"'Follow Me!' What Does That Mean?"

Mark 2:14 (ESV)

And as he passed by, he saw Levi the son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, “Follow me.” And he rose and followed him.

To me the stories of Jesus calling His disciples are amazing stories.  Jesus comes to Levi (you may know him as Matthew) sitting in the tax collector’s booth… He comes to James and John, Peter and Andrew by their fishing boats and nets… He says to each of them, “Follow Me!”  Now here is the part that startles me.  They do it.  Levi “rose and followed Him.”  Of Peter and Andrew Matthew writes that “Immediately they left their nets and followed him.”  Wow.  His call was so powerful, that they just leave their past lives behind to follow Him.  Yet their reactions are not the real shocking part of this story.  His are.  Jesus called them to be His disciples, to follow Him.  Do you want to hear something even more shocking?  He has also called you and me.

So, what does His calling mean?  Well first off, it means He wants you and me!  Think of how amazing it is that Jesus calls Levi.  He was a tax collector… known as someone who had betrayed his people… who cheated them, even as he worked for the hated Romans.  People despised tax collectors.  No one wanted to be his friend, except maybe other tax collectors.  No one that is, except Jesus. Jesus want him. That’s startling.  That’s gracious. Well, Jesus calls you and me as well. That’s just as undeserving and gracious.  I remember back in my dating years.  I was always afraid to ask the girl out.  I could think of all sorts of reasons why she would never want to go out with me.  Well, it’s the same in our relationship with the Lord.  We are, as we confess on Sundays, “poor miserable sinners.”  There is no good reason why Jesus should want you or me. Indeed there are all sorts of reasons why He shouldn’t.  Yet He does. At baptism, He came to you and me.  “Follow Me!”  He said.  “I have called you by name.  You are mine.”  For no other reason but that He is gracious and forgiving, Jesus wants you and me.

Secondly, His calling to follow is a call to trust Him.  He calls us to follow but He doesn’t always tell us where He is taking us or what will happen.  Most of the time, we don’t know those things but He does!  Think of Abraham, “The Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you.”  Abram had no idea where God was taking him, or what would happen there.  He only knew that God knew and that was enough.  When I woke up on Feb. 24, 1996 I expected to spend the day doing pre-marital counseling, and getting ready for Sunday Worship.  I didn’t know that Linda and I would rush to may parent’s home because my dad would have a heart attack.  I didn’t know that my dad would die that day.  But God did.  He knew that He was about to take me on a journey of grief and pain.  He knew… and as I learned – that was enough.  He would use that journey through grief to shape me as a better Pastor.

You see, God had a higher purpose.  That’s the third thing about Jesus calling us.  His calling means that God has a greater purpose for our lives than just making it through each day.   St. Paul wrote to the Corinthians that Jesus  “died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.”   Our purpose is follow Jesus… to live for Him… to serve and love others as He has loved us.  For the disciples that meant leaving their present occupation to be Christ’s Apostles.  More often, however, that means that you stay right where we are, carry out our callings in His service.  It is said that a shoe maker once asked Martin Luther, “Now that I believe in Christ what should I do?”  Luther is said to have answered, “Make the best shoes that you can.”  Our lives are now about living God to His glory, not our own!

Finally, to follow Him, means that on this journey through life, we are never alone.  He is always with us.  I personally hate going on trips alone.  When we were in Europe, all the trips we took we were made richer by the fact that Linda was on the trip with me.  When Jesus calls us to follow Him implicit in that invitation is the promise, “I will be with you always.”  He will be there to talk with in prayer, to comfort us in times of grief, to bring us back on to the right path when we stray… to pick us up when we fall… to rejoice with us at the great moments and hold us… to lead us through all of life.

Isn’t that amazing?  Think of  how God changes our lives through that simple call, “Follow Me!”