Tyler Stricklan
As a young and impressionable college student diving into a recommended read, The Cost of Discipleship, this phrase in Dietrich Bonhoeffer's book started to shape how I interacted with two words of Jesus, "Follow me."
One of my favorite parts about Jesus is that he is a Rabbi or a teacher of the law. Rabbis had several young men who would follow them and learn under their yoke or teaching. However, these young men were the intellectual elite, more rare than an Ivy League graduate.
This custom was well known. While most young men would learn in the family trade starting around age 12, a select few would get the chance to continue their studies in hopes of being called. Then comes Jesus.
Who does he decide to call? Twelve average young men. Men working in trades, men who did not excel in the local synagogues selection process. These men left everything behind for the chance to travel with a rabbi.
Little did they know, this was not an ordinary rabbi. This rabbi is God in human form. His teachings and interpretations of the law were perfect. Side note: I do not know if Jesus ever said it this way, but I like to imagine him saying, "I AM THE LAW," like Sylvester Stallone in Judge Dredd when questioned about his teachings.
So, what does a rabbi calling average young men have to do with death? There is an interaction in scripture that explains it more. Two gentiles (non-Jewish) men show up at the festival of Passover. We do not know much about them other than their agenda.
They wish to speak to Jesus. They go to Phillip. Phillip then grabs Andrew before informing Jesus about the situation. Picture your child or friend coming to you, "There is someone at the door for you.” You walk to the door with your child or friend.
However, instead of introducing yourself, you go on a spiel about your time of death and its importance. Those listening would think you are deranged. They may even try having you committed. That is not the case here. Jesus spoke so pointedly about his death that it did not phase Andrew and Phillip to hear him talk about it again.
This time, in this interaction, it was different. Jesus makes a proclamation. “The hour has come for the son of man to be glorified.” In previous interactions, Jesus strayed from most interactions with Gentiles. This time, Jesus embraces it.
Jesus came first to the Jews, but this pursuit of the Gentiles ushers in the climax. Jesus is ready to take on the sin of his entire creation. He makes a parallel of his death to that of seeds. Seeds, in order to give birth to life, must die. Jesus, to make us a new creation, must give his life.
Father Mike, an Episcopal priest, put it this way: “Somehow, death and seeing Jesus are intimately related. To see Jesus is more than looking at him. It is more than just believing the things he said and did. We follow Christ as participants, not spectators. If we want to see Jesus, then we must learn to die. To the degree we avoid and deny death, we refuse to see Jesus.”
Jesus promised Peter and Andrew that he would make them fishers of men. He promised that the world would despise them for the work they would do in Jesus' name. These men knew they would die, but when they were called to follow Jesus, there was no thought of dying.
After some time with him, those chances and thoughts increased. However, when Jesus calls us, the bidding is not for us to take our last breath. Although many martyrs are made of Jesus' followers. The bidding is to die to yourself. It is to leave our attachments to this world behind and be made new into a new creation.
The beauty of the whole process is seen in the daily pursuit of following him. It is found in our choice to pick up our cross and follow his trodden path from death into life.
Tyler Stricklan is student ministry director at LifePoint Church in Minden.