John 21:19b

S “Then Jesus told him, ‘Follow me.’”

O This is one of the last things that Jesus says to Peter. This is also the first thing that He says to Peter. It’s interesting that Jesus is still asking Peter to follow Him. Peter had committed his life, the last 3 years, to Jesus. To following Him. To trusting Him. To believing Him. Now, just when Peter and the rest of the disciples had given up hope, Jesus says these two famous words to him again. Follow me. It’s also interesting that we find Peter in the same place that Jesus first found him: fishing. It’s like Peter just went back to his old life. But Jesus wasn’t done with him. He had much more for Peter to do. He wants Peter to follow Him, even when He is not physically there.

A I always thought it would have been so much easier to follow Jesus when He was here on the earth. I thought that the disciples were so lucky to have seen, touched, and heard Jesus. It would be easy to follow Him if you saw Him. But here we see Jesus asking Peter to follow Him, even though Jesus was leaving. He was ascending to Heaven, but wasn’t done with His disciples. They are still His disciples. Still following Him. Just like me and you. We are following Jesus, even though He’s not here physically, His call to us is to follow Him. His call to us is “love Him” and “feed His sheep”. And, according to Jesus, we’re even more blessed because “Blessed are those who haven’t seen me and believe anyway.” (John 20.29)

P Lord, help me to follow you, as if you were literally here with me. Help me to know you so intimately that I could just walk right behind you. You’re not done with me. I’m still your disciple. Your student. Continue to change me and help me grow. I’m committed to loving you and following you. Amen.

1. This entry was posted on Monday, December 24th, 2007 at 12:00 am and is filed under Journal Entry, Ryan Saari. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.