The answer to the above question, we have
learned, is that He will lead me to serve Him.
As He said to the fishermen, Follow
Me and I will make you fishers of men (Mt. 4:19). Thus we can imagine they knew the day would
come when they would be sent out on their own (or, at the least, two by two) to
preach the message Jesus was preaching.
However we are confident they were not expecting to hear what Jesus
would tell them next.
If I follow Jesus, where will He lead
me?
He will tell me to take up my cross and follow Him to His
cross!
The fishing
for men was likely quite exciting, perhaps invigorating. Here they were, entrusted with Jesus’ message
and given Jesus-like power and authority over disease and demons. Perhaps the thought crossed their minds how
fortunate they were to have been called by Jesus and named apostles. Things could not
be going any better, they may have thought.
But then Jesus comes
to them with the same question that had been considered earlier. First, who
do the crowds say that I am? To this
the disciples presented the usual array of confused answers. Then, But
who do you say that I am? Before
Jesus says any more about the direction of the ministry He is leading they need
to have some clarity about this question.
By the grace of God
Peter has clarity: The Christ of God. God’s
Messiah/ Anointed One. This is as much
truth as anyone can say about Jesus.
This is Who He is; this is the point of the Incarnation; this is the
fulfillment of prophecy.
But notice that Jesus does not seek clarity on this from His
disciples because He wants to be sure they are preaching the right
message. He strictly warned and commanded them to tell this to no one. Everyone needs to come to this truth as God
enables them. Rather, they needed to be
clear on this before, for the first time, He tells them where they are
headed.
The Son of Man must suffer many things, and be
rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be
raised the third day.
No one had this kind of Messianic Expectation. They
thought Messiah would deliver Israel from the Romans. He would be hailed by the nation, including
the leaders. He would rule from
Jerusalem. And since He was here on
earth now all this must be happening soon.
Talk of suffering, rejection and death could not be part of the
plan. And yet, Jesus’ words were clear.
Thus the answer to the question, where will He lead me, was a surprise. They had no idea about raised the third day because they couldn’t get past and be killed. Thus what follows certainly makes sense: if
anyone wants to follow Christ he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and then follow Him!
Let us stop and deeply meditate on how much we
desire to follow Jesus.
No comments:
Post a Comment