“Will you follow Jesus for your whole life?” A God story continued yesterday. Some months ago, a young woman from another country, running for safety, showed up at Tallowood Kingdom Basketball on a Saturday morning. Think of the courage it took to walk into strange buildings coming from a Muslim background. The basketball coaches told her to return on Sunday morning. So, she did. Living in her car, she showed up for worship and ran into one of our pastors. Missionaries in our midst took her in, led her to Jesus, and helped her find a safe place. Yesterday, she was baptized. Before she was, she told us what she believed about Jesus. I heard Blair, the young woman who baptized her, ask her clearly, “Will you follow Jesus for your whole life?”
Near the end of Jesus’ ministry, he set his face toward Jerusalem and the cross. He told the crowd if they wanted to follow him, they needed to deny themselves, take up their crosses and follow him. Three would-be disciples offered their token allegiance to Jesus, but he turned them away. Why? One misunderstood the gospel for the promise of a place to stay. Jesus had no such place. The good news of the Kingdom is not a promise of prosperity here. The second man placed the burial of his father over the priority of discipleship. Jesus told him that following was more important than family funerals. The man chose a shrouded casket over the silver trumpet of the resurrection. Bad trade! Finally, a man said, “I’ll follow you but let me first say goodbye to my family.” We cannot follow Jesus and still say, “me first.” Followers of Jesus do not look back.
For what did we sign up when we were baptized? We signed up to follow Jesus. For how long? For the rest of our lives. He offers us no permanent dwelling here, no promise that we will be able to take care of family responsibilities, and no guarantee that we will get to say goodbye to family before we go. The Kingdom of God, his reign in this world, transcends all our earthly opportunities and responsibilities. I have decided to follow Jesus. Have you? No turning back. No turning back. I heard the young woman say, “Yes. I will follow Jesus for a lifetime.” And so, she will.
