Follow Me

Luke 18:18-34 from the daily reading in the One Year Bible

A ruler questioned Him, saying, “Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” ¹⁹ And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good except God alone. ²⁰ You know the commandments, ‘Do not commit adultery, Do not murder, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Honor your father and mother.’” ²¹ And he said, “All these things I have kept from my youth.” ²² When Jesus heard this, He said to him, “One thing you still lack; sell all that you possess and distribute it to the poor, and you shall have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.” ²³ But when he had heard these things, he became very sad, for he was extremely rich. ²⁴ And Jesus looked at him and said, “How hard it is for those who are wealthy to enter the kingdom of God! ²⁵ For it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” ²⁶ They who heard it said, “Then who can be saved?” ²⁷ But He said, “The things that are impossible with people are possible with God.”

²⁸ Peter said, “Behold, we have left our own homes and followed You.” ²⁹ And He said to them, “Truly I say to you, there is no one who has left house or wife or brothers or parents or children, for the sake of the kingdom of God, ³⁰ who will not receive many times as much at this time and in the age to come, eternal life.”

³¹ Then He took the twelve aside and said to them, “Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and all things which are written through the prophets about the Son of Man will be accomplished. ³² For He will be handed over to the Gentiles, and will be mocked and mistreated and spit upon, ³³ and after they have scourged Him, they will kill Him; and the third day He will rise again.” ³⁴ But the disciples understood none of these things, and the meaning of this statement was hidden from them, and they did not comprehend the things that were said.

The question was asked of Jesus, “What shall I do to inherit eternal life?” Having followed the commandments was not enough. Jesus says:  “One thing you still lack; sell all that you possess and distribute it to the poor, and you shall have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.”  Following Jesus is the key. Wealth, material riches as in the case of this man is just one of many things which can hinder us from following Jesus. It’s easy to look at the extremely wealthy and criticize them for not sharing their wealth. In truth though, wealth is really relative to the culture and times we live in. Even those of moderate means in our culture have more conveniences, luxuries and material possessions than the wealthy of Jesus day. Jesus doesn’t necessarily require that we give everything up, but it is necessary to follow Him.

In our culture time, even more than money, is one of our most valuable commodities. We are people who are busy with many things. Many of the things we spend our time on are self centered activities. We do indeed work hard to get ahead and to have things, but we also spend much of our time on recreation and entertainment. Jesus says: “follow Me.”  In the same way that it is difficult for one who is rich to give of their wealth, it is difficult for us today to give our time. We find it hard to set time aside for prayer, devotion and study of God’s word. When Jesus calls us to follow Him it is more than to follow the commandments, it is more even than to do the things that He did, whether works of love, service or miraculous works of ministry and healing. To follow Jesus we need to align our hearts with His. He said the first foremost commandment is that: "YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND.”   More than all the works we can do for Him, God desires that we spend time with Him.

Jesus often took time away from ministry to pray. Although He and the Father were one, He still took time to commune and communicate with God. If Jesus, God in flesh needed that time, how much more do we need it?  In today’s text the question was asked what shall I do to inherit eternal life. The answer is to follow Jesus. We are promised not just eternal life, a future in Christ, but Jesus says He came that we would have an abundant life.  Peter responded to Jesus word saying:  “Behold, we have left our own homes and followed You.”     Jesus says:  “Truly I say to you, there is no one who has left house or wife or brothers or parents or children, for the sake of the kingdom of God, ³⁰ who will not receive many times as much at this time and in the age to come, eternal life.”         When we make spending time with God a priority rather than trying to fit Him in at the middle or the end of our day, when time is running out God blesses our time. Whatever we give to God He always returns more.

The text today ends saying:  “Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and all things which are written through the prophets about the Son of Man will be accomplished. ³² For He will be handed over to the Gentiles, and will be mocked and mistreated and spit upon, ³³ and after they have scourged Him, they will kill Him; and the third day He will rise again.” ³⁴ But the disciples understood none of these things, and the meaning of this statement was hidden from them, and they did not comprehend the things that were said.       The disciples didn’t comprehend the things Jesus said, they didn’t understand. They followed Him anyway. Perhaps it was best that they didn’t fully understand what Jesus was saying, they may have been more reluctant to follow Him had they fully grasped what was going to happen. In the same way there are times that we may not fully understand where God is leading us. Like the disciples it is sometimes better for us to simply trust Him and follow Him, allowing Him to reveal His plan in His time, as we are faithful to give Him our time.

Jesus says to inherit eternal life we must follow Him. To have the abundant life He offers we must follow Him. We follow Him in loving and serving others. But most of all we follow Him by making Him the priority of our lives, by loving Him with all our heart, soul and mind. In truth Jesus seldom requires us to sacrifice anything. But, just as He sacrificed everything for us, He wants us to be willing to give up everything to follow Him.

Heavenly Father, Lord Jesus Christ; Holy Spirit thank You that You gave all for me so that I might follow You. Though I might not always fully understand still I trust and follow You and as I do You continue to reveal Your plan and Your abundance to me. Thank You Lord. Amen.