Sometimes families are weird. We’ve all got a crazy uncle. We’ve all got moments that wrecked is for just a little bit. I remember I had a cousin who was several years older than I was and he worked for a security company. Once at his house, he used his handcuffs to cuff me to a door knob and walked away. I cried forever. That is a little crazy. You’ve got moments with your family like that too.
It’s interesting and appropriate that the New Testament talks about our fellow followers of Christ as family. Paul mentions that idea to Timothy in 1 Timothy 3 where he says, “…if I’m delayed, you’ll know how everyone who belongs to God’s family ought to behave.” Paul and other followers acknowledged that as followers of Jesus, we are all family.
Now, we don’t always get it right. We mess up, stub our toe, don’t say the right thing, look hypocritical in the church. We’re human. But we’re like family. While we love Jesus and try to look like him everyday, we don’t always shine.
And Jesus calls us to really follow him. In Luke 14, there’s a large crowd traveling with Jesus. Jesus uses some hyperbolic language to make the point that you’re either following him or just traveling with him. And if you’re following him, it’s going to cost you something. You’ll have to give something up. So Jesus calls us to love him more than our parents, our spouse and kids, more than our physical brothers and sisters. If you’re following him, you’re called to love him more than anything else.
As we look at Jesus’ life and that first century church, we come to realize that you can’t follow Jesus by yourself. You become part of the family, or the church. See you can’t follow Jesus solo. We follow Jesus as a family. Many of us believe that we’ve got to get it all together, be close to perfect before we start following. But that’s just not true.
You look at some of the guys that Jesus called to follow him. Matthew a tax collector was a that bottom of the “sin ladder” in Jesus’ culture. By all accounts, Matthew was far from having it all together yet Jesus called him to follow. Simon the Zealot, a Jewish assassin, wanted to get rid of the Romans in Israel and was willing to kill them to do it. He was far from having it all together. Yet, Jesus called him to follow. All of these people were called to be part of the family…to follow.
And Jesus calls you too. None of us have it all together. But Jesus is the one who will make us perfect. He’s calling you to be a part of his family…a part of his church. So together, as family, we’ll follow Jesus and He’ll transform us as we go. Blessings on your journey.