We hope you enjoy this excerpt from Barbara’s new book, Remember: A Four-Week Devotional for Eastertide. Says Barbara, “I wrote Remember because I wanted us to savor what Christ did on the Cross a bit more—to walk the roads He walked and learn from the moments He shared with His followers who were just like you and me.” We have limited quantities, so be sure to order yours today. We’re hoping the book will be your new favorite quiet time devotional.
“Jesus’ good news, then, was that the Kingdom of God had come,
and that He, Jesus, was its herald and expounder to men.
More than that, in some special mysterious way,
He was the Kingdom.”
- Malcolm Muggeridge
“I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness,
but will have the light of life.”
- John 8:12
Jesus’ call to those who would be His disciples was simple: “Follow Me.”
The road of life Jesus walked took Him through a difficult family of origin. His father died, His brothers were jealous, and no one understood His different ways or His highly creative nature. And then He left home.
His adult years of ministry saw great moments of victory when people were changed by His words, and others were healed by miracles. Then came the highest moment of all when many followers recognized Him as the Messiah on Palm Sunday.
But ongoing false accusations by enemies, desertions by many who claimed to believe, and finally a torturous death seemed, to His disciples, to nullify the good. So He taught them: “‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you” (John 15:20).
Jesus knows being a disciple won’t be easy. He also knows following Him will be worth it. He will deliver each of us from the deceiver now and will give us eternal life, which begins on earth.
Twelve men answered His call to become disciples, to be His band of brothers, His trainees to lead the charge when He returned to Heaven. One of the first was Andrew, who then found his brother, Simon, and told him, “We have found the Messiah” (John 1:41). Then Andrew took Simon to Jesus.
When Jesus saw Simon, He knew this was the man upon whom He could depend. Jesus said to Simon, “You shall be called Cephas (which means Peter)” (John 1:42). The giving of a new name signaled a new identity, a new future. It confirmed to Peter that he forever belonged to Jesus.
“Follow Me” took Peter and all the disciples through experiences beyond their imagining as they walked a roller coaster road and owned a front row seat to every word and action by their Master. As His understudies or apprentices, they heard every sermon, watched most every healing, saw people raised from the dead, and enjoyed private conversations and explanations with Jesus apart from the crowds. His parables confused them, but His eyes and His heart of compassion were unlike any human.
Soon they all recognized He was the Son of God. Even with the hardships and mysteries, they wouldn’t trade knowing Jesus for any other teacher.
After the Resurrection, some of the disciples returned to Galilee. While they waited for Jesus to show up as He’d promised, they went fishing, for they had no mission or purpose without His daily presence. We looked at this appearance of Jesus last week, but today we revisit the scene in John 21 for another reason.
John did not tell us what happened when Peter reached the shore dripping wet, his garments plastered to his body with seawater. Did he hug Jesus and fall on his face at his feet? Or did he just stare incomprehensibly but with great joy and a huge smile on his face at the God-man whom he loved, who had changed all their lives?
After Jesus asked Peter for the third time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” He added a personal postscript: “… when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go.” The prophecy unnerved Peter and caused every man to catch his breath, for they knew to stretch out your hands meant crucifixion. A somber silence settled on the circle. The fire withheld all warmth.
Then Jesus said, “Follow Me!” The men began to breathe again at the sound of this familiar refrain. Hundreds of times those words were spoken to them and others. This time, the words gave comfort. The reason they left all to follow Him had not changed; instead, it had come full circle. To be a disciple of the risen Master remains the same, but following Jesus to the end will be hard and painful.
Peter heard what Jesus said, but felt very conspicuous being the only one spoken to. All six of his lifelong fishing partners were watching. So to deflect attention, Peter asked, “What about this man [John]?” Jesus replied, “What is that to you? You follow Me!”
Peter, selfish to the core like us, thought that Jesus’ revelation of his destiny was only about and for himself. But Jesus meant it for everyone, for all would get old and all would suffer. Jesus words could have been a sermon titled: “Getting Old Will Be Hard, but Don’t Quit Following Me.”
From the disciples’ first meeting of Jesus, their marching orders were clear: “Follow Me.” Following meant more than “Go where I go.” It also meant become like Me. Love, forgive, serve, restore, and be united with the Father as I am. We, His disciples in another century, follow Him amidst the ups and downs of ordinary lives in a sin-filled world just as Peter and the others did. Our call mirrors theirs, “Follow Me.”
The heart of the gospel is Jesus.
The heart of discipleship is “Follow Me.”
Because Christ is risen, just as He said.
For Eastertide reflection:
1. Most of you have been disciples of Jesus long enough to know the road is not flower-strewn, but pocked with potholes, cracked by flooding waters, rising and falling over terrain swampy or rocky. You’ve walked long enough now to know there is no companion so dear and constant as your Jesus. What insight has He given you this year that was a great gift to your heart and soul?
2. There is an old hymn, “I Have Decided to Follow Jesus.” Look it up in a hymn book or online and read the lyrics. I remember in my childhood or teens singing, “No turning back, no turning back.” Reading or singing these words might be a fresh way to renew your commitment to follow Him as His disciple.
