21:18 Most assuredly, I say to you, when you were younger, you dressed
yourself and walked where you wished; but when you are old, you will stretch
out your hands, and another will dress you and carry you where you do not
wish.” 19 This He spoke, signifying by what death he would glorify God. And
when He had spoken this, He said to him, “Follow Me.”
Follow Me...
What does it mean to follow
Jesus? It's a simple yet complex question. What makes it the most complex is
actually what is happening in our own head. For Peter following Jesus was about
far more than anything Jesus said or promised. Jesus represented centuries of
finely crafted and fine-tuned expectations passed on from generation to
generation. Jesus was not just a man, He was the Messiah. For the Jews and that
included Peter, He was the best of all the Jewish kings of the past combined
and then some. There is no historical figure in any era to compare Jesus to
that would begin to illustrate the expectations the Jewish people had. Gone
would be the power and control of the Romans. Gone would be their subjection to
anyone. They would become the greatest nation on earth. All other nations would
be subject to them. Wealth would flow like the water in the Jordan River.
Whatever we think of as heaven, they expected here on earth.
Now imagine Peter. He's one of
the twelve. No he's one of the top three among the twelve. Talk about an inside
track to greatness. Top three below the greatest man on earth. When Peter
resisted every hint that Jesus would die you can begin to understand why.
See following Jesus is often far
more about our expectations than it is about actually following Him.
That morning on that beach Jesus
begins to paint a very different picture of what following Him will look like.
Gone on the ticker tape parades. Gone are the palaces and servants. Gone is the
wealth and fame. Gone is even the free, simple, peaceful life of a fisherman.
The picture Jesus paints is bleak
and ends in death, not the ordinary death of old age that awaits us all but a
forced death by the hands of enemies long before his time. He ends with the
same two words He used to call Peter on perhaps the exact same beach over three
years earlier - "Follow Me."
What does it mean to follow
Jesus? It means being a foreigner on the same soil that used to be home. It
means being a stranger to many who used to be friends. It can mean being an
enemy target among those who used to be on your side. It can mean broken
relationships, shattered expectations, and having our eyes and hearts opened to
a whole new reality we never saw or even considered before.
What else does following Jesus
mean? It means being loved on a level never conceived of. It means
understanding our identity and purpose far beyond any scope this world offers.
It means understanding history on a scale that stretches from eternity past to
eternity future rather than from birth to the grave. It means understanding
life is not about what you get from this world but what you give to it, about
what you see in others that is praiseworthy and redeemable rather than what's
wrong with them. It's about spreading hope instead of fear, love instead of
hate, and grace instead of revenge.
It's all that and so much more.
Read Hebrews 11 again to see what a life given to Jesus might look like. You'll
find there is no cookie cutter answer. His mission for you will unfold with
greater understanding as you take each step. Don't worry so much about the
final destination. Just take whatever step He puts in front you.
"Follow Me"
The first time Peter thought he
was following a man to greatness. Now he's invited to follow the same Man to a
cross, his own cross. Will he go?
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