Following Jesus...Literally

When Jesus called Peter and the others, he simply said, “follow me”. And they did. They left their nets and followed Jesus, literally! The next three years they made a lot of mistakes and failed many times to actually live according to the example and teaching of Jesus. But their intent was to follow him.

Recently I read something that challenged me. I forget the book and author, perhaps because I am reading a few books at the same time, or maybe because I am getting old and forgetful. At any rate, here is a paraphrase: “Too many times we read the words of Jesus that are startling and challenging, and respond by saying, Jesus didn’t mean that literally.” We find a way to take the words of Jesus that may be difficult to hear, more difficult to apply, and we explain them away. We spiritualize them, or apply them to somebody else.

Not long ago I found myself doing exactly that. I was walking with a group of college students when a woman stepped into the street between some parked cars and was struck by a car backing up. They never saw each other and she went down hard, striking her head on the concrete. We came upon the scene and like others, felt utterly helpless. She was not moving and immediately there was a pool of blood forming beneath her head on the cold pavement. I exercised my spiritual leadership, and suggested that we pray for her from our place on the curb, with the intent that having done that, we would move on. After all, we were not doctors, and the single-digit temperatures made it very uncomfortable standing there and doing nothing. Plus, we were on our way to somewhere else and had a tight schedule to follow.

Does these words sound familiar? A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. Jesus is describing a situation where a man was dying in the road and the priest observed the situation and passed by on the other side of the road. Why? Maybe because he wasn’t a doctor. Maybe it was cold. Maybe he was in a hurry and was running late. Bottom line, he passed by.

OK, so what was Jesus’ point? He didn’t mean that if I saw a man or woman lying in the road unconscious that I should actually stop, did he? Literally? All these thoughts passed through my mind in a few seconds. And then we moved into the street- not knowing what to do, but sensing that Jesus was not remaining at the curb, or walking on his way. He was in the street with her and if we are his followers indeed, that is where we would be.

We didn’t do a lot. We prayed, we covered her with our coats, and we waited for the police and ambulance. We were relieved to see her breathing. Others offered help, including a nurse who took off her own hat and put it under the woman’s bleeding head. And we spent a lot of time with the driver who was, as you can imagine, pretty shook up. It was a scene of many people caring for a stranger, and there in the middle, I am certain was Jesus. Most of all, he was there because some who responded to his invitation to “follow me” are learning to take his words literally.