Following Jesus...at a Distance

I’ve been thinking a lot about discipleship lately. Maybe because that was one of the classes I took this summer at Duke, Evangelism and Discipleship. Maybe because I had planned a summer preaching and teaching series on this at the two churches I serve as pastor. Maybe just because God has really laid this on my heart as being something we need to talk about more.

            And so I’ve been immersed in the life of the biblical disciple, Simon Peter. Partly because we have a good deal of information about his discipleship life in the Bible available to us. I think that Peter’s life is an example to us, and that in his life we can see ourselves as disciples, as followers of Jesus.

            When Jesus meets Peter he tells him, “come, follow me”, and Peter, (then his name was just Simon), leaves his fishing nets on the shore of the sea of Galillee and he and his brother Andrew head off following Jesus. And from there, from the moment of responding to the “call”, Peter is a disciple of Jesus.

            But that doesn’t mean that everything just goes perfect for him after that, or even that he acted perfectly in all situations after that.

            The night before Jesus was crucified Peter denied even knowing Jesus. Not once. Not twice. But three times. The gospel of Luke begins the telling of this story in this way, “Peter followed at a distance…” (Luke 22:54b).

            Before we ever get to those three times where Peter was asked by three different people if he knew Jesus, and before all three of the times where he would lie and disown Jesus publicly, Luke tells us where Peter was.

            Let me say I think that the following at a distance was both physical and spiritual. Peter was literally not close to Jesus physically at this time. He was afraid. Peter was still a disciple of Jesus, but he was following at a distance.

            You can be in church every Sunday and still be following Jesus at a distance. You can sing all the hymns, and look like the epitomy of discipleship, and your heart can still be far from Jesus.

            Peter was not close to Jesus, and then he did something that he swore he would never do, something that he never would have imagined that he was capable of doing.

            “I don’t know him,” Peter said.

            Being a disciple, in part, means being a follower. But how closely we follow the leader determines many things. For example, the closer we are to the person that we are following the better we will be able to hear what they say to us. The closer we are to the person we are following the more we understand them and have a chance to get to know them better. The closer we are to the person we are following the better equipped we are to see when they are making turns, or moving faster, or slowing down.

            I think that all this applies to our discipleship as well. If you have answered the call to follow Jesus then you are a disciple. The question today is how closely are you following Jesus?

            Are you close enough to “touch the hem of his garment” in your life? Or are you, like Peter, following at a distance?

            Take some time today and read this whole story regarding Peter denying Jesus in Luke 22:31-62. And if you need to get closer to the Lord in your daily walk with Him, He is nearer than you think, and ready to walk hand in hand with you today.