Jon Andersen has had a most extraordinary Hollywood career. His resume contains everything from working on the Monkees to being co-Executive Producer of “Touched by an Angel.” I asked him the question about whether Jesus follows; here is his answer:
Jesus is our Master, Teacher and Saviour. He said, “Take up your cross and follow me,” and “No one comes to the Father except by me.” Everything he did and said was intended as a lamp for us to us follow.
If we are to be truly “His,” our great commission is to keep him in our sights. If we look back, hoping He’ll be there in case we falter, we are simply questioning the very faith and obedience he requires of His children.
There’s a line in the old hymn “Onward Christian Soldiers” that says, “Christ the Royal Master leads against the foe.” Christ leads against an enemy which seeks to control us from within.
Defy that enemy. Follow the Lord Jesus in absolute faith, trust, and humility. Reject the temptation of second thoughts that cause us to look away from Him; they come from the darkness
Yes, Jesus follows us as well as leads us. And we must trust that He is “our rear guard,” as he promised. But if we keep looking back, we do the very thing that C. S. Lewis cautioned about in “The Screwtape Letters”: We allow the devil to very subtly encourage us to question God’s authority by taking our eyes off Jesus, who WE follow. Press on toward the prize!
posted November 4, 2006 at 2:08 pm
Jesus does not follow, not in the sense that I follow Jesus. Jesus is present (immanence). The Holy Spirit dwells within us. Psalm 139 says that God goes before us, is behind us and His hand is upon us. The bible uses the word follow in two senses. The disciples in the Gospels followed Jesus in the physical sense. When Jesus physically left the scene the word took on the meaning of obeying. To follow Jesus means to obey Jesus. Jesus does not obey me, Jesus does not follow me.