You Follow Me
The very end of the Gospel of John has a neat little story that I think holds great meaning for us if we listen. It starts like this:
“[17] He saith unto him the
third time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? Peter was grieved because he
said unto him the third time, Lovest thou me? And he said unto him, Lord, thou
knowest all things; thou knowest that I love thee. Jesus saith unto him, Feed
my sheep.
[18] Verily, verily, I say unto thee, When thou wast young, thou
girdedst thyself, and walkedst whither thou wouldest: but when thou shalt be
old, thou shalt stretch forth thy hands, and another shall gird thee, and carry
thee whither thou wouldest not.
[19] This spake he, signifying by what death he should glorify God. And
when he had spoken this, he saith unto him, Follow me.” John 21:17-19 KJV
Verse 17 is finishing up another subject; I left it in so that you could see that Jesus was talking to Peter. He then gives Peter a prophecy about the end of his life, and concludes with a very simple command: “Follow me.”
Now tell me, is that a complicated thing that Jesus asked Peter? I don’t think so; it’s one of the most straightforward things Jesus could have said. “Follow me.” But Peter quickly brings John into the equation:
“[20] Then Peter, turning about,
seeth the disciple whom Jesus loved following; which also leaned on his breast
at supper, and said, Lord, which is he that betrayeth thee?
[21] Peter seeing him saith to Jesus, Lord, and what shall this man do?”
John 21:20-21
At the end of the day, however, the only thing that matters is what you yourself do; Jesus then brings it back into focus:
“[22] Jesus saith unto him, If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? follow thou me.” John 21: 23 KJV
Maybe a modernized version would read something like this: “What I do with him isn’t your problem. You follow me.”
Have you made up your mind that no matter what you will follow Jesus? Things will get tough, way tougher than they are today. All our questions, all we go through will still come back to the same simple statement.
“If we have to go through the Tribulation – is it a mid-trib rapture?”
“You follow me.”
“What about the wrath, will we still be around?”
“You follow me.”
“But what if my friends and family forsake me, thinking I’m a religious nut?”
“You follow me.”
“What if it
seems like You have forgotten about us and no longer care?”
“Follow me anyway.”
And that is why I no longer really care about a lot of the little details that await us in the future. All the prophecies will come to pass, but they may come in different ways than we expect, yet they will be correct down to the smallest detail. They are legitimate questions that we ask, don’t get me wrong, but the big question is whether we will follow Jesus no matter how tough and strange things look to us.
Will you follow Jesus no matter what?