Up Next: imagining the steps beyond the Emmaus road

Last week was Easter, and today I want to pick up right where we left off last time. We left with two disciples of Jesus suddenly realizing that everything about the resurrection is actually true. But once we reach that point, what comes next. Where does following Jesus go from here? Last week I put it this way: we celebrate the risen savior on Easter Sunday, but then comes Monday morning and we all go back to wherever we were before.

Today we begin a new series called Up Next. Often in our lives we tackle big projects or long processes which require multiple steps. And whenever we complete one step, we move on to whatever is up next. Or perhaps if you ever spend an evening binge watching a season of your favorite TV show on Netflix, it will automatically keep cuing new episodes up next. One of my hobbies is working in the kitchen. When I follow a complicated recipe trying to cook something new, I am always checking to see what comes up next because I want to make sure I am following along with the right steps in the right order.

It’s time for an ‘Up Next’ moment in the church. It’s time for each one of us to recognize the place where our faith is at and seriously ask the question, what’s up next for my faith? What is my next step in becoming more conformed into the image of Christ? What is the next thing that God has placed in front of me on my journey forward growing in faith?

Here’s the thing about this question, I cannot give a generic answer that applies the same way for everyone here. Each one of us is at a different spot in our journey of following Jesus. And so, the thing that is up next may be different for each one of us here. But this part is true: every one of us has an ‘up next’ moment. Not a single person here can claim that they have arrived at a point in faith where there are no more steps forward. No matter how old you are, or young you are; no matter if you have been a Christian your entire life, or you just came to know Jesus recently; no matter if you are regularly taking steps to grow in faith, or you have not taken any steps forward in a long, long time; this ‘up next’ moment applies to everyone.

Beyond the Emmaus road: a new paradigm for following Jesus

For those first disciples who followed Jesus, the ‘up next’ moment came with the challenge of a paradigm shift. They were suddenly faced with the reality that if they were to continue on this journey of following Jesus, it was going to have to become something other than what they thought it was before. Before the resurrection, these disciples all thought they were following a man chosen by God to overthrow the Roman empire and to return the nation of Israel to its former glory—as in the days of king David. None of those disciples ever imagined that following Jesus would lead them to this moment of resurrection. None of them ever imagined that following Jesus would lead to being called within a completely different kind of kingdom. None of them foresaw following Jesus as something that would spread globally to a church that would stretch to the corners of the Earth and include people of every language and ethnic background.

Let’s deal with this right away before we get into anything further. Sure, I bring up the subject of discipleship and following Jesus. I introduce the challenge of looking ahead to what’s up next. Some of us may have even had this whole thing mapped out for years. Some of us may have some kind of pretty consistent path of discipleship in place for a long time. We should not let this detail of the story slip past. Those first followers of Jesus had a pretty consistent plan in mind for following Jesus as well. But the resurrection changed all that. The resurrection placed a new paradigm in front of them. Resurrections tend to do that. The resurrection continues to challenge us with new paradigms. It is at least enough of a challenge to remind us that we should not lock ourselves into only one way of following Jesus.

This is why. Because it seems like every time that I think I have God all figured out, he throws something in my life that turns my path of discipleship into new and unimaginable directions. Every time I think I have this discipleship thing all locked in and every time I think I see clearly what it means to be a Christian and to grow in faith, God ends up stepping and showing me new opportunities to stretch in faith that I never saw clearly before. In fact, Jesus illustrated this very thing to his disciples before the crucifixion and resurrection ever took place.

In the song Amazing Grace, we sing the line that goes, I once was blind but now I see. I’ll be honest, I don’t really care for that line because I don’t think following Jesus actually works the way that line implies. I am not sure the life of following Jesus actually takes off in our lives like an explosion. What I see is more like the kindling of flame that begins as a spark and slowly builds. I am not convinced that following Jesus is quite as instantaneous a turn as flipping a switch from complete blindness to full sight. I ruins the poetry of the verse, but it seems to me that following Jesus is a more gradual process; I once was blind but now I am beginning to sort of see. Consider this story from Mark’s gospel about a strange healing of a blind man from Bethsaida.

Mark 8:22–26 NIV

22 They came to Bethsaida, and some people brought a blind man and begged Jesus to touch him. 23 He took the blind man by the hand and led him outside the village. When he had spit on the man’s eyes and put his hands on him, Jesus asked, “Do you see anything?” 24 He looked up and said, “I see people; they look like trees walking around.” 25 Once more Jesus put his hands on the man’s eyes. Then his eyes were opened, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly. 26 Jesus sent him home, saying, “Don’t even go into the village.”

Walking like trees

There are a few curious things going on in this story. I can only assume that this man has not been blind his entire life. After all, he must know from somewhere what trees are supposed to look like and what people are supposed to look like. Is there anything significant about People looking like walking trees? And, most importantly, why does it take Jesus two tries to get it right? Of course, we declare that Jesus has divine power and authority; so, this isn’t a mistake; he is doing it on purpose. But why?

The other stories in Mark’s gospel around this one in chapter 8 help us understand what is going on here. There were a few instances right before this story in which Jesus shows some frustrations towards his disciples for their lack of faith. There was once before already where the disciples were in a boat tossed by some turbulent waves; and, while Jesus is sleeping, the disciples are scared for their lives; and Jesus gets up and calms the storm. And then it happens again that the disciples are in a boat on turbulent seas; and this time Jesus comes walking out to them on the water; and again the disciples are scared for their lives. It was once before that Jesus was teaching a large crowd; and there wasn’t a lot of food around; and Jesus picked up a few loaves of bread and fed everyone there. And then again in Mark’s gospel Jesus is gathered with a crowd; and again there is little food; and again the disciples are wondering how everyone will be able to eat; and again Jesus breaks the bread enough to feed everyone.

Just how many times does Jesus need to show his faithful provision before his followers to finally catch on? Don’t they get it? Can’t they see it? Are they still completely blind to who Jesus actually is? Well, no; at least, not exactly. They are not completely blind. They are disciples who answered the call to follow Jesus. Yet at the same time, they don’t completely see Jesus clearly for who he actually is and what he has come to do. They are somewhere in-between blindness and sight.

The miracle we read about in Mark 8 meant to show is this. Jesus does not make a mistake. It is not as though his first attempt at healing the blind man is a misfire. In fact, he is giving his followers a pretty solid illustration of exactly the moment in which they find themselves—a moment of sort of kind of seeing. They were no longer completely blind. But they could not see everything clearly either.

This is us. This is where we are too. The journey of faith in which we follow Jesus is a path in which we are not completely blind. But following Jesus in faith is also a path in which we don’t always see everything perfectly clear. Sometimes when I look for the spiritual path of following Jesus, all I see are walking trees. The path is not one of complete darkness. But sometimes the path doesn’t always make the most sense either.

Why am I starting us here? Because figuring out a next step doesn’t always have to mean that we have every single detail of the journey completely mapped out in all of its complexities. Moving to whatever is next in my path of faith can happen without me seeing exactly where it all goes. In fact, often we don’t know where it all goes; we can’t know; we can’t clearly see that far. But what can I see, even if it is not all clear? What is up next?

Up Next:

When I was young, Lego sets were some of my favorite toys. I have quite a few sets. Most of them were pretty small. But every now and then for Christmas or a birthday I would get one of those bigger sets with hundreds and hundreds of pieces. These sets didn’t just have an assembly map to unfold, they came with books of assembly instructions. If you have ever had a Lego set, then you know what I mean. One page at a time, a few pieces at a time, the pictures show where each Lego brick is supposed to go.

In those larger Lego models, the assembly instructions were pretty important. As much as I might have ever tried, there simply was no way to look at the picture on the box of the finished Lego model and know exactly how to place each and every piece to build it based on that completed picture. I had not much choice but to go and start with step number one, even though the picture in step one looked nothing at all yet like the completed model. Sometimes the only way to get all the way to the end is to simply work on the next step in front of me, even if that step doesn’t look anything like the completed ending.

So then, what is up next for you in your journey of faith? This is only the first message in this series. We have a bit more to go yet that will space out over the next several weeks into the month of May. And so, what we see today is only the beginning. What we see today is an assurance to us, a comfort that it’s okay. It’s okay that when I think about the next step in my journey of faith, the big picture of how this all fits together might be a little fuzzy. It’s okay that maybe somewhere along the line my paradigm for following Jesus got shifted around when life took some unexpected turns. It’s okay that—even though I am not completely blind to God—I don’t see clearly every single road he is taking me down.

This is all okay because I am not the one who need to have this all figured out. God has that part well under control. It’s okay that I cannot always see clearly where faith is taking me. God does see it clearly, and he will never let me so far off track that he cannot pull me back again. And so, it is okay that I cannot necessarily see every step that is in front of me in order to take just the next step. Because that is really all God is calling us to do right now, just take the next step.

Sure, maybe we don’t have all the answers to every question of faith. Maybe we don’t have it all figured out. Maybe we don’t see everything clearly. You don’t need to have the entire story written in order to move on. All you need to do is turn one page at a time and take on whatever is up next. God has the rest of the story taken care of for you.