“Follow Me” or Follow Me?

The essence of discipleship, the theme we are considering as we explore the Gospel of Matthew in my current sermon series, is responding to Christ’s call when he says “Follow me.” Many people, though, would rather follow me. That is, they would rather follow their own view of who God is and how they want to live. Even Christians have to be careful of falling into that trap.

New York Times columnist, Ross Douthat wrote about such a woman. Elizabeth Gilbert, in 2001 at age 32, had a rewarding job, an apartment in Manhattan, a big new house in the Hudson Valley, and a devoted husband. Five years later at 3:00 AM one morning, she locked herself in her bathroom, weeping over a life she didn’t want anymore, and then fell on her knees in prayer.

Culturally she was a “Christian,” but she was not able to believe that Christ is the only way to God. On the night of her prayer, she addressed herself to “God,” but she had no idea who God is. Her prayer was simple, "I don't want to be married anymore. I don't want to be married anymore. I don't want to live in this big house.”

Gilbert would eventually hear someone speak back. She said, “It was merely my own voice, speaking from within my own self …. [And yet], this was my voice as I had never heard it before… How can I describe the warmth of affection in that voice, as it gave me the answer that would forever seal my faith in the divine?"

Fortified by this "religious conversation," she left the husband and the house and the plans for having kids behind and set out into the unknown. Then she started a globe-trotting "spiritual quest" that led to the publishing phenomenon known as Eat, Pray, Love—a book that spent an extraordinary 187 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list and was turned into a movie starring Julia Roberts.

Gilbert’s story is just another account of a person who “found God” within herself, which is not finding God at all. This has become one of the notions of God that is prevalent in our culture, but it is a false understanding of God.

Those of us who have responded to Christ’s call to “Follow Me” have to be careful that we are not just responding to the god within ourselves (follow me) who is not God at all. Christ’s call to discipleship is a call to follow him on his terms, not our own. Matthew clearly shows us that in his gospel. Continue reading Matthew as we explore it together, and learn how Jesus calls us to follow him.