And he saith unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men. Matthew 4:19
To follow Jesus means than a mere sharing of the same direction as Him, but a true dedication to Him and His message.
No man in his right mind would approach a woman and declare, "hey my name is _______, and I'm your new boyfriend!" Healthy relationships are consensual. Both people meet and over varying amounts of time come to the conclusion that they get along well or are well suited for one another and would enjoy being friends, etc. But when Jesus calls some disciples in the description Matthew gives(John4:18-22,Matthew9:9), He seemingly walks out of nowhere and tells total strangers, "Follow me". Scripture gives us no backstory, no stories are told of Jesus and Peter being childhood friends. Christ gave them a choice by demanding their obedience. Perhaps like the Athenians they had offered devotions to a God unknown to them, and now He whom they ignorantly worshipped, is declared to them. Following Him would be more than seeing miracles-they were able to be with Jesus. Lots of people wanted to see the miracles, to be part of the crowd, but those who were called to follow Him ate with Him, listened to His words, the performances demanded by the crowds, and the deliverance begged by the infirm, the disciples transcended all of these because they followed Him. More to the point, in order to follow Him transcending these were demanded.
Matthew 8:21-22
"And another of his disciples said unto him, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father.
But Jesus said unto him, Follow me; and let the dead bury their dead."
Luke 9:59-60
"And he said unto another, Follow me. But he said, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father.
Jesus said unto him, Let the dead bury their dead: but go thou and preach the kingdom of God."
Many explanations are given of these passages which are allegorical in nature(meaning that they assume Jesus doesn't really mean that you shouldn't go to your father's funeral). However, I have to wonder about that interpretation. Truly Christ's words are harsh if we view it merely from a earthly or temporal position. However, what if we were missing something, using the wrong point of view as it were? If it is true that "only against a backdrop of the yawning abyss of eternity can the immediacy and fragility of existence be understood(1)", then from an eternal view missing your father's funeral isn't harsh, after all your father is no longer present in the body, and what is more important in eternity; burying the body of what was your father or to be about your heavenly father's business? Naturally those who read this will have difficulty with this idea precisely because we have an earthly point of view which elevates the temporary above the eternal things. We must transcend earthly concerns.
Matthew 6:25
"Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?"
Matthew 6:31
"Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?"
Matthew 6:34
"Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day [is] the evil thereof."
Luke 12:22
"And he said unto his disciples, Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat; neither for the body, what ye shall put on."
I will finish this with a quote from my hero in the faith, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, "No man can choose such a life for himself. No man can call himself to such a destiny, says Jesus, and his word stays unanswered. The gulf between a voluntary offer to follow and genuine discipleship is clear." I believe that in a very real sense one of the first steps of discipleship is to transcend our own existence, perhaps only then will God's existence surpass our own. To phrase it differently, we must be second, as the Gospel of John chapter 3 verse 30 "He must increase, but I must decrease."
1. Donald Palmer's description of Kierkegaard's individual's subjective truth and its ability to provoke genuine existence.
Looking at Philosophy, Third Edition.
i apologize that this is a bit of an unfinished thought, i believe it reflect my unfinished state in my attempts to answer my own call to discipleship. i hope that isn't as limp wrist-ed as is sounds!
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