What is it to you?

You Follow Christ!

Shortly, after asking Peter three times, do you love me?, and speaking, though not outrightly, of how Peter would die, Jesus says to him, ‘Follow me.’ Peter then turns to see that John, the disciple whom Jesus loved, as John says of himself in his gospel account, was following them. ‘Lord, what about this man?’ Peter asks. Jesus: What about him? If it is my will that he should remain until I come, what is it to you? You follow me!¹

Probably Peter had an inkling as to John’s assertion of himself; that he(John), was the disciple Jesus loved. They, also, had to be very close friends, when we think of their run to the empty tomb, and later on, their meeting with the lame man at the beautiful gate. Jesus, then, having told Peter to follow him, Peter might have instinctively thought: ‘Lord, what about John?’ ‘Should he come as well?’ ‘What will become of him?’ Jesus’ tone and manner of answering seems one of displeasure. I have told you to follow me, if this man should remain until I come? How does that concern you? ‘If’ makes it clear that Jesus didn’t mean John would remain, or never die as the disciples went on to think, but simply, that whether that would have been Jesus’ will or not, it shouldn’t have mattered to Peter, because it was to Peter He had said, ‘Follow me!’

Methinks Jesus’ statement has nothing to do with John but everything with Peter. To a worried and inquisitive Peter, Jesus retorted, ‘You follow me!’ If this or that be my will, what is it to you? To an inquisitive and nagging Moses, God answered, angrily, “Let it suffice thee, and do not speak to me of this matter again.”²

Just like Peter, while following Jesus, we at times find ourselves looking behind us, and beside us, and occasionally even having questions we would presume to ask the Lord. It’s easy to look at the rot in the world, to regard the rampant wickedness, to consider the preposterous and unflinching atheist who as it happens, was once a calmly acquaintance of yours, or to remember your mate who has abandoned the faith, or a brother who has rejected salvation, or your parents who have threatened to disown you on account of your being born again, and to ask, ‘Lord what about them?’ Now, would we expect from Jesus a different answer? One that’s more tender? An indulgent one?

When you look at the unrighteous do wickedness, and get away with it, or your classmate cheat in an exam, and not get caught, you may want to ask, ‘Lord, what about him?’ Asaph, recounting in Psalms 73, how he almost slipped when he looked upon the prosperity of the wicked and was envious of them, laments:³

they have no pangs until death; 
their bodies are fat and sleek. 
They are not in trouble as others are; 
They are not stricken like the rest of mankind.

Job in bitterness cried: “Lord, what is the profit of doing right, when it is those who do wrong that get ahead?”⁴ When God, however, finally appears to give an answer, He is wroth, and His question to Job isn’t any bit gentle, as we would have expected, the way a mother tenderly treats her child whom she has just disciplined, and when we know it was in fact with His permission that Job was so afflicted. “Who is this who speaks foolishly,” He asks concerning Job. Where were you when I made the world? What do you know? What do you understand?

Predestination, to give an example, is one doctrine we meet in the Bible that we never seem able to make sense of. Why should God decide that certain men will be saved, and others damned? And that while they are yet unborn. Before they have done anything wrong. Why, God, should you love Jacob, and hate Esau, while they are still in Rebekah’s womb? Before none has done right, and the other evil? Paul’s answer in Romans 9:20 has to be among the most unsatisfactory, yet one we could not but accept suffices. Who are you O man, to answer back to God? You, a creature, will you argue with your maker?

We will never truly understand how God runs His world, and how he determines that things should be. If we had the reins, maybe we would have done one or two differently. Maybe we would make sure that every jerk pays for the wrong they have done, that justice is served, and the guilty don’t walk away free. Maybe if we were God, we wouldn’t let our mother die from cancer, or allow a poor man be defrauded. Maybe we would not allow arrogant people become leaders, and we would determine things as they ought to be. Yet for all we would do, there’s none we ever could, for we are but men. And God is who He is.

You probably are at point where you really cannot figure things out, or salvation, or God, or His world, anymore. Why should you suffer this much when God calls you His child? Maybe your world is falling apart and you are not sure about the next step of your life. It’s easy to look around, and like Asaph, to envy the wicked, or like Job, to weep bitterly about their prosperity. ‘God do you not see?’

Or, while you are at your salvation, you would want to ask why other people don’t fast like you do, or pray, or come to Church as regularly as you. It disturbs you that your fellows who profess the faith, are so carnal. And you may want to ask, ‘Lord what about them? Will they go to heaven as well?’ You will even wonder why their life isn’t as difficult as yours, when it is you who is the pious one. While you sleep hungry, just after you have mumbled a prayer, you will see their posts on whatsapp. Caption? Supper at KFC.

If it is God’s will that it should be so, what is it to you? You follow Christ!

Fret not yourself because of evildoers, and be not envious of the wicked. Proverbs 24:19 ESV

Though a sinner does evil a hundred times and prolongs his life, yet I know that it will be well with those who fear God, because they fear before him. Ecclesiastes 8:12 ESV

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1. John 21:15-23

2. Deuteronomy 3:26

3. Psalms 73:4-5

4. Job 21:7-17 ESV [7] Why do the wicked live, reach old age, and grow mighty in power? [8] Their offspring are established in their presence, and their descendants before their eyes. [9] Their houses are safe from fear, and no rod of God is upon them. [10] Their bull breeds without fail; their cow calves and does not miscarry. [11] They send out their little boys like a flock, and their children dance. [12] They sing to the tambourine and the lyre and rejoice to the sound of the pipe. [13] They spend their days in prosperity, and in peace they go down to Sheol. [14] They say to God, ‘Depart from us! We do not desire the knowledge of your ways. [15] What is the Almighty, that we should serve him? And what profit do we get if we pray to him?’ [16] Behold, is not their prosperity in their hand? The counsel of the wicked is far from me. [17] “How often is it that the lamp of the wicked is put out? That their calamity comes upon them? That God distributes pains in his anger?