Becoming Followers of Christ

by Deacon Lorna Goodison on October 14, 2021

In our world, persons of renown receive special privileges and services. Friends and followers of famous persons also receive special privileges.  Jesus contradicts worldly standards, and declares, “whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all.” Loving service is what counts in God’s eyes.  

Early in His ministry, Jesus called James and John, who left the family’s fishing business and followed Jesus on a lifelong adventure of spiritual growth and formation. Jesus knew the innermost personality of James and John so well that He gave them the nickname, Boanerges, Sons of Thunder. In one incident they acted “thunderously” when a Samaritan village rejected Jesus. Impulsively and with thunderous passion for Jesus, they asked, “do you want us to call down fire to destroy them?” But Jesus constrained them.  In the same way, Jesus discerns our interior attitudes, yet loves us and declares us worthy to be His followers, just as we are.

 This Sunday’s gospel, (Mark 10:35-45), follows Jesus’ third and most explicit prediction of His betrayal, passion, death, and resurrection. James and John ask Jesus to be allotted places of privilege in His kingdom.  In response, Jesus directs them away from a mindset of worldly privilege towards the core of discipleship, which is serving others, rather than seeking authority over others.  For “the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.”  

Our greatness is founded not upon worldly honor but upon the privilege and honor that God bestows on us by deeply loving us, by pouring His worthiness upon us, and by sending His Son, Jesus Christ in this world to restore us to His kingdom through a life of humble self-giving sacrificial service.

James and John were truly on a journey of spiritual recreation. They grew from blindly telling Jesus that they could drink the cup of suffering that He would drink to becoming disciples truly submitted to the lordship of Christ.  After Jesus’ death and resurrection, they willingly took up the cross of apostleship, totally committed to the gospel of Christ. James became the first martyr of the Church and John became known as the Apostle of Love, who left us the legacy of his deeply instructive and inspiring spiritual writings, although exiled to the Isle of Patmos. 

 Jesus asks us today to be true followers, offering ourselves to be spiritually recreated like James and John.  In Him, we find real love and our sense of worthiness as we journey towards heavenly glory.  Amen

Tags: love, prayer, hope, growth, follow, spiritual growth, worthy, worthiness

Back to Deacon's Corner