Jesus said, “Follow Me.” So where did everyone go?

All verbs are not created equal.  There are commands that give me a perfectly clear directive: “Eat this meat.”  “Ride this bike.”  “Drink this coffee.  And that coffee, too.”  Makes sense.  You need to do no more than command me and get out the way. 

However, other commands have always eluded me for one reason or another.  “Conjugate this verb.”  Huh?  “Transpose this stanza.”  Will it hurt?  “Wash these windows.”  Silence…  Difficult, confusing, unsavory—whatever the reason, there are commands that seem to constantly elude.

The question I’ve been wrestling with over the last few weeks is this: what kind of command did Jesus give to us when He said, “Follow me”?  Difficult?  Sure.  Confusing?  Maybe…  Unsavory?  Depends on the moment.  Clear, direct, and to the point?  You betcha.  So why are there so few in the “Jesus line,” actually following after Him?

For years, I’ve attributed both my own lack of true pursuit, as well as the very short line of crazies that seem to be actually trying to follow Him, to the challenge of figuring out what that actually looks like in 21^st century North America.  It’s hard for us to really know what Jesus meant for us to do, I reasoned, since His culture is 2000 years removed from ours.  So much of what we have to deal with He didn’t really deal with: you know, money, family, jobs, broken government systems, stressed economies… oh, wait… 

Maybe the challenge is that “following” seems so intangible and personal to us.  After all, Matthew “followed” by leaving behind the tax collector’s booth (Mark 2:14), and Nicodemus “followed” by remaining in the sect of the Pharisees (John 3:9-15, 7:50, 19:39).  Lydia followed with her wealth in tow (Acts 16:14-15)—Ananias and Sapphira tried that, and they didn’t get too far… literally. (Acts 5:1-11)  Does “following” look different for each of us?

As we as a church have wrestled with what Jesus meant to “follow” Him, and what that might look like for the average “dude and dudette” in the good ol’ U.S. of A. in the 21^st century, we’ve come back to seven distinct areas.  Jesus Himself lived them, so it makes sense that He would call us to live them as well.  However, a real commitment to that life radically alters day in and day out living!  I’ll be the first to admit that my family and I are still in the “baby steps” stages of this pursuit, and it’s already led to some head-scratching decisions for us as a family.  However, Paul’s admonition that by forsaking the values of the world and living under the values of Jesus is the only path that leads to the “live that is truly life” (1 Timothy 6:19) is enough to keep us chugging along the path to joy.

What are the seven areas?  So glad you asked!  I’m going to post the first three today, one more tomorrow, and then the last three on Friday.  Stay tuned!

Living a Lifestyle of Worship.  Interestingly, we don’t see Jesus gathering on the Sabbath, singing songs, and then calling that activity “worship.”  Rather, worship for Jesus had a much broader definition—He connected all of life to the reality of the Father’s presence in His life.  “I always do the things that are pleasing to [the Father].” (John 8:29)  Jesus never segmented life—everything fell under the authority and jurisdiction of the Father.  We must do the same.  Our families, our finances, our jobs, our hobbies, our eating, drinking, and chores that we run around and accomplish—each of them are an opportunity either for distraction from the glory of God or for worship.

Having Authentic Community with Believers.  I’m constantly amazed by Christians who claim that the need for deep, transparent community with other brothers and sisters just “isn’t their personality.”  Hebrews 3:12-13 goes as far as to say that without it, our hearts will harden and we’ll fall away!  Jesus Himself shared His deepest struggles to His inner circle of disciples, humbly asking them to pray for Him (Matthew 26:38).  Everything in our world pushes toward surface relationships where we trumpet our strengths and hide our weakness.  Christian community requires a concerted effort to not only do the opposite, but to commit to one another that we’ll continue in that way.

Building on the Foundation of the Word.  Jesus knew His Bible.  Not simply because He was the Author, but by the difficult work of memorization and meditation.  His responses to the temptation of Satan in the wilderness shows a deep knowledge of and meditation on the book of  Deuteronomy (Matthew 4:1-11).  Paul declares that the Word of God is “profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be…equipped for every good work.” (2 Timothy 3:16-17, emphasis added)  In a world that seems to have gone completely mad, we are called back to the solid foundation of the Word—not as a “road map for life” as is so often stated, but rather, as a revelation of the One who is life (John 1:1-4).

Worship, Community, and the Word.  Summarized: love God and love people, often cited as the “Great Commandment.”  (Matthew 22:37-40)  Certainly the specifics of each of these will look different for every follower, but if those of us who intend to follow Jesus get serious about each of these, our lives will become the environments in which Jesus does His incredible work.  Is it hard?  You betcha.  Sometimes it’s “washing the windows” hard.  Sometimes it’s even harder than that.  (See Romans 8:22)  But it’s worth it.  Why?  Because, as Peter said to Jesus after one particularly hard call to follow Him: “Where else would we go?

“You alone have the words of life.” (John 6:68)

This material is taken from the forthcoming book “Follow Me: Discipleship that Moves Us” which will be released in early 2013.