Jesus never gave people a list of things to believe about him. He didn't say, "Pray this prayer so you can be with me in heaven when you die." He didn't give us a list of principals by which to live our life. What he did say over and over to people was, "Follow me."
He didn't give people a lot of information about what following him would mean. In fact, it is obvious that most, if not all, of Jesus' first followers began that journey with assumptions and expectations that Jesus didn't meet. Jesus seems to be perfectly fine with the fact that we don't understand all there is to know about him when we start following him. He seems happy to teach us new things about himself and his mission "in route" - along the way.
I continue to be amazed at people today who hear Jesus say, "Follow me," and then have the nerve to do it. Though we preachers today try hard at it, we struggle to find a good marketing plan for “Deny yourself, take up your cross and follow me.” Or “Sell everything give it to the poor and follow me.” (Both things Jesus said). What kind of person “likes” that on Facebook (or anywhere else for that matter)?!
Jesus is demanding enough, but then you've got to put up with his other followers too. That's the thing that may be the hardest about following Jesus. Contrary to some bad advice from preachers, Jesus never intended us to follow him alone. Jesus may love us personally, but never intended for us to follow him privately. Yes, the greatest challenge might be learning how to live in communion with the other weirdoes who said "yes" to following Jesus too. It's hard to practice forgiveness, loving our enemies and serving others unless you're committed to a particular church for a while. Stay with the church long enough and Jesus will give you plenty of opportunities to forgive and be forgiven.
This week I met a man who told me he had been angry with God for three years because he had prayed for his mother to be healed of breast cancer and she was not. This left the man feeling abandoned and betrayed. God had not heard or answered his prayer, at least not the way he was hoping. In this man's mind this meant God is either mad at him for something, doesn't care or doesn’t' exist at all.
Later I recalled the words of a man in his 60's who had been following Jesus all his life. I remember him saying to a young man struggling with unanswered prayer. "Hey, I have followed Jesus for a lot longer than you, and I promise, you've only just begun to be offended by Jesus." While Jesus encourages us to ask for whatever we want in prayer, he won't be controlled by us as if he were a genie bound by our three best wishes (even if our wish is for the life of one we love). Jesus seems at the ready to shatter our preconcived ideas about who God is and how God ought to operate.
While listening to this man pour out his hurt and anger, I recalled the prayer that Jesus himself had memorized and prayed while he was being executed by the very people he came to love. "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, so far from my cries of anguish?" Psalm 22:1 Who makes up a God who prays like that?! A God who suffers?!
I found a strange sense of hope for this guy knowing that Jesus (God himself) had experienced some of his own feelings of abandonment. Interestingly, this same Psalm ends with these hopeful words that echo resurrection and restoration. "To him, indeed, shall all who sleep in the earth bow down; before him shall bow all who go down to the dust, and I shall live for him." Psalm 22:29
Ah, maybe this sadness, confusion, anger, division and aloneness don't have the last word after all.
Could you follow a God with hope like that? Jesus is still calling, "Follow me."
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