In the first century, following a teacher was not a figure of speech. Students of a rabbi literally walked behind him from town to town, ate with him, listened to him and tried to become like him. When Jesus called ordinary people to follow him, that is what he meant at first: come with me, watch how I live, learn from me. Today no one can walk the roads of Galilee beside him, but Christians believe the invitation is just as real.
It starts with an invitation
The Gospels describe Jesus walking along the shore of the Sea of Galilee and calling two pairs of brothers who were busy with their fishing nets (Mark 1:16). Later he stopped at the booth of Levi, a tax collector most people despised, and called him too (Mark 2:13). None of them had earned a place. They were not the most religious or the most impressive people around. What they had in common was that Jesus asked, and they said yes.
That order matters. Following Jesus does not begin with getting your life together so that he will accept you. It begins with his welcome. He described himself as a gentle teacher who offers rest to people who are worn out, and he invited them to learn from him (Matthew 11:28).
Trusting him more than anything else
At its heart, following Jesus is trust. His first followers left their boats because they believed he was worth it, even before they understood much about him. Over time they came to see him as more than a wise rabbi. When many people walked away from him, Peter said there was nowhere else to go, because Jesus had the words of eternal life (John 6:66).
Christians describe this trust as faith: relying on Jesus for forgiveness and for a new life with God, rather than relying on our own goodness (John 14:6, Ephesians 2:8). That is why following Jesus is available to anyone, whatever their past.
Letting him change how you live
Jesus was honest that following him would change things. He spoke of denying yourself and taking up your cross, which to his listeners meant being willing to put him first even when it cost something (Luke 9:23). This is not a call to hate yourself or to seek out suffering. It is a call to stop making yourself the center of everything and to discover, as he put it, that the life you hold loosely is the one you truly find.
In practice this looks like learning his teaching and putting it into action. Jesus compared someone who hears his words and lives by them to a builder who sets a house on rock (Matthew 7:24). His teaching includes loving God with all you are and loving your neighbor as yourself (Mark 12:28), forgiving people who hurt you, caring for the poor and telling the truth.
Loving the way he loves
On his last night with his friends, Jesus washed their feet, a job usually left to the lowest servant, and told them to do the same for one another (John 13:12). A little later he said people would recognize his followers by their love for each other (John 13:34). Following Jesus is not only private devotion. It shows up in how you treat your family, your coworkers, strangers and even enemies.
Staying close to him
Jesus used the picture of a vine and its branches: a branch bears fruit only while it stays connected (John 15:4). Christians stay connected through prayer, reading Scripture, gathering with other believers, and practices such as baptism and the Lord's Supper (Acts 2:42). Churches understand and celebrate these practices in somewhat different ways, but they agree that no one is meant to follow Jesus alone.
What following Jesus is not
It is not perfection. The disciples misunderstood Jesus, argued about who was greatest and ran away when he was arrested, yet he did not give up on them. It is also not a guarantee of an easy life. Jesus told his friends plainly that they would face trouble, while promising his peace in the middle of it (John 16:33). And it is not pressure or fear. He never forced anyone to follow him; when a rich young man walked away sad, Jesus looked at him with love and let him go (Mark 10:17).
A lifelong walk
Christians often describe following Jesus as a journey rather than a single moment. There may be a day when you first say yes, and many days after that when you say yes again. Growth is usually slow and uneven, and that is normal. The Holy Spirit, Christians believe, does the deepest work of change from the inside (Galatians 5:22).
If you are curious about what this might look like for you, you do not need to have everything figured out. You can begin the way the first disciples did, by coming closer and listening. The pages linked below, and the reading plan on following Jesus, are good places to take the next step.
