Following Jesus

If there’s one word you see in this passage, it’s “follow.”

You see it five times in this chapter, but not all are used in the same sense.

The crowds literally followed Jesus, but not all of their hearts belonged to him.

One man said he would follow Jesus, but it seems he had never thought about how hard it could be.

Jesus called another man to follow him, but that man seemed unwilling to leave his old life behind.

One thing I noticed is when the word “follow” was not used. After Jesus healed the demon-possessed man, the people in his town didn’t want to follow Jesus. They in fact asked him to leave.

But perhaps the most encouraging use of “follow” was in regard to his disciples.

They had followed Jesus for some time. Yet even then, they didn’t truly understand who he was. And instead of living by faith, they sometimes were ruled by their fear.

And yet, Jesus didn’t chase them away. Even when they would later fail him, he did not chase them away. Instead, he still let them continue as his disciples.

In short, they were his disciples by grace.

Sometimes, we fail as Jesus’ disciples. Sometimes we have little faith. Sometimes our priorities get messed up. Sometimes we sin.

But Jesus doesn’t give up on us. All he asks us to do is to get up and keep following him.

We are saved by his grace. And we follow him by his grace.

May we live each day by that truth.