus said to him, “come follow me”. And the young man did.
Leaving It All
It took a lot of courage to leave it all and follow Jesus. This is astounding and I always wondered how they could do this. Could I just walk away from my family, job, home, whatever—to follow Jesus? How did they do this?
There are some, even in our day, who have dropped everything when Jesus has called them. All over the world, people are following Him and introducing Him to others. I am amazed at their courage. Yet, most say that there is no sacrifice when God has called them, only fulfillment.
Following Jesus
It is an old question—what about you and me, how do we follow Jesus in our everyday lives?
He gently woos us and asks us daily to follow Him.
Scripture tells us to set aside every weight to run our race. To follow Him. Setting aside our phones, games, ipads, TV, sports, activities, and all things that cloud up our minds and stop up our ears.
It takes effort to set aside those things on a consistent basis. But there is nothing more important.
To open up the space to allow His voice to speak and our hearts to hear.
This may be how we leave everything to follow Him.
Our aim in life is to please our God and give Him the glory in all things. It is all that really matters when we look at eternity.
“I will extol You, my God, O King; And I will bless your Name forever and ever” (Psalm 145:1 NKJV).
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