Have you ever wondered what it was like to be one of Jesus’ 12 original disciples? To leave your fishing boat behind? To walk away from your tax collecting booth? To walk away from family and things both familiar and comfortable?
On the one hand, Jesus’ calling of His disciples sounds simple and maybe even easy. He says, “Follow Me” and His disciples follow Him. He leads. They follow. Kind of like “Simon says”!
But on the other hand, Jesus’ disciples were not children…and they were not playing a child’s game either. Yes, Jesus said, “Follow Me” and His disciples followed. But following was not always easy. For sometimes following is a lot harder for adults than it is for children.
A lot of times following Jesus was hard for His disciples because they had their own thoughts, desires and experiences in life. And so, at times they struggled to go where Jesus went, to do what He did and to say what He said. Over and over again, Jesus turned the world of His disciple’s upside down. Over and over again, He did the opposite of what they expected. And so, in a lot of ways, it was hard to be one of Jesus’ 12 original disciples.
How about today? How would you describe life as one of Jesus’ disciples today? (In reality, ALL of us who believe in Jesus ARE His disciples.) In answering the question, we might say, “Simple and hard.” It is simple. Jesus says, “Follow Me.” And we follow.
But life is also hard. Here we might point to the difficulty of living in a secular culture. We might point to decreasing church attendance. We might point to hostility toward the Christian faith.
But aside from this, there is another difficulty. And that is – simply following. Following where He leads, following what He does, following what He says. For Jesus often turns things upside down and does the opposite of what we expect. And so, if our path in life is controlled by our comfort and ease, we might need to ask ourselves, “Am I really following Jesus?”
It is not just a theoretical question. Because following Jesus is where true life is found and lived. Our weakness finds itself in His strength. Our uncertainty finds its hope in His promises. Our life finds itself in His life.
And so, being one of Jesus’ disciples is no different than it was thousands of years ago. We are no different than the 12 original disciples. But our hope and assurance lie in this – the One that we follow is no different than the One the 12 disciples followed thousands of years ago. Jesus is the One we follow. Jesus is the One who will provide for us. Jesus is the One who gives us true life as we follow Him.
Following our Lord with you,
Pastor Tuma