Following the Leader

How many of you remember playing the game ‘follow the leader’ when you were growing up? I remember playing this game with my brothers as well as my friends in lots of different places. To be completely honest I loved being one of the followers and not the leader. I say that because I really enjoyed trying to anticipate which direction the leader would take you and not go off course when the leader took an unexpected turn or twist while leading you to who knows where. But that’s essentially what the game is about: following the person who is leading and not getting caught off guard so that you went off course from where the leader was going.

This is essentially the pattern that Jesus and the disciples have been taking since he called them to be his disciples. In fact, this is almost the exact phrasing that Jesus uses when he calls these people to be his disciples, “Come follow me” and they immediately follow Jesus. They have followed Jesus as he has healed people from their illnesses and cast out demons. They followed Jesus into boats as he taught from them and as he had them go to the other side of the lake and went into areas that weren’t Jewish territory. They followed Jesus as he taught in parables and they even followed Jesus’ instruction as he sent them out to do ministry on their own for a time.

Now don’t get me wrong the disciples have interacted with Jesus and have asked questions of him, but for the most part, and not to oversimplify things, Jesus and the disciples have been playing follow the leader. I say it this way because we now have a fundamental shift in our own following of Jesus as we have worked our way through the Gospel of Mark. You see up until this point the only people who really know who Jesus really is are the demons and Jesus himself. We as readers are told from chapter 1 verse 1, but it is at this moment that the beginning of this understanding of who Jesus is, is going to explode from following this teacher and healer and now understanding it as something even greater and how that understanding will begin to take shape in the hearts and the minds of the disciples. And it all begins when Jesus seems to just casually ask the disciples who he is.

When Peter answers that he is the Christ or the Messiah, we then see that Jesus doesn’t just let them sit in this questioning or wondering of what ‘version’ of the Messiah he might be, he explains to them exactly what he means by that through his first prediction of his suffering, death, and resurrection. However, this presentation that Jesus gives of Messiah doesn’t sit well with Peter and he tries to change it to what is beneficial to him. Peter tries to take hold of the situation and for a moment Peter tries to be the leader, steering Jesus to follow where he wants him to go instead of where Jesus has been called by God to go. Which is the exact reason why Jesus rebukes him so strongly.

Even though it is six days later the very next thing that happens is the transfiguration. While there are so many different things we could focus on with just the transfiguration alone, I want us to focus in this time on God speaking through the cloud. If we look at what God says we can actually see how these two stories bumping up against each other is so important for both us as readers and for the disciples. Not only when God says that this is God’s son whom God dearly loves, remind us as the reader of Jesus’ baptism, but it also serves to reinforce what we just heard. Even though Peter may not have fully understand what his calling Jesus the Christ meant, was actually the beginning of the revelation that God shares with these three disciples. Jesus as Messiah also means that he is God’s son. God is confirming Peter’s answer to Jesus’ question about who Jesus really is.

Now that we have the confirmation from God, we then get a command from God. Listen to Jesus. Peter, as we just discussed, wanted to be the leader and Jesus rebukes him. Now God gets to throw in God’s two cents also. Their role as disciples, as they follow Jesus from town to town, hearing parables, teachings, healings, and exorcisms, are to listen to Jesus and follow where he leads. Now I don’t think Jesus, God, Elijah, or Moses expected these three to fully understand everything that was happening in this moment or in the moments to come, but that at this point in their lives they were called to follow, to listen, to learn, and absorb. I don’t want to get too ahead of the story, but there will be a time when they will understand what all these things mean and there will be a time when they will lead and through their leading others will follow, but that time hasn’t come just yet.

What is speaking to me today through this story is this idea of discerning our own times for following and leading. As disciples of Jesus we are all called to follow and in our following we listen and we absorb everything that we can about what it means to be a faithful follower of Messiah Jesus. There are also times in our lives when we are called to lead and help others to follow and learn.

Whether we are in a time of following or leading we should always listen to the voice of Jesus as God calls the disciples to do up on the mountain. Because in our listening we remember the stories that brought us to the place we are now in. We remember the stories of Jesus calling us, we remember the stories of the healings and the parables, we remember the stories of the love that Jesus showed to the least of these and how Jesus spent his time leading his followers to the tax collectors and sinners reminding us all that we are one in Christ Jesus. That, as I talked about last week, it doesn’t matter, rich or poor, follower or leader, we have all been given grace and forgiveness through him. For by listening to Jesus and believing in him we know that he really did suffer, die, and on the third day rise again so that we might have life and have it abundantly and that we might share that blessing with the whole world. Amen.