Following Jesus

The Father invites us to follow Jesus. This means we take his character. And it means we serve people the way he served people.

 

How did Jesus serve people? It seems to me that he was a healer. There was spiritual healer (salvation and the restoration of God’s image), physical healing, inner healing (emotional and psychological) and social-cultural healing (families, cities, tribes and countries).

 

How did Jesus heal? He got personal. He got close. He engaged people at their point of need. He showed people the Father’s love, and let them experience it. The lame walked. The blind could see. Sinners were forgiven. The broken hearted were comforted.

 

One thing struck me in a new way this morning. Jesus went small to grow big. He did serve large crowds, sometimes 20,000 people. If he made an impact in such a setting, that was good. But he wasn’t aiming at huge crowds. He was aiming at a small group of men. He was training a group of men to be healers, like he was a healer. And he was training these healers to train healers.

 

It seems like the common model today is to gather a large group around one person, creating an organization and using economies of scale to carve out a space in the “market”.

 

Many people are sincerely trying to follow Jesus through this “market share” mode. It is what they have seen and experienced throughout their lives. But are they really following Jesus?