Following Jesus (Matthew 16:21-28)

Most of us would be familiar with the game ‘follow the leader.’ In this game, children follow someone and imitate the leader’s actions. If the leader jumps, everybody jumps. If the leader skips, everybody skips. If the leader runs or stops, everybody runs or stops. The goal of the game is to copy exactly what the leader does for as long as you can. If you can’t or don’t follow where the leader goes or what the leader does, then you’re out of the game.

It’s not just children who play ‘follow the leader.’ With the rise of social media, we have seen the rise of people known as ‘influencers.’ These are people whom others follow on social media, such as Instagram, YouTube, Tik Tok, Facebook, or another digital platform. They not only keep up to date with their posts, but they are influenced by their content. What the influencer does, their followers will often copy. If the influencer recommends, uses, or supports something, their followers will often do the same.

In a lot of ways, we are all like people who follow an influencer. We all follow someone or something that is being modelled to us by someone else in our beliefs, attitudes, values, and behaviours. It is important for all of us to be asking ourselves who or what has influenced us, whom do we follow, and where are our influences leading us in life.

Early in Matthew’s gospel, we read that Jesus called disciples to follow him (4:18-22). Like an influencer, Jesus called his disciples to model their lives on him as he taught them a radically different way to live. At the end of Matthew’s gospel, Jesus instructed his disciples to pass this new way of living on to others by making disciples of all nations (28:18-20). Everything in between these two events was a discipling journey for Jesus’ disciples as he taught them how to live as his followers.

In this reading from Matthew 16:21-28 Jesus summarises the way of life he calls us to imitate. He says, ‘If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross, and follow me’ (v24 NLT). In these words, we have the core teaching of the way of life Jesus was leading his disciples into over the three-year period of their time with him, culminating in his suffering, crucifixion and resurrection. Following Jesus means saying ‘No’ to self, embracing self-giving love, and living in the way he lived.

We see the way Jesus lived in Matthew 16:21. At this point of his earthly ministry, Jesus made the conscious decision to head towards Jerusalem. He knew what waited for him if he went in that direction. Jesus understood that there was growing opposition from the religious leaders of his day to the message he was preaching. However, Jesus also knew that the only way to redeem humanity was to give his life on the cross for us. Jesus denied himself by saying ‘No’ to what he wanted for himself. Instead, he chose the path to Jerusalem because he prioritized what was best for us. In that decision, Jesus chose us and our need to be saved over himself.

In making this choice and going to his crucifixion and resurrection, Jesus opened up a new life for us. We can often think about this life as an eternity in heaven when we die. The Bible talks about salvation just as much as the life we live here and now as it does when we die. In John 10:10 Jesus says that he has come to give us a ‘full’ (NIV) or ‘abundant’ (ESV) life. This is life as God always intended life to be: free from guilt, fear, and everything that robs us of life, and full of grace, peace, hope, love, and every good thing God wants for us.

Jesus teaches us the way to this life is following him as our influencer. He explains that it involves giving up our lives and letting go of all the things we hang on to in our best efforts to find life for ourselves (Matthew 16:25,26). Jesus challenges us to ask ourselves what we hang on to, and where we look for our best lives. It might be our work, family or other relationships, travel, possessions, or even involvement in our local church. While we can thank God for all these things as good gifts from him, when we hang on to them for life, they will let us down. We need to ask ourselves if they really can give us our best life.

The way of life Jesus teaches and calls us to follow is to give up on self and to follow him in the way of self-giving love. In almost every situation we have the choice of doing what’s good for us or what’s good for others. When Jesus began to head towards Jerusalem, knowing it would mean his suffering and death, he did it in the faith that the Father would raise him to new life and give him life as our Father always intended it to be. Jesus teaches us to live in the same way – to give up everything that we hang on to that isn’t him, to say ‘No’ to ourselves and, trusting God’s promise to give us life to the full through faith in Jesus, prioritize others and what is best for them, no matter what the cost to ourselves.

Following Jesus as his disciples means learning what this means in every aspect of our lives – in our relationships with family and friends, in our work, in our leisure and recreation, and in our church community. We don’t have time to fully explore what this means for the way we live, but it influences everything we do, from making the bed or taking out the rubbish, to the debate in the LCA over ordination, to questions around the future of our congregations. Jesus warns us that as long as we try to hang on to life by getting what we want or doing what we think is best for ourselves, we will lose everything. However, Jesus also promises us that when we give everything up by loving others in the way he loves us, by saying ‘No’ to ourselves and what we want for his sake and to give others what they need, and by following his example of self-sacrificing love, trusting that he did that for us, then we will find a full and abundant life as God wanted it to be from the beginning.

We all follow people in our lives who influence our beliefs, attitudes, values, and behaviours. Jesus wants to be the one influencer in our lives as he calls us to give up our own ways, take up the cross of self-giving love, and follow him in faith and hope. Jesus’ call to be his disciples and to learn a new way of living from him is central to being Christian. It might be a different way of thinking about being Christian from what we are used to, but ultimately, Jesus promises that following him and learning his way of living will lead us into the best life God intends for us and for our faith communities.

Where might following Jesus lead us this week…?

More to think about or discuss:

• Generally speaking, do you tend to make choices based on what’s best for you or what’s best for others? Can you give some reasons why you might do that?
• How do you understand Jesus words to ‘give up your own way, take up your cross, and follow me’ (v24 NLT)? How did Jesus do that in his own life? What was the result?
• What is one way this week that you can follow in Jesus’ way by letting go of what’s important to you, choosing what is best for someone else, and following Jesus’ way of sacrificial love?