Walking in the Jesus Way
Walking in the Jesus Way by Rev. L. John Gable
November 4, 2018
Jesus’ call to discipleship must have been clear and compelling. Disregard any notion that He walked around with a glowing orb around His head or even that He must have had an extraordinary charisma and power of persuasion such that He attracted crowds wherever He went. In Matthew’s telling in our Gospel lesson this morning, this encounter with would-be disciples takes place before He has even preached a single sermon or performed any act of miracle or healing which is all the more reason to suggest that Jesus’ call to discipleship must have been clear and compelling, such that fishermen like Peter and Andrew immediately dropped their nets and followed Him, as did the sons of Zebedee, James and John, who left their nets, and their father still in the boat, in order to pick up and follow this itinerant rabbi named Jesus.
So similar is this to the call of God which Abram received which caused him, his wife Sarai and their family to leave their home in Ur and set off on a journey that would eventually lead them to the land of Canaan, the land God promised would belong to him and his descendants, despite the inconvenience that they were a couple of nomadic, septuagenarians who were childless.
Look closely at both of these call stories and the similarities are striking. There are very few details given in either of them. Nothing is said of the qualifications of those who are being called. The only thing any of these individuals had to go on was the confidence that it was, in fact, God who was calling them, and that, in and of itself, made the call they heard clear and compelling. In both stories, those who were being called were being asked to abandon every element of their identity in order to establish a new identity. Abram was told to leave country and kindred and his father’s house, the fishermen were asked to leave home and occupation. These are the very things which we look to still today to establish our identities, and to what end? In order that they might find a new identity as followers of God, as people of faith.
In our Genesis story God says to Abram, later to be renamed Abraham, and Sarai to be called Sarah as they claim their new identities, “Go to the land that I will show you.” Surely they must have asked, what land? Where are we going? only to hear God answer “I’ll let you know when you get there.” Similarly, Jesus’ entire appeal to discipleship is a two word invitation: “Follow Me!”, which surely begs the question: Where are we going? What will we be doing? When should I say I’ll be back? Yet, none of those questions are answered, except to say, “Follow Me” and that was sufficient. While admittedly lacking in detail, Jesus’ call to discipleship was clear and compelling and effective, and it is still today.
Jesus stands apart in His understanding of the teacher/student, mentor/ mentee relationship. Unlike other rabbis of His day, He doesn’t wait for would-be students to approach Him, He seeks them out and calls them to come and follow. He doesn’t seem to look for the most successful, the most brilliant, the most talented, even those with the most potential; rather He looks for the most receptive and willing. He doesn’t then give them lessons to learn and texts to memorize or examinations to pass; He simply says, “Stop doing what you are doing and living the way you are living, and come, follow Me.” The teaching and mentoring that Jesus would be doing would not be carried out in the classroom or the lecture hall, but as they walked together “along the way”. In this, Jesus’ invitation, then and now, is clear and compelling: “Follow ME”: walk with ME, listen to ME, learn from ME, come along side ME. Learn how to live life from ME.
Theologian Dale Bruner writes, “Jesus summons with irresistible authority and people respond with radical obedience. In this way they represent all future believers whom Jesus irresistibly summons to follow Him.” Friends, the call to discipleship is an invitation to walk in the way of Jesus, and He continues to extend that invitation to us, and through us, today.
In the past several weeks we have been talking about the life of faith and way of sharing our faith with others that is genuine, not programmatic or formulaic; and invitational, as we invite people to walk alongside us as we walk in the way of Jesus. Seen in this way, evangelism is really nothing more and nothing less than our desire to introduce someone else to one of our friends.
If I was going to try to sell you something, say a new refrigerator, it would be really important for me to know everything there is to know about that refrigerator so that I could answer any questions you might possibly have, so that I could convince you to buy it. If we think of evangelism in this way then we feel it incumbent upon us to know everything there is to know about God, so that we can answer any question that anyone could possibly ask us, which of course is self-defeating because it is an impossible task. However, what if, in our desire to share our faith with someone else, we think of it as being less like a sales pitch and more like an introduction to a friendship. I don’t need to know everything about the person I want to introduce you to, I simply need to have the desire to introduce you, as a friend to my friend, who just happens to be named Jesus.
Such an introduction may be as simple, and yet as intentional as, inviting someone else to “walk alongside us” as we “walk in the way of Jesus.” You see, just as Jesus calls us to follow Him and be His disciples, so He also calls us to be disciples who make disciples, and in order to do that, we need to be walking in the way of Jesus ourselves. Our desire then as we share our faith with others is that they too will want to start walking in the way of Jesus. So how do we do that?
Paul Scherer once wrote, “It is presumptuous of me to assume that someone, after following me around all day, will suddenly fall down on their knees, cross themselves and recite the Apostles’ Creed.” Quite true, however, it is not at all presumptuous of us to think that were someone to follow us around for a day or a week that they would be able to see some clear evidence of what it means to walk in the way of Jesus.
If we are going to be disciples that make disciples then our lifestyles have to reflect a life of discipleship. There should be certain practices or behaviors that others could see in us and so surmise to be part of what it means to “walk in the way of Jesus.” We have spoken of several of these practices in recent weeks: being regular in worship; having an active prayer life; spending time in the Word of God; engaging in acts of service and fellowship; demonstrating a commitment to justice and generosity, and the like. “Following” Jesus means “being with” Him, “spending time” with Him as we would with any close friend. I love the way Dallas Willard puts it when he writes, “If I am Jesus’ disciple that means I am with Him to learn from Him how to be like Him”, and all of these are examples of ways that we can “be with” Jesus, not just for a day, or even a lifetime, but for an eternity.
Do you remember when we talked about the Great Commission, “Go and
make disciples” is perhaps better translated, “Go, and in your going, make disciples”? We can say the same about Jesus’ call to “follow”, not as a singular act or a momentary decision, but as embarking on a “lifelong adventure of following”, of “walking in the way of Jesus.” And in our walking we can invite still others to walk along with us and we don’t have to be very far along the way to start doing so. You see, just as Jesus invited Peter and Andrew, so He invites us to be “fishers of others for the Kingdom of God”; that is, to be disciples who make disciples.
One of my favorite stories is of the missionary whose Jeep broke down on the way to a remote village in the jungles of Africa. The missionary and his native driver began to hike along the narrow road carved through the jungle. As the day wore on the road narrowed to only a foot path until at last it was strangled all together by the dark jungle. The native guide began to hack through the dense brush with a machete as the missionary nervously followed behind. After several torturous hours the missionary could restrain himself no longer and cried out, “Are you sure this is the way to the village?” The native stopped abruptly and turned around, his lungs heaving and his body glistening with sweat. He then said in a calm, clear voice, “Listen to me. There is no way. I am the way. Follow me.”
Friends, Jesus is the Way, and He invites us to “follow” Him. He invites us to “walk alongside Him” and to invite others to do the same. His call to discipleship is as clear and compelling today as it was long ago in the land of Ur or beside the Sea of Galilee. Just as “the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step” so does the process of becoming a follower of Jesus; it begins with one simple step, as simple as silently praying, “Jesus, I would like to be one of Your disciples. I want to follow You now and always, give me the faith and courage to do so.” So begins the new life of walking in the way of Jesus.
Prayer:
O Lord, You have called us to walk in Your way. Some among us have never responded to Your invitation, may we do so today. Others of us have wandered far from Your path, welcome us back. Still others of us have walked with You a long time, encourage us by Your Spirit, to continue on. Give to each of us faith sufficient to follow where You lead us and open eyes and hearts to invite others to follow in Your way. In, through and for the sake of Christ, we pray. Lord, hear our prayer.