Day 31, If I Follow Jesus, Where will He lead Me? Lk. 9:21-26

Following Christ involves a cross.  And a cross serves only one purpose: it is a place, an altar if you will, on which a person dies.  That is why Jesus wanted to know the answer to the question, who do You say that I am, before He predicted His suffering, rejection, death and resurrection.  They needed to know, and we need to know, that the Person who asks us to follow Him to death is worth following.  If He’s John the Baptist or Elijah or another of the prophets, that’s not near enough.  

We should note that our world is just as confused, and likely more so, about the question, who is Jesus?  To Muslims He was a prophet with many wives who did not die on the cross.  In Judaism Jesus was the most influential, and thus the most damaging, of many false Messiahs.  To Christian cults He was an angel who  seemed to be human, or the brother of Satan who excelled as a mere human to godhood so as to inherit and occupy His own planet, and so forth.  To some He is an image on a tortilla or the billboard image of a plate of Pizza Hut spaghetti or the reflection from a porch light onto a car bumper (until the light was turned off and the car moved) and so forth.

(Photo of Banias, in northern Israel, with the cave devoted to the worship of Pan in Jesus’ day, thought to be known as the gates of hell, in the area where it is believed Jesus asked His disciples, who do you say that I am?)

For most people today their idea of Jesus has something to do with what He can do for them.  He’s my friend.  He brings me joy.  For many, many, He is simply the ticket to wealth.  Multitudes of American and Western Christians subscribe to the prosperity gospel or health and wealth theology and they do it with straight faces and three-piece suits and state-of-the-art broadcast theaters.  They are no different than the it would be funny if it weren’t so tragic Cargo Cult of Papua New Guinea after World War II.  These tribes had watched planeload after planeload and parachute after parachute of cargo arrive in the jungle.  And then, when the war ended, all the cargo ended as well.  So a cult arose that involved attempts to call on the god or gods to return.  Islanders carved headphones of wood and used them while sitting in fabricated control towers.  They waved landing signals while standing on runways, lit signal fires and torches, and even built life-size mockups of airplanes.

Here is the question: which of these views of Jesus would be sufficient for any one of us to follow Him to His cross, carrying our cross?  Jesus Himself pointed out the problem of believing in a jesus who is not God’s Anointed, El Shaddai, God Almighty, in the flesh.

·        That jesus cannot give me life so why would I lose my life for his sake (v24).

·        That jesus might give me a lot, but he cannot save my soul (v25).

·        That jesus is not worth standing up for and is not the One who is coming again and before whom I will appear (v26).

Who is Jesus to you?  There are many answers to the question, but only one is right.  Peter had clarity, and followed Jesus to the cross.  Do you have clarity?