What does it mean to “follow Jesus?” Perhaps when we think of those disciples being called to follow Jesus, we think of them joining him on his travels, spending time with him, and learning how to preach and heal—going wherever he went to minister alongside him. Maybe we envy how much time they spent with him, how they got to be mentored first-hand. Perhaps we
think they had an unfair advantage.
What does it mean for me to follow Jesus? I can’t follow the historical Jesus. It is also not as simple as those WWJD (What Would Jesus Do) bracelets make it seem. We can’t decide what Jesus would do about many things because our world presents very different challenges from the world Jesus walked in over 2000 years ago. Jesus wasn’t grappling with the impact of social
media, load-shedding or climate change! And while we can try to extrapolate his values to many of the issues we face, it isn’t the same as knowing his mind and heart, and it isn’t the same as discovering how God wants us to respond.
But we were given ways to encounter Jesus in his resurrected Christ-life, transcending time and space boundaries. One way the Spirit works powerfully is through praying a
form of prayer called “Imaginative Contemplation.” If I use my senses and my imagination to step into any one of the Gospel stories as a participant, and as if I were present, I can engage with the person of Jesus
As I pray, the story becomes a doorway into a meeting between me in my 21st-century reality and Christ, who once shared my humanity in the person of Jesus. If I imagine myself at the
lakeside of Galilee with Peter and Andrew, or as the woman at the well – or as a guest at Mary’s table at the wedding at Cana, I can allow my struggles and questions to intersect with the experience of that mystery. Somehow in the intersection of my human experience and his, I discover what it is to follow him – and more to learn his mind and heart.
And if I can allow myself to have a conversation with
him, he can show me what it means for me to follow him right now, today, at this moment.
