When opportunity knocks, we must open the door and seize it.
Jesus was walking by the lakeside. There was a brief eye contact. Then, there were a few words — kindly expressed but urgent:
“Come, follow me!”
Mark tells us:
“At once they left their nets and followed him” (Mark 1:17,18).
Here was an opportunity seized — to do good.
At another time, Mark tells us that Jesus spoke the same urgent words: “Come, follow me!”
But this time there was a different response:
“At this the man’s face fell. He went away sad” (Mark 10:21,22). Here was an opportunity lost.
Another time, large crowds from Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea and the region across the Jordan followed Jesus (Matt 4:25). Another opportunity seized, to their benefit. But in another place John sadly tells us:
“Many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him” (John 6:66).
A wasted opportunity, thrown away and lost, perhaps forever.
Leaders and followers: that is human society everywhere. Jesus went about doing good, and many followed him. But so many lost the heart to follow when the way got rough. And many had wrong motives.
Not everybody follows a leader for the same purpose, or with the same motive. Many follow politicians because they feel it will get them a spot at the top. When there’s a riot or a demonstration, some follow to make their point, and some just to make trouble. Most people follow leaders, even Jesus, to become ‘better off’. In any religious body, including our own, some join and even become leaders so that people will look up to them and give them praise. In a church, we can achieve a status that the world would not give us otherwise. It’s an easy road to the top. John warns us that religious people are especially vulnerable to unworthy motives in their following:
“They loved praise from men more than praise from God” (John 12:43).
There is no doubt that, throughout his earthly life and ministry, Jesus had an enormous following. Some people followed Jesus to hear his words, and found comfort and strength to cope with their difficult lives. Some followed relentlessly to condemn him, because what he said and did was new and threatening to them. Some clung to him because they got their fill from his generosity (John 6:26).
Why do we follow Jesus Christ? Is it so that people will look up to us and give us respect? Or do we follow him because he, and he alone, can give us life?
If we follow him to this festive table with its bread and wine, we will hear him say:
“Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. This is the bread that came down from heaven. He who feeds on this bread will live forever” (John 6:53,54,58).
There is double symbolism here. “Flesh and blood”, the human body and life of Jesus, of which we obviously cannot partake, are represented by edible food, bread and wine, which we can share.
But these are still further symbolic of his commandments, his spirit, his teaching and his life:
“The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing” (John 6:63).
What we do here is not a ritual act, nor is it just a ceremony we go through every week. We follow Jesus to this table because in spirit he is here, and that is where we want to be and ought to be if we are his. It is a matter of identification. It is like baptism:
“Unless I wash you,” Jesus told a reluctant Peter, “you have no part with me” (John 13:8).
There is no point in following Jesus unless we are prepared to follow him all the way, right here to this table. Some find his teaching ‘hard’, his call difficult to accept, and so are offended (John 6:60,61). For many of us, coming to this table is very inconvenient, costly, and perhaps even risky. Is it worth making the effort? Do we lose anything by not being here?
“ ‘You do not want to leave too, do you?’ Jesus asked the Twelve. Simon Peter answered him: ‘Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We believe and know that you are the Holy One of God!’ ” (John 6:67-69).
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One