Note: You can watch this teaching on CrossWalk’s YouTube channel.

Rob Bell did an awesome job in this Nooma Video, Dust, explaining what “Follow Me!” meant to Jesus’ original audience. It was a huge deal for Jesus to invite “everyday” people to become his disciples, and to do so implied that Jesus believed the disciples could actually learn the Way of Jesus and live it out.  Further, at one point Jesus said to them that they would do even greater things than he did!

Remember that the Way of Jesus wasn’t simply to be a nice person, but rather to bring much needed change to the world with shalom (the means), with the goal of shalom (the end). This was what the Kingdom of God was all about.  This deep peace and harmony, this real wellbeing for everyone and everything would challenge the status quo and threaten ways of the world that are not shalom.  Largely, systems that use power, intimidation, and domination, which favor those with more power over those with less, would be called out, because, simply, such a paradigm is incongruent with the nature of God.  This kind of mission would require great courage because eventually those using power to ingratiate themselves at the expense of others would do what it takes to protect their power by attempting to eliminate the threat, usually with some sort of violent behavior.  Slander, lies, and even physical harm were experienced by Jesus.  What happened to the Master would happen to his disciples. And yet, despite the challenges, the mission would be worth it and it would work, no matter how awful they were treated.  Why? Because the Kingdom of God is what is real and true and everlasting, and the kingdoms of this world always pass away. One leads to life and living, the other death and dying.  The “Follow Me!”, ironically, was an invitation to lay down one’s life for something much greater than oneself. Not violent, suicidal martyrdom, but giving oneself to a cause so fully that it actually did lead to death.  Paradoxically, such a move led to deeper experiences of life.  Jesus once said that if we hold onto our lives with a tight fist, we will actually lose the life we want so badly, but if we follow in his footsteps completely, we will find life – life everlasting, real, holistically well, harmonious, in rhythm, and in a word: shalom.

All of the above is simply to say that Jesus didn’t come to start a “nice” campaign, but rather a campaign to change the world with love, which is very much needed and worth it, and also very challenging.  And, as Bell noted, to be asked to follow implies that the one asking believes we can actually do it.  Awesome.

I can’t leave it there, however, knowing what I know.  Bell can only do so much in a brief video, and he did a fantastic job introducing us to what “follow me” meant.  But I know that if we are aware of how saying yes to “Follow Me!” plays out, we will be in a lot better shape.  Our expectations will be aligned with reality, and we won’t get thrown when it hits the fan.  Because it will. So, I offer just a few glimpses from the life of Peter – the one who dared get out of the boat to join Jesus on the walking on water experience Bell referenced. If you want to see shalom realized in the world so much that you accept the invitation, you can expect the following to happen…

Sometimes you will ace the test.  When asked by Jesus, “Who do people say that I am?”, the rest of the disciples waffled a bit, but Peter nailed it: “you are the Messiah/anointed one” (Matthew 16:13-20).  Jesus commended him, saying that such anointing is exactly what the Kingdom of God is built upon. Such a moment of spiritual insight was a mountain-top experience for Peter.  As you learn the Way of Jesus, you can expect such moments of true insight and inspiration coupled with a sense of divine blessing and celebration.  Such awakenings feel really good.  Enjoy them.  Record them.  Remember and savor them.  And remember that you have not arrived yet – there is more than a lifetime of learning ahead. Stay humble, because such awakenings can very easily tempt us toward pride which, you may have heard, generally precedes a fall…

Sometimes your pride will lead away from Kingdom of God sensibilities in favor of well-conditioned and supported paradigms of the world. Course correction will come.  Hint: correct as soon as possible to avoid robbing yourself and the world of potential shalom. Peter was feeling so confident as the star pupil that he forgot for a moment that he wasn’t the Master.  After Jesus articulated what lay ahead for him and those who followed (his non-violent shalom campaign would so threaten the power of those who held it that they would kill him), Peter let Jesus know that he must surely be mistaken.  Jesus’ response? “Get behind me, Satan, for you have in mind the things of men and not the things of God” (Matthew 16:21-28).  “Satan” needs to be viewed as a role here more than some weird demon-possession moment.  In this frame, Jesus is feeling the power of a prosecuting attorney asking if that’s really what Jesus wanted to do.  The very human, lizard-brained side of Jesus surely wanted to avoid suffering and death and instead pursue the very common (and failure-assured) method of using power, intimidation, and domination to bring about a shallow, false peace.  That’s what so many of his followers wanted him to do – how tempting! In a way, the temptation was Peter’s as much as Jesus’, wasn’t it?  Peter didn’t want to suffer and die, either.  He wanted to enjoy power and control like so many others.  But that’s not the Way that leads to life.  Count on your pride to tempt you throughout your life. Count on hearing the stinging words, “Get behind me Satan” again and again.  It’s simply part of the deal.

Sometimes our fears and insecurities will get the best of us, and we will fail.  Peter denied even knowing Jesus when it mattered most (see John 18).  You will, too.  Maybe with your lips, but most likely with your life – your attitudes and behavior will at times belie your insecurities and missteps.  No way around it – it will happen.  And it will feel like a sort of death.  We will repeat this cycle again and again because we are human beings trained on the kingdoms of this world which run counter to the Kingdom of God.  Knowing this ahead of time helps.  Expect failure.

When we fail, shalom, by its very nature, will want to restore us.  This sounds all warm and fuzzy like a Hallmark channel movie, but it’s actually painful work, a required death before resurrection, because it requires us to agree with what happened regarding our failure.  After Jesus was experienced alive in a new way after his horrible death, Peter quickly realized that he was still welcome in the company of disciples and in the company of God.  This was true.  Yet there was unfinished business to conduct: the failure needed to be recognized and thought through in order for reconciliation to take root.  Jesus held Peter accountable in an incredibly memorable scene on a beach. We like to skate over such steps in our lives.  It is much easier to just sort of casually nod to our failures and move forward.  It is not easy to break away from such face-saving devices.  In fact, it is incredibly hard to really look at where we’ve blown it.  Yet, if you want to grow forward, it is an absolute necessity.  The accountability isn’t punitive but restorative. The point of the scene wasn’t to scold Peter but to help him see what had happened more clearly so that he could grow from it (John 21:15-23).  This difficult exchange and call to follow may seem incongruent with Jesus’ statement that his yoke is easy and his burden is light, right?  It’s only easy when we are fully aligned with the Kingdom of God.  When we’re not, when we are trying to live in two kingdoms simultaneously, life is incredibly difficult.  Stay humble and in the zone of shalom.  Christians have become known for being grumpy instead of lovely.

We will grow exponentially in love and have ever deepening and heightening experiences of love if we keep on following the One who invites us forward.  Peter (or his disciples) told his listeners:

All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is by his great mercy that we have been born again, because God raised Jesus Christ from the dead. Now we live with great expectation, and we have a priceless inheritance—an inheritance that is kept in heaven for you, pure and undefiled, beyond the reach of change and decay. And through your faith, God is protecting you by his power until you receive this salvation, which is ready to be revealed on the last day for all to see.

So be truly glad. There is wonderful joy ahead, even though you must endure many trials for a little while. These trials will show that your faith is genuine. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold—though your faith is far more precious than mere gold. So when your faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world.

You love him even though you have never seen him. Though you do not see him now, you trust him; and you rejoice with a glorious, inexpressible joy. The reward for trusting him will be the salvation of your souls.– 1 Peter 1:3-9 (NLT) 

Do you hear the call from the Spirit of God that flowed through Jesus so long ago calling the original disciples?  It still beckons, still calls to all people everywhere who long for more shalom in the world that will come about from the incredibly challenging yet rewarding work of bringing it about with shalom itself.  By the Spirit of God, Jesus is still calling. Will you follow?

 Bonus Material.  If you want a picture of what this journey has, in part, looked like for me, suffer through some of the stories of my discipleship below…

I grew up in a devout Christian home in a mainline Christian tradition, where there wasn’t much emphasis on hell or judgment or sin forgiveness.  When my parents thought I was old enough to make a decision to become a Christian, it was quite solemn.  I was baptized by my dad (who was a pastor).  A bonus of baptism is that, in my family, it meant you got to take communion.  To be honest, the wafer thing tasted awful and the grape juice was watered down.  I also remember not feeling much when I first took it. I was sincere in my decision, but a lot of emphasis was placed on being grateful for being forgiven.  I understood it, but it didn’t connect all that much for me.  Maybe it was because I was 9 or 10 years old and didn’t have a whole lot of juicy sins to forgive? Stealing a significant portion of my brother’s Halloween candy when I was 5 or 6 was the worst thing I could come up with.  At that point, I was just affirming that it was my decision to follow Jesus as the leader of my life and the guarantor of heaven. I’ve run into a lot of people with a similar story.  It’s not unmeaningful, but it also kind of generates a “meh” response after a while, and I’ve known many people who didn’t really do much with their faith after their confession.  It was still an important yes for me, however.  It stuck with me and is part of my story.

Was that how faith started for you – sort of affirming what was already there – like you were essentially a Christian out of the womb? I think this is akin to a lot of the initial following accounts of the disciples -theirs was an easy yes (at first).

When I was in high school, I had a lot of great conversations with my neighbor, Brenda, who was a few years older than me.  We became really good friends over the summer, mainly having each other to hang out with.  She had a different vitality to her faith than I did, and I wanted it.  Hers was a really relational faith where she seemed to have ongoing conversation with God, and sensed God speaking back to her in myriad ways.  She wasn’t crazy or anything – it was simply a lived-out faith.  I sensed something in me inviting me into the same kind of faith experience, and I said yes.  It was an incredibly moving experience that I will never forget, which brought with it an experience of the Spirit of God that was unexpected, immersive, and mind-blowing.  It was a born again kind of event, where I saw the world in a very different way than I had before. The yes deepened my understanding of God and life itself.  I was a changed person.

Have you ever had that kind of experience where you sensed God calling you to follow into that kind of relational faith?  I think this is like what we see when Jesus interacts with the Samaritan Woman at the Well. 

Even though my household faith was not “judgy”, I certainly picked up on what was on the don’t list: don’t drink or smoke, don’t swear, and don’t have sex.  My parents never actually talked with me much about sex, but youth groups and church camps sure did!  The born-again buzz that I had stuck with me for awhile, but I didn’t have a person in my life to guide me or help me (my parents would have helped, but I as a teenager, so, you know…).  My faith struggled as the experiential side faded.  I still believed, but was really in an agnostic phase for about four years, which took me through high school and halfway through college, when all of the temptations to explore the pros and cons of the don’ts are turbo-charged by hormones and coming of age.  A crisis of faith born of a heartbreak brought me to my knees after my sophomore year in college.  I was in really rough shape, and sought healing from the church I attended.  After a couple of days attending a weekend seminar on helping people heal with God’s help, I sensed God inviting me to give it a try myself.  When I finally caved, carrying four years of shame and guilt and pain and sorrow and disappointment, I found God to be graceful, welcoming, restoring, forgiving.  An experience I will never forget. It was what I consider my adult conversion.  Once again I felt born again, seeing God, my life, and the world around me very differently.

Have you had that kind of experience, where you felt reborn after life sort of killed you?  I think this is like the story of the woman who was forgiven much, or the woman caught in adultery who was then freed by Jesus, or Zacchaeus the tax collector.

The next several years were filled with success.  I graduated from college, married an incredible woman, sailed through seminary earning my Masters of Divinity, landed my first pastorate which went extremely well, and moved to California to become the pastor of what is now called CrossWalk.  The early successes – which I believe God was working in to varying degrees – pumped up my ego pretty good.  My first few years at Napa proved to be one of the hardest seasons of my life where a lot of pain from a lot of pride brought me to a crossroads. Things were so hard for a while that my faith was shaken a bit.  Yet, even while I was in the throes of spiritual turmoil, I sensed God with me.  Such a strange experience of grace during a time when I am sure my pride led me to deeply offensive attitudes and behaviors that were not in line with following Jesus.  Once I reached my breaking point, I gave up on my own way of thinking and being and gave in to yet another yes to the invitation to follow Jesus.  Once again, I was met with the freedom that comes with grace.  I was deeply humbled in all the best ways – not humiliated – and experienced God quick to comfort and guide again.  Another layer of born again, again. This cycle has repeated itself over and over again over the years.  Usually, I become aware of my pride from either my work or my marriage, and for good reason: those are the areas where I am most known and seen, where feedback is most present.  We can easily blow off comments and observations from casual friends or the majority of Facebook friends, because we tell ourselves that they don’t really know us (which is probably true).  But when those who are closest have the courage to speak truth into our lives, we either own it and deepen our relationships and our experience of living in shalom, or we pull back and distance ourselves from such painful reality, which also keeps us from growing deeper. I’m so grateful for a strong partner who is not afraid to speak truth into my life, as hard as it must be for her to say and as hard as it is for me to hear.  I hate it in the moment, and yet it is necessary if we are to grow as people and in our relationship.

Have you had any experiences like this, when your pride catches up with you, when your attitudes and behaviors don’t reflect Jesus much, and your life doesn’t much reflect the Kingdom of God or the shalom it brings?  I think this is like the time Peter challenged Jesus’ game plan to go to Jerusalem, and much later when he balked his way through the unclean foods vision, or Paul’s conversion experience.

            There have been times of great sorrow, when the shadow of death has covered my eyes and weighed down my heart.  I have known grief that is too deep for words, when you weep so hard you can’t make a sound as you just try to breathe, when you can’t sleep because it hurts, and when you wake, the pain is still there.  I know what it feels like to have a loved one slip away leaving you without them.  It is so hard.  And yet, there is a voice that invites me to follow even in those moments.  When I have said yes to that invitation, I have again and again been met with comfort and hope.  Not like a magic wand that makes it all disappear – grief is a process that takes time.  But there is grace for each moment, an appropriate amount to get me through, to give me strength and rest.  This is a great expression of shalom, of healing and wellbeing that, when embraced, when met with a yes, it takes us deeper into the heart of God and into our True Selves where we discover that we are born again, again, in some way.

            Have you ever said yes to such an invitation from God?  Have you found God to be faithful in your grief?  I think of Martha and Mary when their brother Lazarus died, and how Jesus brought hope on that fourth day.

            There have been times when saying yes has led to pain and suffering for the benefit of others, when I have sensed that I needed to bear a cross and follow Jesus.  Crosses mean death is imminent.  As a pastor, I have had many experiences where I sensed the need to introduce new ways to seeing scripture and of thinking theologically, and it always comes at a price that I mostly pay. Usually this happens after I have been stretched in my thinking and seeing which requires its own level of suffering before I inflict it on others.  Over the years I have sensed God inviting me to speak about a bigger, more expansive Christianity that is inclusive of everyone and respects other faith traditions rather than disparaging them.  I have led the church through so many changes I lost track of how many we’ve gone through!  I’ve felt invited to lead us to expand our ministry abroad, and more broadly in Napa.  For many people who love CrossWalk, they cannot imagine it any differently.  And yet, every major step represents an invitation to risk on the Way of Jesus.

            Have you ever had such experiences where you knew you were being called to follow that would carry a personal cost, and yet you did it anyway? Peter and Paul were champions of the faith, and they took their licks every step of the way.  Resistance came from Rome, from Jewish leaders, and at times from within the Christian community.

            I share my experiences with you because I think the Christian life is saying yes to Jesus’ invitation to follow again and again and again and again in a hundred different ways and contexts, all born from God’s desire to create more shalom in the world – personally with us and for the world through us. We will often be tempted to be complacent – that’s human nature – yet when we give into our lethargy we miss out on shalom that could be ours.  How much better if we could start each day waiting and looking for the invitation to follow!  How much more shalom would we enjoy, and the world around us, too?

            The invitation always comes.  It is a constant. Do you hear it?  Will you follow?