John 21:20-23
Peter turned and saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following them, the one who also had leaned back against him during the supper and had said, “Lord, who is it that is going to betray you?” When Peter saw him, he said to Jesus, “Lord, what about this man?” Jesus said to him, “If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you? You follow me!” So the saying spread abroad among the brothers that this disciple was not to die; yet Jesus did not say to him that he was not to die, but, “If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you?”
“Did you really just ask me that?”
I think I would have been pretty upset if I were in Jesus’ shoes. He had just finished lovingly and assuredly restoring Peter and giving him a historical charge to keep…and Peter wants to know what’s up with the other guy? Before we start throwing stones at Peter, we should probably recognize the fact that we tend to do the exact same thing: we focus on the other guy. What are they doing for Christ? What about their mistakes or failure? Or sometimes we turn to envy and spite because the other guy seems to be more blessed than we are.
“Lord, what about this man?”
Rather than following Peter on this one, we should be following Isaiah. When this mighty prophet was allowed to take a peek into God’s throne room, he was confronted with the fact that he was “…a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips.” He realized that HE was ruined before the holiness of God, along with the rest of the people of earth. For Isaiah, he was “the other guy.” And when the LORD inquired as to who He should send to herald his truth, Isaiah did not wonder about “the other guy,” but rather offered himself up with no reservations and said, “Here am I. Send me!” (Is 6:8b).
God has a calling on the lives of each and every one of his adopted children. He has one on my life…and he has one on yours. For all of us, there is the general way of the Christ follower as found throughout the Scriptures (Romans 12 is particularly helpful as is the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5-7), but we also have opportunities that are unique to us as individuals. As Jesus explained to Peter, our first priority is to follow HIM ourselves…rather than to be interested in what that might look like for someone else. Spurgeon said, ““I have come to the conclusion that, instead of trying to set all my Master’s servants right at once, my first and most important work is to follow my Lord; and I think, my brother, that it will be wise for you to come to the same conclusion.”
YOU follow ME.
When children play “Simon Says” or “Follow the Leader,” they do well to keep their eyes focused on the one who is actually in charge. If they look to the left or to the right they become confused and lose sight of what they are to be doing themselves (as the disciples did in assuming what Jesus was to do with John). Don’t worry about what is or isn’t happening to “the other guy.” Don’t focus on how God may or may not be using “the other guy” to advance the Kingdom. Don’t focus on who has more or who has less. Jesus’ command was simple: “You follow me!”
