Message 01-13-08
Series: Following
Scripture: Matthew 4:12-22
Title: Follow My Leader
“Follow My Leader” was my favorite book when I was a boy. It’s the story of a boy who is blinded in a fire cracker accident and what his life is like after the accident. At first he’s bitter and angry, but he finds help and discovers he is able to cope with the loss of his sight and he also discovers that he doesn’t lose his friends. But the key that opens life to him is he’s introduced to a dog. The dog is a seeing-eye dog who becomes his constant companion. The dog’s name when he arrives is “Sirius”. He’s named after the dog star and the dog in the myth of Orion the hunter who’s dog follows him into the stars to become a constellation. But the boy, when he receives the dog changes the animal’s name. The dog won’t be following him. This dog will always be leading. So he names the dog “Leader.”
I like that image. Here’s this servant, the dog, who in serving becomes the leader. He is a leader as a servant and his name reflects that. His service is leading. That is our image of Jesus. He’s our servant who in serving becomes our leader. As people who are blind to the kingdom of God, he shows us how to get in and how to get around, as long as we hold on to him.
Rob Bell is a popular Christian speaker right now and he talks about this scene in a message I heard once. He describes the importance of Rabbis, teachers, in the time of Jesus. For a rabbi to choose you as a disciple was a great honor. It was the kind of thing a father hoped would happen to one of his sons. Rob Bell suggests that this would be the reason we see James and John simply get up and leave their father. Bell says that Zebedee would be kicking them out of the boat he’s so excited. He’s getting them moving because this was an amazing moment in the life of his boys.
The word that’s been passed down to us is that John the disciple was the youngest of the group, some where around 17 years old. That may be true. There’s no reason to discount it. And there’s no reason to discount the idea that Zebedee took great pride in the understanding that a respected and known rabbi was calling his boys to follow, to become disciples. There’s no reason to discount the idea that Jesus was known well in the area of Capernaum.
But when you come to the story of Peter and Andrew, you have to shift gears a little. From everything we know of Peter, we get a different picture. This is a business man, a guy who’s been at it long enough to have a house, be married, have servants who work for him. There’s no reason to think that Peter was a boy or even boyish in hearing this call from Jesus. For Peter this would have been a life-change, a major shift of responsibilities, a decision to live in a new direction.
It’s important to understand that different people, of different ages and different backgrounds were the first disciples gathering around Jesus. It’s important to understand the choices they clearly made in their lives, as far as we can tell, and what it cost for them to follow Jesus. We need to understand that there may have been teenagers following Jesus, but we also need to know that there may have been 30 somethings mixed in. We also have to remind ourselves that the original 12 disciples were different from the rest of the people who followed Jesus. We know that not everyone who became a follower of Jesus left their employment. Radically altering your life in becoming a follower of Jesus may include staying where you are. We have the examples of soldiers, politicians, teachers, lawyers and others who followed Jesus, but didn’t leave home. That’s important for us to know.
Not all of us are going to walk out into the world as an itinerant missionary when we follow Jesus. But that’s not the way it is and that’s not the way it’s ever been since the time of Jesus.
The person who follows Jesus is the person who gives their heart to Jesus and discovers that Jesus is alive and active in the world. Last week we celebrated the first baptism using our new baptismal font and I spoke about what baptism means. Through baptism we publicly declare that we are following Jesus. It’s kind of like being in love and deciding to get married. We don’t fall in love at the time of marriage – we declare a living reality in marriage. We declare “I will partner with this person in the creating of life, in facing the storms of life, in creating the kingdom of God.” There’s no promise of what will be produced. We can’t promise how good it will look or whether other people may be excited by it. What we are promising is our commitment to be a partner for the other person and that through that partnership we will create life as God allows it.
Today “partnership” is kind of left out of many marriages. Today life must be fulfilled before the partnership is entered. Today many marriages are between people who have had to create life – get through school, get well into the job, build up the bank account, buy the house, buy the car – before they will enter a partnership. So partnership is not really what they’re looking for. They aren’t looking to partner with someone in order to create life. Many people seem to be adding on another element of achievement – as if “now” they can get married. They’ve reached a level of security so that they don’t have to worry about being dependent in a partnership.
I can understand why people hesitate before choosing to become a follower of Jesus. Our society is not seeking to create partnerships but individuals. We are seeking to first be “who we are” and to get “what we need”, before we are giving ourselves to other people. The command of Jesus to love others as you love yourself is a demand that seems counter-intuitive in our society. That’s why people who do that seem so remarkable to us. When Bill Gates sets up his foundation with the determination to create well-being it catches our attention. When Warren Buffet gives billions to the Gates Foundation to support the kind of work they are involved in, it catches our attention. But for a lot of people in our society when it catches their attention, it only holds their attention long enough for them to come to the conclusion that as soon as I make 60 Billion dollars, I’ll do things like that, too.
Jesus calls us to partner with him when we have nothing. That’s the way some marriages used to start, with nothing except a direction and a partnership. That’s what Jesus offers – a direction and a partnership. When Jesus gets to the end of his ministry that’s all he offers at that point as well – “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. So, therefore, go and preach the Gospel to all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey all that I have commanded you. And, lo, I am with you, even to the end of the age.” Direction – partnership – these are what Jesus offers people who follow him.
Can you trust Jesus? That becomes the question. Can you trust that he knows the right direction and can you trust his partnership? Can you trust that once you start down this road, you’ll be going the way you should go and that as you do it, no matter what you face he’ll be there with you? Can you trust Jesus? Trusting Jesus is going to demand a lot from you. That’s important to know. Trusting Jesus is going to demand a lot from you.
Luke 14:25-33
Large crowds were traveling with Jesus, and turning to them he said: "If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters—yes, even his own life—he cannot be my disciple. And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.
"Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Will he not first sit down and estimate the cost to see if he has enough money to complete it? For if he lays the foundation and is not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule him, saying, 'This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.'
“Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Will he not first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand? If he is not able, he will send a delegation while the other is still a long way off and will ask for terms of peace. In the same way, any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple.”
There’s a lot of ways to understand those words, but one way is to realize that Jesus is telling us that before we claim to follow him we better get clear on what’s involved so that we don’t end up embarrassing God.
You know, we’re all going to embarrass God. We’re all going to screw up and mess up and that’s understood. I’m not suggesting that we can get onboard with Jesus and do life amazingly well. But at the same time, when we come to the place of joining in the direction and partnership with Jesus, when we come to the place of saying I’m following Jesus, we set out to grow in maturity.
When people hear Jesus’ words of “hating” our parents and family, they usually get all caught up in the word “hate”. How can you hate and still be a nice person for Jesus? But Jesus didn’t speak his commands to us as rules, but as realities. He is not giving us a rule where we need to figure out how to hate our family and friends and still be a nice person. Jesus isn’t giving us rules. He’s giving us a picture of how life works. Jesus is saying – unless you give up all this “me” stuff, all this it’s all about me – where I came from, the life I’m building for myself, the connections I have that make me feel secure and safe – you can’t really take a step into the direction and partnership I’m offering.
Jesus is saying, “Face reality. Get into reality with me.” What Jesus is offering is the chance to grow into maturity as a real human being back in touch with God, someone who deals with reality. He doesn’t open the door to “how to fix your life.” Discipleship is not about how to be the best parent or the best husband or wife – how to make sure your life is good and nice. Discipleship is about facing the world in all its wildness and walking with Jesus in the direction of God. Discipleship is about creating the kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven. Discipleship is not about “spiritual sweetness” that’s going to make everyone feel good and be good. Discipleship is about living a life that teaches others how significant they are to God.
There’s a famous story about John Sculley, who was the president of Pepsi until he was approached by Steve Jobs who was getting Apple computer together. Jobs wanted Sculley to work with him and after a big conversation in which Sculley turned Jobs down, Jobs said to him, “Do you want to sell sugar water for the rest of your life or do you want to come with me and change the world.”
Jesus says to us, “Count the cost. Take a hard look at what you’ll be missing. You can either come with me and change the world or you can spend your life making money, and living in a nice neighborhood and work to obtain everything you want… and go to hell.”
