Follow Me (Lent 1 2025) - Luke 4:1-14

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I remember when I was a kid—playing ‘Follow the Leader,’ a game where the point of being the leader was to be as unpredictable and as inventive as possible. To go stomping ankle-deep through the creek, crawling through the tire swing, or standing and spinning until you were dizzy, and everybody else had to imitate what you did or they were ‘out.’ You didn't wanna be out. You wanted to stay in the game to the end.  

I remember in school, as a kid and later in seminary—following instructions. Do this. Do that. Do them in this order. Colour the apple red. Format your citations in the Chicago Turabian style. Print here. Sign there. If I followed the instructions, I could get what I wanted: approval, a good grade, a big smiley face sticker on my red apple.  

When my husband and I go travelling—we follow the tour guide. They will just walk away from the group, holding a flag over their head above the crowd, leading us through the unfamiliar street until we reach the place where we can see the memorial plaque on the building where bubble gum was invented, or where the ballpoint pen was first used. We stay close to the tour guide so we can hear what they're saying. If I follow the tour guide, I get where I'm going, and I hear the stories that I want to hear. 

Sometimes when we are out for a walk in the woods with a group of people—I follow the hiking group (this is very me, time and time again) near the back. Not because I'm having trouble keeping up, but in case somebody else is struggling. Very often I walk with somebody who needs company, who needs a little encouragement, who doesn't want to be left behind on their own. I follow from behind so I can be there for someone else.  

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Following is what humans do. It’s how we learn. It's how we learn to fit in.  

From very early on in our lives, when we walk into a room full of people we look around to see what everybody else is doing. Are they speaking quietly? Are they talking loud and laughing? Are they standing in groups? Sitting? Standing in line? We look around, and we follow what’s happening in the room.  

Following can be a necessary thing, like changing your clocks once a year just because everybody else is changing their clocks.  

Following can be a good thing, like buying Canadian as many of us are doing right now. Humans follow. 

Jesus understands that. Through His entire human life, He issued the invitation: follow Me. 

Who did Jesus invite to follow? To whom did he say, “Come. Come on! Come where I'm going. Follow me.” 

• He invited ordinary people. Peter and Andrew, James and John were fisherman. Bluecollar workers, living in a town probably not much bigger than ours, on the shore of a big lake like ours. These are guys who came home from work smelling like fish. They had calluses on their hands, splinters dug in from working hard all day long. Jesus said, “follow me,” and they followed Him.  

• Jesus invited troublemakers to follow Him. People who thought they were doing the right thing, but were definitely not going in the right direction. Like Levi (also known as Matthew) and Simon the Zealot. Two men guaranteed to butt heads. I bet they had some debates and arguments in the evenings. Levi was on the payroll of the invading and occupying Roman army. Simon the Zealot had come out of a group of people whose compatriots were the target when Rome burned Jerusalem. A collaborator and a rebel. Jesus invited them both, “follow me.”  

• Jesus invited people who were weary and burdened, who had been on the road for a long time, and we're getting tired.  

Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. Matthew 11:28-30 

In the literature from around the same time that Jesus was living it’s easy to see that in that in Greek and Roman culture, humility was not a virtue. Humility was a weakness. If you were humble, it was because you were unimportant. Because you were subservient. Because you were a loser. But Jesus says, “I am humble. My yoke is easy—it fits well across your shoulders. It is made for you, it’s what you are made for. Follow me.” 

• Jesus invited children. For us, that doesn't sound like such a big deal, but in that culture looking after somebody else's kids was basically a bad investment. There were no laws in place to protect children. In the centuries around the time of Christ, it was perfectly acceptable to take unwanted newborns and abandon them. Just walk off and leave them somewhere, either in town where they might be found by somebody who would take them in and raise them until they were useful and they could be sold for a profit, or out of town where they would not be found. Jesus didn't just say, ‘Don't be mean to kids.’ He said, ‘These are who my kingdom is made of. Let them come.”

  

• Jesus invited people who were courageous to follow him.  

Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone wants to come after me, they must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for my sake will find it.” Matthew 16:24-25 

Taking up your cross was a one way trip. Taking up your cross meant it was over. You were no longer you. You were just a job for the soldiers to do, and when you were done, they went home. But Jesus says, “Take up that cross and carry it.”  

Take up my yoke because it's easy.  

Take up my cross because it's not. 

 

• Jesus invited everybody.  

Now judgment is upon this world; now the prince of this world will be cast out. and I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw everyone to myself.” He said this to indicate the kind of death he was going to die. John 12:31-33 

In our scripture focus, the enemy says to Jesus, “All these nations have been given to me. All this authority has been given to me,” and he is not lying. The prince of the earth has authority on the earth. Jesus says, ‘The prince of this world is going to get the boot. He's going to be gone and I—when I am lifted up to die, when I am lifted up on a cross of shame and humiliation and torture, when I am lifted up on that cross to die—I'm going to draw everyone to me.’ That makes no sense to the disciples. They've seen what happens when people take up crosses and it is not good. It is not attractive, and people do not want to follow it. Still, the cross is Jesus’ invitation to all.  

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So I follow Jesus.  

I follow Jesus like I follow a hiking group. I've accepted His invitation to be part of this company of believers who have said yes to Him, and who are all together following Him. I am happy, most of the time, to tag along at the back of the pack. British writer Adrian Plass (whose books I highly recommend) puts it like this: I am fine with staying “...at the back of the expedition to tie shoelaces, to encourage the fat ones, and the slow ones, and the ones whose feet hurt rather than pushing triumphantly to the front of the line so you can be the first to the ultimate destination.” I follow Jesus like I follow a hiking group, more often than not: bringing up the rear. 

I follow Jesus like I follow a tour guide. I watch for the flag that He holds high above the crowd as He presses through and makes a path against the flow of traffic through streets I do not know. I follow Him, staying as close as I can so I can hear His voice.  

I follow Jesus like I follow instructions—step by step, knowing that sometimes there is a right way and a wrong way. Knowing that He has the authority to say, “this, then that, like this.” That He has the authority to bestow my reward.  

I follow Jesus like I played Follow the Leader, watching closely as He dances and climbs. As He starts and stands still. As He runs and crawls. As He adapts and bends. As He splashes in puddles of grace, spreading the droplets everywhere. I follow Him knowing that He does not demand of me anything He has not done first. 

The season of Lent—these 40 days before Easter—it's a reminder of why and how I follow Jesus.  

I follow the leader. I follow the instructor. I follow the example. I follow the way. 

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