He’s always just one step ahead of us. We’re
never marching together, always he’s over there beckoning, or up ahead
calling “This way, Here we go, that’s right keep moving.”Just
when the disciples think they have Jesus pinned down, he’s gone again.
You’d think when he was dead, bound with grave cloths and locked in a cave
sealed with a granite boulder that they’d finally be able to have a locus
for Jesus. But no not even then. From the first moment that Andrew and Simon
Peter saw Jesus, they on the boat he on the shore, he was out ahead saying,
follow me. And amazingly they did_follow Jesus, always hurrying to keep up as
he collected the other disciples. Not regular guys mind you but always those
personalities that pushed the envelop. His avant garde choice of companions
was remarkable, a tax collector, a scholar, a couple of guerilla fighters and
then some salt of the earth fishermen. They all had their personal agenda for
Jesus, military general, politician extraordinaire, worlds greatest salesman,
bleeding heart liberal, stern judge but every time they thought they had a lock
on Jesus he said or did something to slip their philosophical expectations.
And so the twelve of them struggled to keep up as he healed in a town here,
taught on a hill there, crossed back and forth the Sea of Galilee. It was a
merry chase following Jesus because he was always on to the next thing, never
static, never stuck.
There he is leading Peter James and John up the mountain where
he’s suddenly transfigured with glory and light. They would have liked
to have stayed there for a while, basked in the brightness, built booths but
no, just as quickly as he was up the mountain he was needing to be back down
the mountain and headed to Jerusalem. Peter argued with Jesus about that. “You
don’t have to suffer and die, we can go back to Galilee, we don’t
have to go on to Jerusalem.” Jesus got a little testy with him about that,
“Get behind me Satan’ he told Peter. There was no holding him back,
he was always going ahead, always out in front. Surely he had over extended
himself this time, the authorities were mad enough to kill him. Death was the
brick wall that would put an end to our chase. But no here today we stand at
the tomb and the angel says “He is going ahead of you to Galilee.”
“He is going ahead of you.”
We might as well be those disciples . 2000 years of thought
and study and agreement and disagreement have pretty much left us still following
the Jesus who is going ahead of us. Somehow just when we think we’ve got
a lock on what Jesus thinks and what we should do life throws us something new
and we’re left trying to keep up. Jesus knows something about “up
ahead” that we don’t. The future is scary for us. We mere mortals
feel we need to be careful, cautious, prudent. Who knows what’s up ahead,
around the next curve, over the next hill. Next week there could be a recession,
next month we might face a health crisis, a job loss. Someone we trust might
disappoint us, a relationship we’ve banked on might go sour. Better to
be wary, judicious. Out where Jesus is, up ahead it’s scary there. But
Jesus is on a mission, he’s out ahead enticing those disciples back to
Galilee to spread the good news, to baptize, to teach and heal, to feed, to
comfort, to bring hope to the hopeless, to bind up the broken hearted. Jesus
is on a mission, he’s out ahead calling us to open the doors to our Sunday
School and VBS, be a welcoming place for the children, provide a place for that
family living out of their car to sleep and to get a meal, challenging us to
be making new disciples who will be ready to follow Jesus , challenging us to
feed the hungry, care for the refugee, start a new congregation. Jesus challenges
us to be of good courage. We’re in the boat and he’s walking across
the water to us, his hand is outstretched and open. Like Peter we want to step
out on the water and we do and we can, and then the waves pound and the wind
picks up and there we are flailing. But he’s there to pull us out and get
us back in the boat again.
What does Jesus know up ahead that we don’t? He’s got an inside track
that it’s all in God’s hands. Jesus already knows where it will end.
It will end right where it started with God’s love embracing and consuming
and enveloping us. One step ahead of us, He’s always one step ahead of
us. And he will always be one step ahead of us. The truth is We won’t ever
catch up. We won’t get it all figured out. We just need to keep learning
and following. We’ll step out of the boat and sometimes we’ll be able
to walk a good distance and other times we’ll sink like a stone. We’ll
have moments when Jesus holiness will shine bright and clear and radiant in
our lives and other times when we won’t be able to understand why his way
has to lead through sacrifice and betrayal and injustice. We’ll stand at
the grave and we’ll wonder, we’ll doubt. The truth is Jesus has gone
ahead of us and we’ll never catch up, but the good news, the good news
is that he catches us. What does he say to the disciples, “I go to prepare
a place for you. And if I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again and
will take you to myself, so that where I am there you may be also.” Like
Thomas we don’t think we know the way but Jesus says I am the way and the
truth and the life. There’s no brick wall. The merry chase continues—He
goes on ahead. God’s is the final victory. Alleluia, He is Risen and he
is going ahead of you!
Amen.