“If anyone would come after me he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.” Luke 9:23
This passage is in my opinion the vision statement of discipleship. It focuses on putting me second and Jesus first. I am to follow Jesus. Following Jesus is to be my daily drive and motivation. Following Jesus is to be what I do every day, not just on Sunday. It is a daily choice.
But if I am going to make that choice it helps to know what I am choosing to do. For too many of us, we leave the real following Jesus part of our lives to the super saints and spiritual giants. It is easy to buy into the myth that pastors and missionaries follow Jesus and the rest of us just live our lives. But Jesus does not give us the option to believe that myth. We are all called to follow him.
The word translated “follow” means to attend, to go with or to accompany a person, typically a teacher so as to learn. So to follow Jesus means we need to go with Jesus. But one will not go with someone they do not trust. One will not learn from someone in whom they have no confidence. So to follow Jesus will mean that we put our confidence, or better our trust in him. That means we believe that he is who he said he was; that we believe that he is the answer for the emptiness in our soul and that we put our complete trust in him for the forgiveness of our sins.
But it does not stop there. Jesus called that first step of belief being “born again” (John 3:3). In all of life and nature there is the foregone conclusion that growth will follow birth. While it seems as though many Christians have set that conclusion aside when it comes to spiritual birth; God does not. He expects that we will “follow” or as the Apostle Paul says “imitate” (1 Corinthians 11:1) the example of Jesus. We should desire to grow in our relationship with Jesus, which will take time, sacrifice, effort and communication. We will want to do the things Jesus does in being kind and living a pure life and being free from materialism. We will want to let others know of our relationship with Jesus and how he frees us from our burden of sin and calls us to serve him.
When we deny ourselves and then go so far as to die to self, we find that we are free to follow Christ and completely lose our lives in him (Luke 9:24). This does not mean that life will be easy; it does not mean that we won’t have struggles; it does not mean that we won’t be able to think for ourselves. What it does mean is that we will find a freedom and a sense of purpose that is beyond what we could imagine. We will see our relationships in light of how we can move others closer to Jesus. We will see our employment as a gift from God that gives us the means to provide for ourselves and be charitable to others. We will see our times of worship as offering our gift of praise to God. We will be less inclined to complain and more inclined to look for solutions.
It begins with taking God at his Word; trusting Jesus; and letting him have control of one’s life one area at a time.
No comments:
Post a Comment