Read: Psalm 118:1-2, 19-29; Matthew 21:1-11
Søren Kierkegaard once wrote that Jesus consistently called people to follow him, but never asked people to admire him. He called people to discipleship, not admiration for his teaching or fans of his philosophy. He wanted disciples. Followers. People who would become his apprentices and learn from him; imitate him; follow him.
On Palm Sunday, Jesus came into Jerusalem. Some of the crowd spread their cloaks on the road and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. People ran before him and others came behind. They shouted, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!”
Most of those in the crowd were admirers; they were fans. They liked what Jesus taught, perhaps even claimed to believe it, but in their actions their lives weren’t impacted. They didn’t try to live like him. They heard this great teaching, they saw his miracles and healings, they heard his calls and commands and… they ignored them.
Jesus came into the world to save it, not merely to instruct it. He came to live the life each of us should have lived and he understood God’s heart and desire for us. He taught the way of God, not human tradition. He showed us what a life lived well looked like. He faced all the temptations and challenges we face in life and he never sinned. He walked in intimacy with the Father and in the power of the Holy Spirit.
Peter wrote in his first letter, 21 For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps. He is our example, the pattern, we should follow.
A follower wants to be as much like the one it admires as possible. In 1991, Gatorade released a commercial featuring Michael Jordan. As Michael was shown playing in the NBA, practicing with his teammates and with kids on a schoolyard, we heard, “Sometimes I dream, that he is me. You’ve got to see that’s how I dream to be. I dream I move; I dream I groove. Like Mike, if I could be like Mike.” Of course, in the midst of all the video of Michael playing, we see him drinking Gatorade. The impression is, if we’ll drink what Michael drinks, we can be like him!
Interspersed in the scenes of Michael were scenes of people – especially kids – trying to do the things Michael Jordan did. They were doing their best to imitate him. They, in some small sense, were followers, though what they aspired to was a bit out of reach!
An admirer, on the other hand, stays detached. He admires from a distance. He fails to see that what the person is doing is something he can or should do. A lot of us who watched that Gatorade commercial were admirers. We loved watching Michael. We loved seeing the incredible things he could do, We would have loved to have been able to do them. But we didn’t even try. There was only one Michael. We’ll root for (or against) him, but we aren’t going to try to be him.
Jesus made it clear he was uninterested in admirers. On the night he was betrayed, as his disciples gathered to celebrate the Passover, he did something unthinkable. He washed their feet. Even Judas’ feet. And when he finished, he said to them: “You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am. 14 If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. 15 For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you. 16 Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. 17 If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them. “
An admirer would see Jesus’ actions and say, “That’s so cool! I love that guy!” A follower would say, “That’s so cool! I want to be like that guy!” Jesus said the ones who do what he did are the ones who are blessed. It isn’t enough to admire him or to cheer him on. He wants us to do what he did. He wants us to follow.
On that Palm Sunday some two thousand years ago, outwardly, the people responded rightly. They rejoiced. They praised. They honored their king.
Their actions as the week wore on betrayed their hearts. They were nothing more than admirers and when Jesus did not meet their expectations, they joined the masses yelling, “Crucify!” As Jesus looks over Jerusalem and weeps in Luke 19, he writes, 41 And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it, 42 saying, “Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes.” They admire him, but do not believe. They do not follow. They missed the blessing God wanted to give them.
For reflection:
- As you think about your Christian experience, are you a follower or an admirer? Are you all in, doing the things Jesus did? Or are you watching from a distance, keeping him at arm’s length?
- Take a moment to think about the things Jesus did in his life – prayer, Scripture reading, time in silence and solitude, witness, teaching, etc. Which do you do now? Which do you sense him inviting you to start?
Read this week:
April 3: Isaiah 42:1-9; John 12:1-11
April 4: Isaiah 49:1-7; John 12:20-36
April 5: Isaiah 50:4-9a; John 13:21-32
April 6: Exodus 12:1-14; John 13:1-17, 31b-35
April 7: Isaiah 52:13-53:12; John 18:1-19:42
April 8: Lamentations 3:1-9, 19-24; John 19:38-42
April 9: Jeremiah 31:1-6; John 20:1-18