Message by Larry Thacker Jr. from April 5, “Following Jesus”
On Palm Sunday, many churches commemorate Jesus’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem on a donkey as people waived palm branches and hailed Him as the coming king. But things would change radically in just a few days. While He was there, John tells us that some Greeks who had come for the feast wanted to see Him. They went to Philip, perhaps because he had a Greek name, and Jesus was informed. We’re not told whether they got to see Him, but I have always thought Jesus’s response was rather strange. It didn’t really seem to be even connected to the request. You can read the account in John 12:20-26.
But the acknowledgement of His visitors is there, as well as a reminder of what he came to do. Jesus had a lot of people “following” Him at that point, but many of them were there without a real understanding of who they were following or what that would really mean. Even His disciples did not yet comprehend that he was there to die; that the glory he spoke of would come at a cost no one else could bear.
To follow Jesus is to do what He says, go where He goes, and do what He does. Jesus’s path to glory was through the cross, and on multiple occasions He made it clear that anyone wishing to follow Him would also be required to take up that cross. If we are true followers of Jesus, we must die to ourselves and this world. Then we will truly live.
