Welcome to “Come Unto Me” as we journey together through the gospel of Luke. Let us pray: Gracious God we thank you for the Living Word that gives witness to the life, death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ. May your Holy Spirit open our souls to this Living Word. Amen
Sunday, July 12 / Luke Chapter 5
One of the new hymns in the ELW that I have grown to love is “Will You Come and Follow Me”. The first verse poses several questions- “Will you come and follow me if I but call your name? Will you go where you don’t know and never be the same? Will you let my love be shown, will you let my name be known, will you let my life be grown in you and you in me?” These are questions that we hear Jesus asking of fishermen and a tax collector in our reading from Luke today. Simon Peter and the other fishermen knew very little about Jesus. They had heard Jesus share the Word of God. They had followed the Master Jesus’ suggestion to put their nets out in the deep water and filled their nets to overflowing. Yet we are told that they left everything they knew and followed him. “Will you come and follow me (says Jesus) if I but call your name?”
How could they have ever known where this would take them in the days to come. Jesus would continue to do things that would amaze and surprise his followers. Like the way Jesus responded to the cry for help from a leper. “Lord if you choose you can make me clean.” We are told that Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him. Yes-we often jump forward to the healing but let us not forget that lepers were not to be touched. Jesus was living out the words of the prophet Isaiah that we read in Chapter 4 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me, to bring good news to the poor, the captives, the blind, the oppressed.”
Jesus had come for the outcast and forsaken. Who does Jesus next call to follow him? A tax collector an outsider. We are told that Jesus simply said to Levi “Follow Me”, and he left everything he knew to do just that.
These accounts of Jesus calling fishermen and a tax collector leads me to wonder – what will I leave for Jesus? Will I leave what I know and trust that where the Master Jesus is inviting me to follow is enough? We live at a time with much uncertainty because of COVID-19. Yet in the midst of these challenging times comes a simple yet life changing invitation from Jesus – “Follow me”. “Will you let my love be shown, will you let my name be known, will you let my life be grown in you and you in me?”
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