Jesus is Calling: “Come Follow Me”

My view from The Mt. of Beatitudes

It was eight days into my trip.  A trip that had been cancelled two years prior due to Covid.  As the travel restrictions had been lifted, we were among the first groups allowed into Israel. I was awestruck as we traveled from city to city and through the countryside.  These were places I had only read about in Bible Stories.  Joppa, Caesarea, Capernaum, Mt. Carmel, a Nazareth village.  The list goes on and on.  Ahh! But to sit on what’s now called The Mt. of Beatitudes where Jesus sat on the hillside as the disciples and crowds gathered in felt like holy ground.  I imagined gathering in with the crowds as I listened to our Jewish guide read out loud Jesus’ words, “Blessed are the poor in spirit”…  Then to stand along the shores of Galilee and to step into a boat that took us out on those very waters.  I could hear Jesus’ voice again, “Peace be still”.   It was like Jesus came alive in full living color.  My soul felt like a sponge soaking up every ounce of space around me.

On this eighth day, April 4, 2022, I was sitting on our bus at my window seat watching the dry desert area swiftly moving past as we traveled the road to Jerusalem.  We were on the road to Jerusalem!!!  Earlier that morning I had prayed through Psalm 121 - one of the songs of ascent that were sung by Jewish pilgrims journeying to Jerusalem possibly for Passover.  The words somehow were feeling more real.  …..”the LORD is your keeper; the LORD is your shade on your right hand, the sun shall not strike you by day nor the moon by night.”   On this day the sun was beating down over that barren land and it was as if the scenes flashing by my window began to slow down.  I could see trails running alongside the road and began to wonder if this was where Jesus had walked to Jerusalem.  “Jesus set his face toward Jerusalem. ” These words penned by Luke mark the beginning of his final journey to the cross.  Matthew tells us that along that journey he would “begin to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things…” attempting to prepare them for what was ahead.  "I have told you now before it happens, so that when it does happen you will believe.”  John 14:29

I imagined Jesus walking step by step on that dry dusty ground maybe singing with a firm planted confidence, “I lift my eyes to the hills, from where does my help come?  My help comes from the LORD, who made heaven and earth”, all the while knowing what he would face in Jerusalem.   In that moment I wondered if this journey through the desert reminded him of the days in the beginning of his ministry.  In Mark’s gospel we’re introduced to John baptizing in the wilderness.  “And in those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan.”  Is it possible along that dry desert road that Jesus would have heard his Father’s voice reminding Him – “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.” This was Jesus, the boy who grew up in Nazareth.  And God, his father, reached out to tell him at moment that he is loved. Do you need to hear those words today, to be reminded of God’s love for you no matter where you are or what you are going through?  1 John 3:1 says: “See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!  And that is what we are!”  You are his beloved son or daughter – with you he is well pleased. 

But then, the Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness – in this desolate area that stretches out before me as I travel on this road to Jerusalem.  The wilderness for Jesus was a place of solitude, fasting, prayer, intense testing by Satan and it would become a place of preparation.  Here he was being prepared for his ministry.  I wondered what Jesus would have remembered about his wilderness experience as he traveled to the cross?  Would it be the weakness he felt in his body as he fasted – for forty days!  Or would he have thought about the life and home, the family he had left behind in Nazareth?   Or would it be the temptations that were thrown at him by Satan?  Or could it be that Jesus remembered his wilderness experience as a place of preparation – a place to deepen his relationship with God that would send him out to seek and save the lost. (Luke 19:10)

On my journey through Israel, I heard Jesus’ voice, his invitation along the way, “Come, follow me.”  It’s an invitation I hear again today as I prepare to enter this Lent season.  “Come, follow me.”  Jesus is inviting me to prepare a way for Him right here in all the places of my life, in my own wilderness or difficult place that I’m in right now.  Could it be that he is actually calling me here to do a deeper work within me in this place of preparation – this wilderness?   

“Come, follow me”.  His invitation is clear and is open to you too.   It will require us to be intentional as we find ways to change daily habits and schedules and to devote time and space to abiding in Jesus, surrendering to God’s pruning and welcoming the presence of the Holy Spirit.  Start in small steps.  Set a timer for 3 minutes.  Silence your phone and all other devices.  Sit with your feet on the floor, hands open and breathe.  A verse to fill your thoughts:  Be still and know that I am God. 

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles.  And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith.  For the joy that was set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.  Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart”.  Hebrews 12:1-3 

Sitting with Him on the shore of Galilee

His voice can be heard wherever you find yourself sitting today.

“Come, follow me” 

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