Come and Follow Me…
We are told nothing of what kind of day it was—whether it was cloudy or clear, cold or hot, rainy or dry. We are told nothing of what was in the fishermen’s minds were they happy or sad, focused or distracted, fresh or tired? We are told nothing of what had been happening in their lives before this moment had they ever seen Jesus before, were they faithful in the practice of the Jewish faith, had they been pondering the meaning of their lives? Yes, we are told nothing nothing except that on that day Jesus came walking by and said to these four fishermen the words that changed not only their lives but the very course of human history: “Follow me.” And, amazingly, they followed.
Will you follow him? Why did they follow? I have no better answer than that something happened to them in that moment; they heard the voice of Jesus, and it sounded significant and authoritative to them. Something about that voice in that moment made it necessary for them to make a decision that would change the course of their entire lives. They did not, so far as we can tell, have a significant amount of prior information about Jesus. They certainly were not privy to the kind of knowledge about Jesus that we now possess. Yet the power of his presence and the summons of his voice were, to them, irresistible And so here you are today, ending your nets and getting ready to do the stuff you do in your life, or busy thinking about all that you need to be doing. You are busy busy with your work, busy with your family, busy with your hobbies, busy with making money, busy with spending money, busy with worrying, busy with playing, busy with parenting. You’re just plain busy. But now here comes this voice saying, “Follow me.” And believe me, that voice is just as present and just as real today as it was two thousand years ago beside the Sea of Galilee. Through the activity of the Holy Spirit, that voice still calls, still summons, still beckons for us to follow. So you’re hearing it today, maybe for the first time, maybe for the thousandth time. The four Galilean fishermen apparently responded to the voice the first time they heard it. So can you. Others of you have heard it over and over and have not yet responded. Why not? I don’t know, and it doesn’t really matter, not today. What does matter is that you can hear his voice, and you can follow today.
- What does it mean to follow him? At issue here is whether or not you will become a disciple. Jesus says, “Follow me.” We know now, in light of the life and ministry of Jesus, that to come after Jesus means to follow him in the way of the cross. It means to take up our cross and follow him. It means to abandon our lives and our priorities and to give ourselves over to him in radical obedience. It doesn’t mean to follow perfectly. You’re not going to do that. So if you’re sitting there thinking that you have to wait until you can get it just right, then you’re going to spend the rest of your life just sitting there and waiting.You’ll never get it down perfectly, and that’s not what being a disciple is all about anyway. It doesn’t mean to stake your life on the quality of your following. That would deteriorate into a works righteousness that will drain your life from you. If you’re wondering if you can do well enough to make it all the way through, then you need to know that the answer is no. Besides, what you’re able to do is not what being a disciple is all about anyway. Yes, you are the one being called to be a disciple, but what you are being called to do is to follow Jesus. You must keep your focus on him, not on yourself. Watch him, learn from him, follow him, and let him empower and enliven and enable you, and then you will be a disciple. The focus is not on being a disciple; the focus is on being his disciple. Furthermore, the focus is first and foremost on being his. Don’t think too much about outcomes. Don’t think too much about destinations. Don’t think too much about results. Just follow. Just trust. Just rely on his presence with you, and then no matter where he leads you, it will be all right. That is important to know, because where he leads you may not be an easy place to be. The road these four fishermen had to walk was not an easy road. It was a road of deprivation, of sacrifice, of misunderstanding, of failure, of loss, of grief, and of pain. For most of them it was a road that ultimately led to martyrdom. But it is the only road that, no matter what it takes you through, finally leads to joy. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who died as a Christian martyr in a Nazi prison camp, put it this way: ”Discipleship means joy.” And if we answer the call to discipleship, where will it lead us? What decisions and partings will it demand? To answer this question we shall have to go to him, for only he knows the answer. Only Jesus Christ, who bids us follow him, knows the journey’s end. But we do know that it will be a road of boundless mercy. “Discipleship means joy.”Do you really need to know anything else? Discipleship means following and sacrifice and obedience, but at the bottom of it all, discipleship means joy!