Imitate Me. Part I

“Follow me and I will make you fishers of men”, declared Jesus to Simon Peter. Peter knew what this meant; he would give up his profession and literally follow this man around the country side. Whatever Jesus did he would do; whatever Jesus taught Peter would be expected to learn and in his own time teach. It was an incredible demand and cost Peter his family and his income. As the scriptures record: Peter, as well as at least eleven others, obeyed this call and left family and work to follow this man named Jesus.


What happens to us when Jesus calls us to be his disciples? The original twelve knew exactly what it meant to follow Jesus. They would imitate him in every aspect of life as best as they possibly could. They were to imitate Jesus in the particulars of his life. If he was itinerant than they were itinerant, if he went without food and possessions than they were to do the same. How is it that we are supposed to follow the Christ? After 2,000 years and a very different culture we can no longer follow Jesus in the exact particulars of his life. Even if we believed imitating Jesus meant that, we moved to the Middle East, sold everything and became itinerant there are too many things that have changed for us to follow Jesus in every particular of his life. So, are we to believe that when Jesus calls us to be His disciples that we are to strive and follow Jesus in the particulars of his life? It seems obvious by looking at Christians lives that this is not the case. I don’t know a single Christian that has sold everything they own, moved to the Middle East and become an itinerant preacher of the gospel. So, if following Jesus doesn’t mean attempting to follow every particular of his life than what does it mean?

Perhaps it means looking at the principles that Jesus encompassed and attempting to follow those. Jesus loved others sacrificially and so we love others sacrificially. He was selfless and humble and so we are to be selfless and humble. We look at Jesus life and pick out virtues and important principles to follow and those are to be our guide in our Christian life. This is what most Christians seem to believe. So, when Jesus calls us to follow Him he really means to look at the principles and virtues that he lived out and to follow those. We turn Jesus’ life into an example of what virtue looks like. But is this really what the gospels portray? How do we make a principle list out of Jesus life? Jesus lived in such a way that we cannot predict his actions by using a virtue or principles list. We read Paul’s vice and virtue lists back into Jesus’ life to make it simple and easy for us. Take for example the way that Jesus taught. Are we to make a principle out of the way he taught the parables? In Mark’s gospel he states that he teaches the parables so that they won’t get it. You mean Jesus taught so that people would not understand? That’s what he says, “they may indeed see but not perceive, and may indeed hear but not understand, lest they should turn and be forgiven”(Mk.4:12).

So, how do we make Jesus’ life one of merely principles and/ or virtues that we are to learn and follow? We don’t and we shouldn’t. There are very important principles and virtues that we can see in Jesus life and that are great examples for us, but we are not to systematize Jesus and assume that everything has a principle or virtue. How would we handle the way he taught parables, or many of his miracles and other actions? Surely following Jesus necessarily means adopting these principles but following Jesus encompasses more. We follow a person not a set of principles or rules.

How do we follow Jesus then? If it’s not in the particulars of his life or in the generalities of the virtues/ principles that he encompassed than what does it mean to follow him and how is it done?