I wonder who you would follow? It’s amazing how often we choose to follow people we’ve hardly met! The recipe that we hear of on TV from a TV Chef, though you’ve never been to a restaurant of theirs; The advice of a random person you pull up to on the street to ask directions on the basis that they are locals; the holiday you book because you have heard how good the place is from a friend of a friend (or even TripAdvisor) even though you hardly know the person making the recommendation. When you think about it, isn’t it surprising how many times we follow others although we have very little basis for our trust in them?
The surprising thing is that we can trust others so easily, but struggle to trust God. I guess we all know the reality of this. We hear His call to follow Him (Luke 5:27), but easily forget His word. We hear Him say “this is the way, walk in it“ (Is 30:21) yet find ourselves on a different path so quickly. We hear His call to “work as unto the Lord“ (Col 3:23) but so often end up living for ourselves or others. Why is this?
In part it is the pressure of the world around – we find ourselves squeezed into it’s mould rather than looking like Jesus (Rom 12:2) … it’s easy to follow the crowd, but hard to walk against the crowd. In part it is a failure to do the ‘cost/benefit analysis’ … Jesus calls us to count the cost (Luke 9:57-62), and there is a cost, but the benefits are amazing (Matt 11:29-30)! In both these areas God has given us His Spirit to enable and empower us … these burdens were never intended to be carried by you but by Him.
But probably the biggest reason is that we haven’t really grasped who it is we are being called to follow. We are called to follow Jesus! But pause; remind yourself who Jesus is. We are shown in Luke 1-3 a ‘slide show’ of Jesus’ credentials before we are called to follow Him: He is the promised Messiah, the Lord, the Prince of peace, the Son of the Most High, the one whose Kingdom never ends, my Saviour, the Mighty one, my Redeemer, the strength of my salvation, the Rescuer, the prophet of the Most High, the one who shines light into darkness, Christ the Lord, our Salvation, the one who is Worthy, the Judge. And then in Luke 4 we see Jesus show who He is: the Son of God, the one who can resist temptation, the one come to preach good news, proclaim freedom, bring sight to the blind, release the oppressed, the one who has power over Demons and every evil force, the one who can drive out sickness, the one who comes with the gospel of life. We are supposed to see that He is the only one worth following, and the one we can trust. He has no rivals.
And, beautifully, in Luke 5 we see Jesus come and meet each person He calls to follow Him where they are. For Peter, the expert fisherman, Jesus shows that He controls the fish who swim into their nets. For the Leper, Jesus shows He is the one who provides cleansing and new life. For the Paralysed Man, Jesus shows that He is the one who brings the real new life he needs: sins forgiven. And for outcast Tax Collector Levi, Jesus is the one who takes him from his sell-out failure to forgiveness, acceptance and love.
When Jesus calls us to follow Him it’s a call that is personal – Jesus calling to you, in your situation, with your past, with your difficulties. It’s a call that is powerful – Jesus has shown that He is able to cleanse, heal, make new, give new life and gives His Spirit to enable us. And it’s a call that is trustworthy – Jesus is the one who has already walked this pathway and He is simply calling you to “follow me“, to walk the pathway He has already walked, to live our lives like Jesus in every part.