Then Jesus said to his disciples, ‘Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.
Matthew 16:24 NIVUK
Before you follow anyone, there is one critical piece of information you need to know: where they are going.
If they are going where you want to go, all is well. If not, you are guaranteed to get lost.
I once heard of a motorcyclist who was teased by all of his friends because he stayed behind a bus for the entire length of a journey. He replied, ‘Well, it was going to the same place as I was and I didn’t want to get lost.’
If only Christians from our day would at least carry out this check. At least that way we would avoid supporting politicians and leaders who simply ‘aren’t going our way’.
It goes without saying that the Jews had no concept of the social media definition of ‘following’. A Jew who followed a Rabbi or religious teacher literally followed them – everywhere they went. They didn’t just wait for them to come to their town and then go and see them. No, a follower abandoned everything and went everywhere the Rabbi went.
This is what Jesus commanded the disciples to do, and this is what they did. They were not passive followers of Jesus Christ – they were very much active.
So where was Jesus going?
Now, this is a question that truly challenges every Christian.
Because the Bible is very open about this: Jesus came to die (Philippians 2:5-11).
In fact, Jesus is very direct about this with His disciples:
When they came together in Galilee, he said to them, ‘The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men. They will kill him, and on the third day he will be raised to life.’ And the disciples were filled with grief.
Matthew 17:22-23
In fact, Matthew 16:21-22 is clear that not only did the disciples understand what He was saying, but they also found it utterly inconceivable because it did not fit with their idea of what a Messiah would do.
So, yes, Jesus came to seek and to save the lost (Luke 19:10), but He would only achieve this by dying on the cross.
But what about us? Very, very few of us follow Jesus down the Via Dolorosa to a literal cross.
Some Christians are crucified, but most are not.
So how can we follow Jesus?
When we decide to follow Him, there is a part of us that has to die:
Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry.
Colossians 3:5 NIVUK
I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
Galatians 2:20 NIVUK
May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.
Galatians 6:14 NIVUK
What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning, so that grace may increase? By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptised into Christ Jesus were baptised into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his. For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin – because anyone who has died has been set free from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness. For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace.
Romans 6:1-14 NIVUK
We should understand, then, that if we decide to follow Jesus, there has to be a death. And that death is our old life. We must decide to be done with the sin that tries to captivate us, as done as a dead person is done with life, and set out to live a new life.
Jesus Christ has given us an opportunity to live a completely different, much better life. We cannot spoil that opportunity by continually returning to our old, self-destructive ways.
Jesus died a horrifically violent death, bearing our sin, and rose again to live eternally at the right hand of God. We must also put our old life to death, however difficult and traumatic that is for us, and set our course instead to live the new life Jesus has for us.
That is what it means to truly follow Jesus.
Questions
1. What did it mean to follow a Rabbi or teacher in Jesus’ day? How is this relevant for us?
2. What does it mean for us to follow Jesus today?
3. What do you need to ‘put to death’ to truly be able to follow Jesus?
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