“Follow me,
and I’ll help you catch people.” It’s a deceptively simple invitation that
Jesus offered to some fishermen (Matthew 4:18-22). There are no details on how
they will catch those people, no information as to travel plans, and no hint of
who else has been invited to follow, too. Jesus simply invited his first
disciples to “Follow me.” Don’t you wonder sometimes why Peter, Andrew, James,
and John left everything so quickly and followed along? You would think that
they would want to discuss this life-changing invitation for a while before
responding; but if the gospels are any indication, they didn’t even think twice
about it.
Perhaps the
reason is that Jesus’ call was one that invited them to become more than they
were already. Theologian Rob Bell tells us that traveling rabbis were actually
a common sight in first-century Israel. As they traveled, they would invite
people along the way to become their students. But they usually didn’t ask
fishermen! They usually invited bright young men who were studying in the
synagogue to join their group of disciples. For Jesus to invite fishermen to
follow him was very unusual, to say the least! It would be as though Steve
Jobs, that computer genius, had invited a janitor to come and study his
methods! No wonder the fishermen followed right away! They were the least
likely people to be invited to join a rabbis group of students; and they were
honored to be asked.
Those
fishermen thought that they knew what they would be doing in the days ahead. As
they traveled around Galilee, they would sit at the feet of Jesus in the evening and
discuss the scriptures with him. They wouldn’t stray too far from home –
traveling rabbis usually stayed in a fairly small area – and the people they spoke
to would be pretty much like they were: good Jewish men who simply wanted a
deeper understanding of the scriptures. But that’s not how it turned out. As
they followed Jesus, he led them into all kinds of unexpected places! They traveled through Samaria, that land of
heretics where no good Jew would go, and Jesus talked with not a good Jewish
man, but a Samaritan woman! They traveled into gentile territory, into the
region of Tyre and Sidon where Jesus met a gentile woman; and across the Sea of
Galilee where they encountered a madman who lived in a graveyard. And finally, they traveled to Jerusalem, where
Jesus challenged them to follow him all the way to a cross. All of it
was strange country – places where the disciples had never been, and some
places where they never wanted to go! But as they followed Jesus, they found
that he took them outside their comfort zones again and again.
We’re
outside our own comfort zone now, aren’t we? Right now, we’re just like the
disciples, in a strange place where we don’t want to be. Our sanctuary used to
be crammed with people on Sunday mornings. Now, it’s normal for only 30 or so
to gather for worship. That’s half the number of people who gathered to worship
when I first came to this congregation as your pastor 10 years ago. The older people that we have
relied on to lead church activities aren’t here anymore. They aren’t able to
gather with us for worship, or they have passed on into glory. And we’re not
sure where we’re headed. Do we build a multipurpose facility in our recreation park; or do we sell that land? What should we do with our financial investments? And what in the world
will we do if our numbers continue to decline? We’ve never been here before,
and we don’t like it very much!
What’s even
worse is that we have no idea how to proceed. We don’t have a GPS telling us to
“turn left in one quarter of a mile.” We don’t have a road map so that we can
pinpoint where we are. We are like those folks who are in the middle of a
late-fall corn maze. We can’t see over the corn; we don’t have a map to show us
where we are; and we don’t know exactly how to get out. On some days, we’re
afraid that we might be stuck in here forever! And that’s what Jesus’ disciples
probably thought, too, when he led them into some God-forsaken place yet again.
But here’s
the good news. Jesus never abandoned his disciples. He led them into places
that they would rather not go; but he always led them out again. All those
uncomfortable places were temporary. They went through Samaria; and they visited
the gentile regions on the far side of the Sea of Galilee. Even when they followed
Jesus to the cross and they thought it was the end, Jesus showed them the power
of the resurrection! Jesus never leaves us in uncomfortable places – unless, of
course, we decide to abandon Jesus and stay there by ourselves!
Jesus hasn’t
abandoned us, either. He will lead us out of this uncomfortable place where we
find ourselves step by step, day by day, decision by decision. It may be a long
road, and one that we would rather not travel; and we have to trust him as he
guides us. That’s the question that I have for you right now. Do you trust
Jesus to guide us? After all, we don’t know the way out; but Jesus does. And he
is calling us right now to “Follow me.” “Follow me” out of confusion into
clarity. “Follow me” out of darkness into light. “Follow me” out of loneliness
into love. Because that’s our goal, you know. We’re following Jesus towards the
Kingdom of God, where the fullness of love will surround us and everyone will
proclaim that Jesus is Lord. I certainly want to go there! How about you?
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